Thirty former Ohio State football players — including several who went on to professional careers in the NFL — have signed letters of agreement to join a federal lawsuit accusing the university of failing to stop sexual abuse by a longtime team doctor, their attorney said Thursday. The men, who are among hundreds of former student athletes who say they were abused by Dr. Richard Strauss, are the latest to come forward in a sprawling case that has resulted in more than $61 million in settlements with 317 survivors.
“They are tearful and living with it,” attorney Rocky Ratliff said in an interview. “But as this case progresses on, they see how Ohio State’s treating athletes from the university and I think they want people to know it’s OK, even if it is male to male (sexual abuse), to come forward.”
The lawsuit was first filed in 2018 over the university’s handling of Strauss, who worked on the medical and teaching staff from 1978 until his retirement with emeritus status in 1998. He died in 2005. Ohio State trustees revoked his emeritus status three years ago.
Of the 30 new plaintiffs, only three have agreed to be publicly identified: Al Washington, a linebacker who was a fourth-round pick of the New York Jets in 1981; Ray Ellis, a safety who played seven NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns; and Keith Ferguson, a defensive end who recorded 9½ sacks for the Detroit Lions in 1986. All three were members of the 1980 Rose Bowl team recruited by Hall of Fame coach Woody Hayes.
Washington, now 67, said he and his teammates tried to joke about the “unlawful” physical exams Strauss conducted when the players were teenagers.
“But it was really uncomfortable,” Washington said. He did not discuss the abuse for decades, he said, but a 2025 documentary about the scandal, “Surviving Ohio State,” brought the memories to the surface.
“As a matter of fact, I couldn’t make it through that movie,” Washington said. “The pain and anguish that I saw, I just couldn’t take it.”
Ohio State said in a statement that it has “sincerely and persistently tried to reconcile with survivors, including former football student-athletes, through monetary and non-monetary means, including settlements, counseling services and other medical treatment.” The school said it remains actively engaged in mediation.
The new filings, which come roughly eight years after the first lawsuits, underscore the enduring trauma for victims and the difficulty of coming forward, Ratliff said.
“They needed to overcome the shame of revealing that they’d been sexually abused by another man and the fear of taking on the university publicly,” he said.
Some former football players have already settled with the university in sealed agreements, Ratliff added.