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David Givens Says Tennessee Titans Hid |His Knee Injury, Demands $25 Million

NASHVILLE (CN) - Wide receiver David Givens, who won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, wants $25 million from the Tennessee Titans, claiming the coaches never told him that a knee defect showed up in his physical. He says the team knew he needed surgery but let him play until his knee gave out "with a crunch" in week 10 of the 2006 season, ending his career.

Givens underwent a thorough exam for the Titans before the 2006 season began. In his federal complaint, he says an orthopaedic surgeon told Titans general manager Floyd Reese, and the team's head coach and medical staff, that a defect in his left knee showed up that "may need surgery at some point."

Givens says no one ever told him about that.

Givens' 5-year deal with the Titans that could have earned him more than $25 million. He claims the doctor who examined him for the team wrote a memo to the Titans' top managers that said he might not be able to make it through training camp or a full 16-game season because of "a large defect on the medial femoral condyle."

The medial condyle is the large, inner projection of the femur, which rests upon the complicated knee joint.

Givens says "he was kept in the dark about his condition ... which could and did, in fact, result in the loss of David Givens ability to compete in his profession."

Givens says that with just over a minute left in the fourth quarter of a game against the Ravens on Nov. 12, 2006, he felt his left knee "slide and give out with a crunch." An X-ray showed that "the previously known lesion and defect in his knee had crumbled. He was never able to play professional football again".

Givens says that the first time he saw his medical records and found out that the Titans knew about his knee defect was during arbitration with the team for future payments - a matter that has yet to be resolved.

Givens, 29, says that if he had been told about his condition he could have decided to undergo surgery "as opposed to risking his entire professional career."

He asks for $25 million for outrageous conduct, infliction of physical and emotional injury and breach of contract.

He is represented by Daniel Warlick.

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