Former Texas A&M trainer, Karl Kapchinski, who was fired two years ago, told HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel that coaches forced him to clear injured student athletes before they were fully healed, according to Graham Watson of Yahoo Sports.
Kapchinski was asked if he felt pressure to return players to the field before they were physically ready. "Yes. They would always, you know, tend to put pressure on you to get good players back," said the former Aggies trainer in the interview. Kapchinski said he had sent players back to the field that he wish he hadn't, and often those same players would have subsequent injury.
Kapchinski was fired on Nov. 1, 2013, and filed a lawsuit against the university claiming he was fired over his age. Kapchinski, 56, was inducted into the Southwest Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame in 2014, according to Watson.
Texas A&M lost two quarterbacks this offseason as both Kyler Murray and Kyle Allen chose to transfer from College Station. Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin arrived in College Station in 2012, and it's unknown if Sumlin is the coach who pressured Kapchinski to get players back on the field. The Texas A&M trainer worked at the university for 31 years, and wanted to speak up for quality athletic trainers who have lost their jobs for trying to do the right thing by student-athletes.
