The Los Angeles Rams have been ordered to pay former NFL running back Reggie Bush $12.45 million in damages on Tuesday for a knee injury he suffered in St. Louis in 2015, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
While a member of the San Francisco 49ers, Bush ran out of bounds on a punt return in a game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis on November 1, 2015, and suffered a torn lateral meniscus after slipping on some concrete. The injury ended his season.
Bush filed suit in 2016, alleging that the Rams and the public stadium authorities allowed "a dangerous condition to exist at the Dome." In the suit, they referred to the area where Bush fell as "a concrete ring of death."
A St. Louis jury ultimately ordered the Rams to pay Bush $4.95 million in compensatory damages and an additional $7.5 million in punitive damages.
"I'm very happy with the verdict," Bush told the Post-Dispatch. "The people spoke and decided very fairly."
After recovering from the injury, Bush signed a one-year deal with the Buffalo Bills, but argued that he would have signed a bigger contract if he hadn't been injured in St. Louis. He finished with the just 12 carries for -3 yards and seven catches for 90 yards and one touchdown during his lone season in Buffalo.
Bush, now 33 years old, retired after the 2016 campaign and currently works as an analyst for the NFL Network.