LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A strip club manager paralyzed in a triple shooting is suing the NFL, the Tennessee Titans and suspended football player Adam "Pacman" Jones, claiming they're responsible for his injuries.
Former professional wrestler Tommy Urbanski seeks unspecified damages in the lawsuit filed Friday in Clark County District Court. It also names the owners of Harlem Knights, a Houston strip club that rented the Minxx Gentleman's Club in Las Vegas in February for a party the weekend of the NBA All-Star game.
"The fact that the NFL and the Titans did not punish Adam 'Pacman' Jones until after Tommy was paralyzed is a proximate cause of Tommy's injuries," attorney Matthew Dushoff said before a news conference at a Henderson hotel with Urbanski and his wife, Kathleen.
Jones' attorney, Robert Langford, denied the troubled cornerback had any responsibility for the man's injuries.
"There's no basis in fact for suing the NFL and the Titans," Langford said.
Jones faces two felony charges alleging he incited a melee and threatened to kill people inside the club minutes before the shooting outside. No one has been charged in the shooting.
Jones was suspended for the 2007 season in April for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy.
"From my heart, I feel bad for this guy and his family," Langford told The Associated Press. "But Pacman Jones is not the shooter. No one has said that he is. There's not one bit of evidence to link him to Mr. Urbanski's injury."
Urbanski was shot four times and was left paralyzed from the waist down in the Feb. 19 shooting. He spent several months rehabilitating at a Denver hospital before moving in August to a hotel in Henderson because his house hasn't been outfitted to accommodate a wheelchair.
Urbanski told reporters he holds the NFL responsible for his injuries because he believed they ignored Jones' previous run-ins with police.
"Even, 'Three strikes and you're out,' and this wouldn't have happened to me," Urbanski said at a news conference with his schoolteacher wife.
Jones was arrested six times after being drafted by the Titans with the sixth pick overall in April 2005. After his arrest in Las Vegas, he was suspended by the NFL but he could be reinstated after Nov. 19.
"We've done our homework on this. If Jones had been disciplined earlier, more likely than not, he would not have been invited as NFL player Pacman Jones to the club," Dushoff said.
Langford said that if Jones offered to help Urbanski, "someone would say he had something to do with his injury and we were admitting liability."
"So we're stuck in a situation where we express our sympathy and go to court," Jones' lawyer said.
The NFL and the Titans also said they would fight the lawsuit. Harlem Knights representatives in Houston didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
"We have great sympathy for Tommy and Kathy, but we strongly disagree with any claims against the NFL and the Titans and will respond appropriately to the court," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
Employment law attorney Kathy England said Nevada law could limit Urbanski's attempts to link the case to the NFL and the Titans. State law protects employers from injury caused by an employee's intentional conduct if the employee is on his own time, she said.