New York Giants running back and former
Arizona State star Cam Skattebo denies jumping up and down on the back of a golf cart and being liable or at fault for any injuries suffered by former Sun Devils teammate Mattheos Katergaris during an incident after football practice in July 2023, according to a recent filing in Maricopa County Superior Court. Skattebo further denies that there is “any proper evidence” showing his conduct entitles Katergaris to “any relief in any form whatsoever” from him, his attorney, Todd Rinner of the law firm Snell & Wilmer, wrote in an answer to the civil complaint filed on June 6. Katergaris sued the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body that oversees the state’s public universities, for more than $300,000 in May 2024, alleging that a teammate jumped up an down on the back of a golf cart that was already at maximum capacity, causing the back seat to break and Katergaris to fall and suffer a career-ending elbow injury. The former Arizona State offensive lineman has twice amended the complaint, most recently on Jan. 27, when Skattebo was added as a defendant just weeks after ASU lost to Texas in overtime in the Peach Bowl. Skattebo finished the season with 2,316 yards from scrimmage — including 1,711 rushing yards, second-most in the nation behind only Boise State star Ashton Jeanty — and scored 24 touchdowns. He was fifth in Heisman Trophy voting. Skattebo was drafted in April by the Giants with the 105th overall pick in the fourth round of the NFL Draft. He is projected to receive a four-year contract worth about $5.27 million, according to overthecap.com. Skattebo’s court filing asked that Katergaris’ complaint be dismissed with prejudice and that Skattebo be awarded attorneys’ fees and costs with interest.
Katergaris ruptured elbow tendon, never played again
Katergaris played football at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale before joining the Sun Devils’ football team as a walk-on. He served on ASU’s scout team in 2022 but never played in a game and was not listed on the roster for the 2023 or 2024 seasons. His civil complaint alleges that Skattebo jumped up and down on the back of a golf cart during an ASU football practice on July 31, 2023, before his first season with the Sun Devils, when two players were already riding on the vehicle. Players allegedly had been informed that the carts could carry only two players at a time and had a 600-pound weight limit. Skattebo’s actions allegedly caused the back seat of the golf cart to break and Katergaris to fall to the ground, resulting in severe injury, from which he hasn’t fully recovered. “He got a really bad laceration, essentially going all the way down to the bone in his elbow,” Katergaris’ attorney, Neil Udulutch, told The Republic in March, “and it essentially ruptured his distal triceps tendon 90% of the way, so he required surgery and months of physical therapy.” Katergaris’ lawsuit said that Skattebo owed him a “duty of care to act in a way that did not cause the golf cart to become structurally unstable,” and that Skattebo “breached this duty of care by improperly jumping on the back of the golf cart and proceeding to jump up and down on it for a considerable distance, which caused a structural failure of the golf cart. “Defendant Skattebo’s breach was the actual and proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries and damages.”
Arizona Board of Regents wants lawsuit dismissed
Skattebo’s response to the court said he had no knowledge of the alleged golf cart safety presentation, but he admitted the golf cart was driven by ASU assistant Isaiah Williams to transport players after practice and that Katergaris ended up on the ground. Katergaris’s complaint said that the Arizona Board of Regents is “vicariously liable for its employee's negligent acts” and that ABOR “owed a duty of care” to Katergaris “to facilitate the vehicle's operation safely and reasonably.” The complaint said that “ABOR breached this duty of care by allowing three passengers to remain in the rear bench when there should have only been two passengers, causing the vehicle to fail structurally,” and that this breach was “the actual and proximate cause of Plaintiff’s injuries and damages.” ABOR filed an answer to the complaint in February and acknowledged that it “has reason to believe Defendant Skattebo boarded the back of the golf cart while two other players were sitting on the rear section.” ABOR also acknowledged that the rear bench broke, that “Plaintiff ended up on the ground, and that this may have been due to a fall.” But it denied all other allegations, asserted qualified immunity and requested the lawsuit be dismissed. The next step on the case calendar is a February 2026 pre-trial conference.
