Anti-Tort Reform Advocate Picks a Fight With MMA
Many of you know about the tragic story of Zach Kirk, an MMA fighter who was paralyzed at an event in Shenandoah, Iowa. Kirk broke his neck when he landed awkwardly while performing a double leg takedown.
It breaks my heart to see an MMA fighter suffer, but it also makes my blood boil to see someone use the situation to push a personal agenda. I'm not speaking of NY legislator and well known MMA-hater Bob Reilly (though he made predictably ill-informed comments about the situation) but rather fellow attorney Steve Lombardi who used Kirk's situation in an article arguing against tort reform.
In short, Lombardi says that we can't have tort reform in the form of caps on damages in lawsuits because if people can't sue entities like MMA promoters, taxpayers pick up the tab when someone gets hurt. The problem with this argument is that it presumes, without any evidence, that the promoter of the event in Shenandoah did something wrong and would be liable in court. Regardless of what one believes on the overall subject of tort reform, I think it's wrong to jump to the conclusion that just because someone got hurt, there must be someone out there who can be sued for big money. Sometimes accidents are just accidents and no one is at fault.
Interestingly, Kirk's family members came to that conclusion and do not blame MMA for Kirk's injuries "telling KETV, 'It's a real safe sport. You've just got to watch what you're doing.' Lombardi dismisses this as "spin" and assumes that the family will change their mind when the money runs out. That is certainly possible, but it is also possible that the family recognizes that Kirk, a former high school wrestler, could have been hurt just as easily performing the same move on the mat instead of in the cage. Unless we want wrestling (and while we are at it, football and cheerleading) to get banned because we think families should sue the school districts every time someone sustains a catastrophic injury, we cannot hope that people sue MMA promoters under the same circumstances.
Lombardi closes his piece not by linking to the video of Zach Kirk's fight and the subsequent interview with Zach (which is very sad but which also shows the innocuous nature of the move that caused the injury) but rather a YouTube highlight reel where many of the early clips are of moves that are now banned in sanctioned MMA (such as knees to the head of a downed opponent or strikes to the back of the head). Lombardi also shows a clip of one brutal knockout saying "Here is what MMA is all about." That's akin to saying "here is what football is all about" and linking to the infamous clip of LT breaking Joe Theisman's leg.
The only thing that Mr. Lombardi and I appear to agree on is that Zach and his family are going to need a lot of assistance. If you can help, please do so.
