Former Texas A&M Trainer Says Coaches Pressured Him to Clear Injured Players

Former Texas A&M athletic trainer Karl Kapchinski said that toward the end of his 31-year tenure, he cleared players to return to the field even when they weren't fully healthy.

Suzanne Halliburton of the Statesman reported Kapchinski's claims, which were made during a segment on Tuesday's edition of HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

"While we're considered part of the medical staff in a lot of cases, the head coach just sees you basically, in some cases, being subservient to his situation," Kapchinski said in an interview with HBO's Jon Frankel.

Kapchinski added, "They would always, you know, tend to put pressure on you to get good players back."

Kapchinski said he was especially concerned that an unhealthy player would suffer another injury shortly after being cleared, and he believes a number of his peers have been stuck in similar situations.

"There's been a lot of great quality athletic trainers that have subsequently lost their jobs because they stood up for the players or were doing the right thing," he told Frankel.

At the time Kapchinski was dismissed in November 2013, the Aggies were gearing up for a home game against Texas-El Paso in the midst of a successful season.

The athletic department did not comment publicly about why it fired the longtime member of its training staff. Kapchinski filed a lawsuit against the university in January 2015, asserting he was terminated due to age discrimination. The 1979 Texas A&M graduate was 56 at the time of his firing.

Kapchinski's abrupt departure was all the more surprising because supervisors rated him "as 'exceeds expectations' or 'exemplary' in the categories listed, including quality of work, initiative, job knowledge and innovation" in performance reviews from May 2012 and June 2013, according to Andrea Salazar of TheEagle.com. Beyond his duties as an athletic trainer, Kapchinski was responsible for supervising two nutritionists, a physical therapist and 12 other athletic trainers.

During four meetings between July 10 and Sept. 16, 2013, however, athletic director Greg Hyman and senior associate athletic director Raymond Harrison repeatedly brought up concerns, which included Kapchinski being available to all sports teams and meeting with all head coaches before their respective seasons began, per Salazar.

Earlier this month, the Power Five conferences passed legislation that gave medical officials the final say on when student-athletes with concussions or other injuries can return to competition, according to ESPN's Max Olson. It remains to be seen whether the legislation will help prevent incidents like the ones Kapchinski described from happening.