It wasn't the report about his fingers Shane Doan Jerseybeing blown off. It was the picture of his confidential medical chart sent to almost 4 million Twitter followers that prompted New York Giants linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul to sue ESPN and reporter Adam Schefter for invasion of privacy.

Citing state privacy laws, Pierre-Paul asked a Miami-Dade County Circuit Court to award him at least $15,000 in damages over the report that followed his Fourth of July fireworks accident. The lawsuit filed on Wednesday also left open the possibility of punitive damages.

The suit concedes that the injury to an NFL star was a matter of public interest,h... difficult for Jason Pierre-Paul or anybody else that has a similar claim to prevail,'' said Darren Heitner, the owner of the Miami-area firm Heitner Legal who teaches sports law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. ''We're dealing with a public figure. It's not as if Adam Schefter found some random person who was injured using fireworks on July 4.''

ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz declined comment on behalf of the network. Schefter did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment; the lawsuit quotes an interview he gave Sports Illustrated in which he called the chart ''the ultimate proof'' but conceded, ''In hindsight, I could have and should have done even more here due to the sensitivity of the situation.''

Pierre-Paul blew off parts of three fingers when one of the [url=http://www.officialsabresteamshop.com/Womens_Youth_Josh_Gorges_Jersey]Josh Gorges Jerseyfireworks he was lighting to celebrate Independence Day exploded in his hand. Less specific reports of an injury circulated in the next few days before Schefter tweeted on July 8 a picture of the chart describing the amputation of Pierre-Paul's right index finger and the damage to two others.

It is illegal under both state and federal laws for the custodian of medical records to release them without a patient's consent; Jackson Memorial Hospital has fired two staffers that it said improperly accessed Pierre-Paul's records and said it settled litigation with Pierre-Paul.

Florida law also http... prohibits a third party ''from further disclosing any information in the medical record without the expressed written consent of the patient or the patient's legal representative.''

But when that third party is a journalist, the plaintiff would have to prove that the report did not involve a matter of public interest. (For punitive damages, Pierre-Paul would have to prove malicious intent.)

The lawsuit addresses this, claiming that ''while the amputation may have been of legitimate public concern, the chart itself was not.''