College Sports Abuse and Accountability

Seventeen more former North Carolina State University male athletes have joined a state civil lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court accusing former director of sports medicine Robert L. Murphy Jr. of years of sexual abuse and harassment under the guise of treatment and drug testing, bringing the total number of plaintiffs to 31. The filing, shifted from federal Title IX suits to state jurisdiction in September, alleges Murphy abused his position by improperly touching athletes’ genitals during massages and by forcing them to strip to the waist and drop their pants to their ankles while he closely watched them urinate for drug tests, sometimes from inside the same stall. Plaintiffs say NC State officials were negligent in supervising Murphy and failed to act even after concerns about his conduct reached senior athletics leadership; nine individuals, including Murphy and school officials, are named as defendants. Most athletes are proceeding under "John Doe" pseudonyms, but former men’s soccer player Benjamin Locke — who first sued in 2022 and has spoken publicly — said in a statement he is "encouraged by the bravery" of others coming forward, while attorney Kerry Sutton expects more to join. Murphy’s lawyer, Seth Blum, continues to deny all allegations and says there is "not one scrap of credible evidence" his client assaulted anyone, setting up a protracted legal battle over consent, medical practice standards in sports medicine, and institutional accountability in college athletics.