45 million Americans are infected with herpes, and now three of them are going to court over it. Andrew Bradley, James Harris, and Alexander Binder have filed a lawsuit against York College, claiming that the wrestling coaches are to blame for their contraction of herpes from another wrestler. Herpes is exceedingly common in wrestling because of close bodily contact, and wrestlers’ herpes (often referred to as herpes gladiatorum) is an ailment the NCAA has attempted to curb through regulations.

According to ABC News:

"It's common in the sport of wrestling, that's why we have a specific rule about it," said Jim Thornton, athletic training liaison to the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee and director of sports medicine at Clarion University of Pennsylvania in Clarion, Pa…

The wrestler also cannot develop new "blisters" in the 72 hours before wrestling, and the current blisters can't be moist and weeping.

"When the virus has done its thing is when it dries up into a honey-colored crust," said Thornton.

Finally, the wrestler has to take "appropriate antiviral dosages" for five days before practicing.

Thornton emphasized that wrestlers have to meet all of the rules, not just some, before participating. But according to Thornton, some new coaches confuse the rules.

"Active herpetic lesions cannot be covered to allow participation. I don't care if they're on six days of medication," he said. "You can't just cover them to allow them to participate."

"We hold our wrestlers out when they get herpes; they are out for a minimum of five days, period," said Thornton.

Yet Bradley and his lawyer claim their coaches kept the first infected wrestler out for three days and then covered the herpes sores with tape. The lawsuit also claims that the coaches continued to tape up players and allow them to participate as more and more members of the team came down with herpes.

Bradley told ABC, "I was really devastated because I know that this was permanent, I knew there was a stigma with the virus,” but it doesn’t seem that publicizing a stigma-ridden virus really decreases the stigma at all. Still, it’s important that the NCAA be stringent in its regulation of wrestlers herpes, because as we all know, when guys are rolling around with their faces in between each other’s legs, it can get complicated.