Steelers offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert is the target of a lawsuit filed Thursday by a 54-year-old Highland Park man who claims the 6-foot-6, 330-pound lineman slammed him to the ground during a confrontation outside Mr. Gilbert’s home in Wexford.
Larry Parker claims in the suit, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, that he suffered injuries to his right leg and back. He seeks more than $35,000 in damages for hospital bills and future treatment, as well as “pain, suffering, inconvenience and humiliation.”
Drew Rosenhaus, Mr. Gilbert’s agent, said Thursday that he had “no comment at this time.” A Steelers spokesman said Friday that the team would have no comment.
According to the complaint, filed by Downtown attorney Romel L. Nicholas, the incident began in the parking lot of the Steelers’ South Side practice facility about noon Jan. 11.
Mr. Parker, who claims to have friends among the team’s players and staff, visited the training facility “from time to time.” He was returning a friend’s vehicle that he had taken to be serviced, he said, when he spied Mr. Gilbert, whom he knew, walking to his car.
Mr. Parker said he “voiced a jesting greeting” to Mr. Gilbert across the lot, then got into his car and left.
Four hours later, however, he received “a series of hostile and threatening text messages,” copies of which he included in the lawsuit. The texts, he said, confused him, and he phoned Mr. Gilbert to ask why he had sent them and “to maintain good relations.”
Mr. Gilbert, he said, “voiced additional comments” consistent with the texted threats, and said he would be at his home less than an hour later. He asked Mr. Parker to meet him there “to discuss the matter face-to-face,” the suit says.
Mr. Parker, who is 5-foot-8 and weighs 215 pounds, arrived at the home first and was waiting outside when Mr. Gilbert pulled into the driveway. The suit claims he emerged from his car and approached Mr. Parker, “voicing intimidating and threatening comments similar to those he had previously texted and voiced by telephone.”
Upon reaching Mr. Parker, the suit says, Mr. Gilbert pushed him in the chest multiple times, then wrapped him in a “bear hug,” picked him up and slammed him down “on decorative bricks with [Mr. Gilbert] landing on top of him.”
Mr. Parker said he was in pain and pleaded with Mr. Gilbert to get off of him. When he did, the suit says, Mr. Gilbert called his father “for advice and instruction regarding how to proceed.”
His father told him to take Mr. Parker, who could not stand without assistance, to the hospital.
The suit says Mr. Parker suffered a fractured right fibula requiring multiple surgeries, as well as bruises, sprains, strains and tears to joints and ligaments. The incident also exacerbated a pre-existing back injury, he said.
Mr. Gilbert, who played at the University of Florida, was drafted by the Steelers in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft. His play, which has been rated near a Pro Bowl level, earned him a six-year, $30 million contract in 2014. His best season might have been in 2015, when he started all 16 regular-season games. Last season, he was suffered an ankle injury in Week 4 and missed three games before returning to his star-level play.
Dan Majors: dmajors@post-gazette.com and 412-263-1456. Andrew Goldstein contributed.
First Published: July 28, 2017, 2:27 a.m.
