When Pat McAfee was looking for medical expertise about Aaron Rodgers’ devastating achilles injury, the boisterous host booked Dr. David Chao, just like always. Chao serves as the chief NFL medical analyst on The Pat McAfee Show, which now airs across all of ESPN’s platforms.

Chao, otherwise known as “Pro Football Doc,” has amassed well over 200,000 followers on X, and been the subject of numerous puff piece profiles. In addition to regular appearances with McAfee, Chao appears on SiriusXM, Fox Sports Radio and is the official injury expert of FanDuel. While there are a myriad of physicians who moonlight as NFL injury experts, Chao has cornered the market.

Yet for some reason, his sordid past is seldom mentioned.

Chao’s rap sheet of alleged medical malpractice is extensive; and frankly, quite dark. Once the team doctor for the Los Angeles Chargers, Chao has been sued by nearly two dozen patients and accused of aiding his former medical partner’s addiction to prescription painkillers. The California Medical Board, which placed Chao on five-year probation in 2014, investigated him for prescribing Ambien to Junior Seau in the months prior to his suicide.

The relationship between players and team physicians can be fraught. Since team doctors are paid by, you know, the teams, players rightfully question their motives.

But the NFL Players Association’s complaints against Chao went well beyond typical disagreements. NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith called for Chao to be replaced in early 2013, citing his gross history of controversies and alleged negligence.

And what are some of those controversies? We could begin with the patient who sued Chao for crippling her with a botched hip replacement (payout $2.2 million), or the poor man who lost a leg while Chao was partying at a nightclub. Despite overseeing the operation, Chao left the hospital and failed to appoint another doctor to oversee his patient’s care.

When the knee surgery went terribly wrong, Chao was unreachable. He said he was visiting his sick mother, but receipts show he was running up a $300 tab at a local club.

It’s apparent that Chao liked to party in his capacity as the Chargers’ doctor and write out prescriptions without scrutiny. Those two toxic traits led to tragic results.

A drinking buddy of Seau’s, Chao was placed on four-year probation for failing to exercise proper caution when it came to the ex-linebacker’s medical care. During the last 18 months of Seau’s life, Chao wrote him 14 prescriptions for Ambien, even though the linebacker exhibited signs of depression and suicidal thought.

Several years earlier, the California Medical Board investigated Chao for writing painkiller prescriptions to his medical partner, who was addicted to the life-destroying drugs. Former Chargers running back Mark Montreuil sued Chao and his partner, David Losse, claiming that Losse operated on his knee while high.

Federal drug enforcement agents also searched Chao’s office after learning he wrote more than 100 prescriptions out to himself (the investigation was closed two years later).

When Chao stepped down as the Chargers’ team doctor in 2013–just a few months after the NFLPA had called for his dismissal–he cited health problems and his desire to spend more time with family. But around that same time, two San Diego-area hospitals barred him from performing surgery.

What a coincidence!

Curiously, none of these details are mentioned when Chao pops up on TV.

Did artificial turf at MetLife Stadium play a role in Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury? Former NFL team doctor for 17 years Dr. David Chao weighs in on the debate and Rodgers’ chances of coming back next season @profootballdoc @fox5ny #jets #aaronrodgers #nfl pic.twitter.com/hsyLs6XmFG

— Natasha Verma (@NatashaVermaTV) September 15, 2023

Even more strangely, Chao’s disturbing record is never mentioned in profiles, either. CNBC wrote a piece about Chao’s rising stardom in 2019, and didn’t cover his unceremonious exit from the Chargers, or anything less about his past.

Later that year, Forbes literally published an article titled “The Rise of Dr. David Chao,” and omitted his professional history entirely.

“It’s very much an art form, I think,” Dr. Chao bragged in the article. ““I think it’s a very specialized task I’m doing. I pay a lot of attention to it and take a lot of pride in it.”

This phenomenon is quite strange. Surely, there are other doctors without dark histories who can opine about NFL injuries. It would be one thing if Chao were confined to OutKick, where he works as a contributor, and fringe outlets.

But he’s plastered all over ESPN, with McAfee, one of the network’s highest-paid talents, awarding him a platform. McAfee may not be aware of Chao’s past, but one of his producers must be, right?

The crazy part is, it doesn’t require much digging to learn about Chao’s dismal history. Deadspin published a thorough investigative piece in 2013, and the San Diego Tribune extensively covered all of the accusations, inquiries and punishments.

Sometimes, sports pundits lose their positions based on errant social media posts or misstatements. But somehow, Chao carries on unscathed.

Perception must truly be more powerful than reality, at least when it comes to platforming sports injury experts.