Tyler Skaggs' opiods supplied by Angels employee

[dagger]

This story keeps getting sadder, and more ominous for sports teams.

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2019/10/12/angels-employee-told-feds-he-supplied-tyler-skaggs-with-opioids/

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In the wake of the death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs from a drug overdose, Skaggs’ family issued a statement in which they suggested that an Angles’ employee played some role in Skaggs’ death. It would seem that they were correct in their assumptions.

ESPN’s Outside the Lines reports that an employee of the Los Angeles Angels told the Drug Enforcement Agency that he supplied Skaggs with opioids. He told the DEA that he too abused opioids with Tyler Skaggs for years, that he told two team officials about Skaggs’ abuse, and named as many as five other current Angels players as having used opioids.

The employee is Eric Kay, the Angels Director of Communications who, according to his LinkedIn page, has been an Angels employee since 1996. Kay told the DEA all of this during two interviews in late September. Kay’s attorney confirmed the substance of ESPN’s report to ESPN late last night.

Kay, ESPN reports, told investigators that he routinely gave Skaggs Oxycontin — Kay would obtain it and Skaggs would reimburse him for them via Venmo transactions ESPN reviewed — and often used it with him. He also supplied drugs to Skaggs on the day of his death:

[BigLeagueChew]

And here we go.

The league will reportedly crack down on opiods and have more leniency towards other substances.

[Black Watch]

Wow.

I knew the opioid epidemic was everywhere, but this is shocking.

[Schad]

Lot of people around sports (cough, NHL, cough) who'd get awfully nervous if teams started to crack down on opiates or cocaine.

Suspensions aren't really the solution, though. You really want to give someone with a chemical dependency several months of free time?

[BigLeagueChew]

NHL players would take Sudafed back before the 2000s and then couldn't going to the Olympics.

Also the incident with Derek Boogard.

Records show that during the last six months of Derek’s life, he failed 14 out of 19 drug tests. The document shows Boogaard tested positive for drugs like diphenhydramine and pseudoephedrine – found in Benadryl and Sudafed – but also morphine, oxycodone and other painkillers.

(You can a read a record of those failed drug tests at the bottom of this story.)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/nhl-doctor-under-investigation-for-player-s-2011-drug-overdose-death-1.2852175

He probably wasn't the only one.

[BigLeagueChew]

A report from ESPN’s T.J. Quinn reveals that officials for the Los Angeles Angels were told about drug habits of pitcher Tyler Skaggs well before his death. ESPN’s sources were two unnamed individuals aware of what Eric Kay, the Angels’ director of communications, had told agents at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in late September.

There were two instances Kay referenced when speaking to agents of times where Angels officials were informed of Skaggs’s drug use. First was in 2017 when he brought it up to former Angels vice president of communications Tim Mead. The second happened in April when Kay was in the hospital recovering from an overdose. Kay’s mother, Sandy, told ESPN that she asked Mead to get the pitcher away from her son. Mead has denied these claims.

https://deadspin.com/report-angels-employee-told-team-officials-about-tyler-1839000114

[Metallikid]

It's not the team's fault that an employee who was also addicted got a player drugs but also any culture that allows a coverup over opiod use is in serious trouble.