In May 2019, Matthew Onyshko sat in his wheelchair at the head of a courtroom in Washington County, Pa., facing a lawyer for the NCAA. Onyshko had played football for Division II California University of Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2003 and, after graduating, became a firefighter in his hometown of Pittsburgh. One day in November 2007, as his wife, Jessica, described it to the court, “He noticed when he was going to fight a fire that he had trouble getting his gloves on, and his hands weren’t quite as strong as they were before.” A few months later doctors diagnosed the father of two with the degenerative brain disease ALS.
The Lawyer Who Took on the NFL Over Concussions Has a New Strategy That Could Devastate the NCAA
