Cameron Skattebo is known for being physical on the football field. He’s proving elusive off it. The former Arizona State University star running back and Heisman Trophy finalist, who attended the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis over the weekend, is being sued for more than $300,000 by a former
Sun Devils teammate in Maricopa County Superior Court, according to a civil complaint filed by an attorney representing Mattheos Katergaris. The former ASU offensive lineman alleges one count of negligence resulting in injury against both Skattebo and the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body that oversees the state’s public universities, stemming from an incident in which Skattebo allegedly “jumped up and down” on the back of a golf cart during a football practice in July 2023, causing the back seat to break and Katergaris to fall to the ground. Process servers have been unable to find Skattebo to deliver the legal paperwork at either of his most recent known addresses in Arizona and California, leading the court to grant permission for Katergaris’ attorney, Neil Udulutch, to serve Skattebo by publication, a method of “last resort” that involves publishing the summons and complaint in a Maricopa County newspaper for four consecutive weeks. “He’s been hard to pin down,” Udulutch said Monday night in a phone interview with The Arizona Republic. “I have reason to believe he was in Florida preparing for the combine and then I know he was in Indy. I don’t know if he even lives in Arizona anymore. Maybe he’s bouncing around hotels. I just don’t know, so I was done chasing him. “My hope is that he or his family will retain an attorney and help us out here, but otherwise we’ll have to go that route. It’s kind of an archaic procedure. It is definitely a last resort.” Skattebo’s NFL agents both declined to comment when reached by The Republic. An Arizona State spokesperson also declined to comment. The next step on the case calendar is a February 2026 pre-trial conference.
Skattebo added to lawsuit after breakout season at ASU
Skattebo, 23, is expected to participate in ASU’s Pro Day on March 27 and has been preparing for the NFL draft, scheduled for April 24-26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is projected as a mid-round pick. The complaint was originally filed in May 2024, when it was first reported by the
Phoenix New Times , and has twice been amended, most recently on Jan. 27, when Skattebo was added as a defendant just weeks after Arizona State lost to Texas in double overtime in the Peach Bowl, the quarterfinal round of the expanded College Football Playoff. Skattebo led a furious second-half rally and was named the game’s offensive MVP. He 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. “I’m aware of the speculation and how that looks, but I can’t comment on the rationalization," Udulutch told The Republic about the timing of adding Skattebo to the lawsuit after his breakout season, as he prepares for the NFL draft. "All I can say is that we became aware that it was actually him that was on the back of the golf court, jumping up and down, according to my client.”
Attorney: Katergaris ruptured elbow tendon, required surgery
The updated complaint alleges that Skattebo jumped 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 had been informed that the carts could carry only two players at a time and had a 600-pound maximum 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,” Udulutch told The Republic, detailing the extent of his client’s injuries for the first time, “and it essentially ruptured his distal triceps tendon 90 percent of the way, so he required surgery and months of physical therapy. "It’s not like how a lot of the (initial) articles are painting it. He actually was very injured.”
ABOR admits Skattebo boarded golf cart, which broke; wants lawsuit dismissed
The Arizona Board of Regents filed an answer to the complaint in February and acknowledged Skattebo’s actions. ABOR admitted 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,” that the rear bench of the golf cart broke, and that “Plaintiff ended up on the ground, and that this may have been due to a fall.” But ABOR denied all other allegations, asserted qualified immunity and requested the lawsuit be dismissed. It argued that Katergaris failed to meet all elements necessary to support a claim of negligence, that he failed to mitigate his claimed damages, that he over-treated or incurred unnecessary or unreasonable expenses in the care or treatment he received and that ABOR already paid for some or all of his medical treatment. “They’re advocating for their client,” Udulutch said. “But the truth of the matter is that his surgery wasn’t even provided at the university. They left that out of there. They did treat him at the student health center, but all of his physical therapy was done at a different location outside of university’s domain, as well as the surgery.” Udulutch said Katergaris and his family have incurred significant medical expenses “and there are still outstanding bills to this day.”
Skattebo at NFL combine: ‘I was immature in years past’
Skattebo competed in the broad and vertical jump at the NFL combine this past weekend and reportedly met with scouts from several NFL teams, including Arizona, Denver and Tampa, but he did not run or work out. Reporters did not ask Skattebo about the lawsuit, but he responded to a question about preparing for the NFL by revealing that ASU football coach Kenny Dillingham had him focus on improving his physique, running technique and maturity. “I was immature in years past,” Skattebo said, “and then maturing over the senior year of my college career helped me a lot.” Arizona Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon told reporters that Dillingham gave him film of Skattebo to review. “I’m not through that part of the evaluation process,” Gannon said, “but I know he lit it up this year. I know he’s a really good dude with high football character who loves ball, so that’d be cool to watch him.”
Attorney: Katergaris never played football again, remains in pain
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 last year. He’s been unable to resume his football career because of the injury. “He can’t play anymore,” Udulutch said. “He said his arm hurts really bad when he does anything with it. It moves, but it’s definitely not as strong as it was. And part of that could be the initial injury. Some of that’s definitely attributable to the way the surgery had to unfold. You’ve got to cut into there. But he’s not the same, for sure. “Everyone’s saying he entered the transfer portal, but he really just didn’t go anywhere.”
