Devin Green transferred to the Utes last year and did not see any game action during the season. <\/p>\n
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The University of Utah’s football stadium, Rice-Eccles Stadium, is pictured in 2025. Former University of Utah football player Devin Green is suing coaches and administrators for allegedly discriminating against him because he has Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n
A former University of Utah football player is suing coaches and administrators for allegedly discriminating against him because he has Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n
Devin Green, who transferred from UNLV to Utah in the spring of 2025, alleges Utah running backs coach Mark Atuaia limited his practice time, kept him out of certain drills and did not allow him to travel or dress for most games because of his medical condition.<\/p>\n
Green filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Utah this week alleging that Atuaia, former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan and other Utes officials violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University is aware of the lawsuit filed by a former student-athlete, and will have no further comment at this time, as it is pending litigation,\u201d the U. said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Utes\u2019 staff medically cleared Green to play football, according to the lawsuit, but Atuaia \u201cexercised unilateral discretion to override medical clearance decisions based on his own fear and misconceptions\u201d related to Green\u2019s Type 1 diabetes. <\/p>\n
The former Utah running back \u201cwas routinely limited to non-competitive or observational participation\u201d and \u201cwas regularly denied full-speed repetitions, evaluative opportunities, and meaningful integration into game-planning,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n
In one instance, Green\u2019s lawsuit alleges, he was medically cleared to play and participated in preliminary drills for a team scrimmage, but Atuaia held him out because he was \u201cscared\u201d to put him in due to his diabetes diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cAtuaia further acknowledged that the decision was not based on [Green\u2019s] talent, performance or effort,\u201d the lawsuit stated.<\/p>\n
Green also alleges he was excluded from team travel and gameday participation. He suited up for one game against BYU but did not play.<\/p>\n
After the season, according to the lawsuit, the Utes\u2019 running backs coach directed Green to enter the NCAA transfer portal because he could not \u201cpush\u201d him because of his diabetes.<\/p>\n
Green then claims his scholarship was terminated by the program with no \u201cmeaningful notice\u201d despite wanting to continue his education.<\/p>\n
The sophomore running back has had no interest from programs in the transfer portal, the lawsuit states, which has caused him \u201csevere emotional distress.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges that Whittingham should have known about Atuaia\u2019s alleged behavior and that Harlan and other Utah administrators failed to properly protect the student-athlete. The suit also names deputy and associate athletic directors Charmelle Green, John Jentz, Jason Greco and Liz Prince as defendants.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no point did the university adopt or otherwise enforce any policy requiring coaches to defer to medical clearance decisions when disability-related concerns were implicated,\u201d the lawsuit stated.<\/p>\n
Green is requesting a jury trial and is seeking unspecified damages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devin Green transferred to the Utes last year and did not see any game action during the season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,1716,8047],"class_list":["post-736337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-university-of-utah","tag-utes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116031046577568397","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}