The hit Netflix series Last Chance U brought viewers a perspective into the life of junior college athletes and was undoubtedly an incredibly successful project. But in recent months, the project has shown to be more trouble than it was ever worth for Netflix, with the company now named in a second lawsuit relating to the show.
Last month, six former players at East Mississippi Community College, the school featured in the first two seasons of the show, filed a lawsuit against the streamer seeking $30 million “for the wrongful misappropriation of their likeness and to ensure fair compensation for their work.”
Among those named as defendants in the joint lawsuit filed by John Franklin III, Ronald Ollie, C.J. Reavis, De’Andre Johnson, Tim Bonner and Isaiah Wright include Netflix, East Mississippi Community College, the EMCC Athletic Director, and Greg Whiteley, the executive producer of Last Chance U.
Shortly after word of the lawsuit emerged last month, former Independence Community College head coach Jason Brown, who’s program was featured on seasons three and four of Last Chance U, revealed in an interview with TMZ that he was having his legal team “look into” a potential lawsuit as well.
Well, that lawsuit officially came to be. First discovered by TMZ, Brown filed the lawsuit against Netflix and Last Chance U producers in a Los Angeles County court this week, alleging that he was “portrayed in a false and offensive light through selective editing and misrepresentation” on the show.
Similarly to the player lawsuit, Brown is seeking $30 million in the lawsuit, outlining in his conversation with TMZ last month that he would be seeking $10 million in lost income, $10 million in reputational damage, $5 million in emotional distress, and $5 million in punitive damages.
If you are familiar with Brown at all from the show or from his social media presence after his time at Independence Community College was done, you might argue that Brown’s negative reputation is self-inflicted.
Brown was the subject of significant scrutiny after text messages were leaked in 2019 that showed Brown telling a German football player on his team that he was “his new Hitler”, which coincidentally led to Brown being forced to resign from his position.
While he did offer a half-hearted apology on social media for the incident, he has since spoken publicly about how he believes that the situation was “dramatized” by Netflix, which he claims led to “$600,000 offers” from NCAA programs and XFL teams being pulled.
When asked for any comment on the matter, Netflix did not reply to an inquiry from TMZ.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.