FORT WORTH, Texas _ Former TCU receiver Kolby Listenbee spoke publicly for the first time about the lawsuit he filed in January against Gary Patterson and others.
Listenbee told Bob Ley on ESPN's Outside The Lines that TCU coaches accused him of faking his injury and that his right leg went numb after receiving a pain injection at halftime of the 2014 Alamo Bowl. Listenbee, sitting next to his lawyer Derek Potts via satellite from Houston, where the law firm is based, alleged that one of the five shots he receive before and during the bowl game hit the femoral artery in his right leg.
Listenbee alleges in his lawsuit that he was pressured to play before fully healed from an injury and was verbally abused by Patterson and other TCU assistant coaches. He also named the school, the Big 12, former TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte and two TCU physicians in the suit.
"I got injured and I had a few things that they said to me, that I was faking, that teammates had worse injuries than mine," Listenbee said on Tuesday. "(The coaches attitude) was very aggressive. I'd be in the receiving meeting room watching film. Coach P would come in yelling and getting mad and cursing at us," Listenbee said on OTL, "and just like, threatening us. He said if we lost to Texas because I wasn't playing, that I wouldn't be allowed back to TCU in the future and stuff like that."
TCU declined ESPN's invitation to be on the program, but released a statement, Ley said. "We were saddened and disappointed to learn that Kolby Listenbee decided to pursue a lawsuit against TCU and many others ... We were shocked by his course of action. We take tremendous pride in our long-standing tradition of excellence in providing a positive experience for student-athletes, especially in the areas of prevention, care, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries."
Listenbee was asked why he spoke so generously about TCU and the coaching and medical staff during a Pro Day interview in March 2016.
"That was a month after my (NFL) combine. I didn't really understand my injury at the time," Listenbee said. "I had a metal plate in my pelvis. I didn't have a problem with every coach that was there. I had a problem with a select few."
Listenbee said he signed a futures contract with the Colts and he's "working out, trying to make myself better for next year."
