BillsWatch Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 I noticed there is no player responsibility clauses. You are equally covered if you decided to head butt goal posts as an example. No attribution to injury to NFL is needed - some players do other things which can cause injuries post career such as join wrestling or other risky endeavors, use illegal drugs. etc or have had injuries prior to joining NFL. Basically this is just a post-career extra insurance package only paid by the "partners" who are owners.
Orton's Arm Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 I noticed there is no player responsibility clauses. You are equally covered if you decided to head butt goal posts as an example. No attribution to injury to NFL is needed - some players do other things which can cause injuries post career such as join wrestling or other risky endeavors, use illegal drugs. etc or have had injuries prior to joining NFL. Basically this is just a post-career extra insurance package only paid by the "partners" who are owners. Players experience a large number of head collisions in practice and in games. These will result in some degree of brain trauma. There are instances when a player adds to his brain trauma, for example by wrestling in his spare time. But the vast majority of brain trauma experienced by football players is football-related. You could point out that not all football-related brain trauma occurs in the NFL. But for a player to get into the NFL in the first place, he typically has to play in a prominent college program. To play in a program like that, he usually has to play high school football. If a retired NFL player has brain injuries from high school or college ball, those injuries were sustained as part of the process which prepared him for the NFL. If they were going to award players money in a case like this, they had two choices. 1) Assume that head injuries to retired football players were NFL-related. 2) Make each player have his own court case; with experts on either side arguing about how much of that particular player's total brain damage was due to the NFL. Option 2 would drag on for years, and would make a lot of lawyers and paid expert witnesses very, very happy. In the end, a jury would make a subjective judgment call to decide each player's case. If, for example, the prosecution claimed that 90% of a particular player's brain injuries were sustained because of the NFL; and if the defense claimed it was only 40%, there would be no way for either side to conclusively prove its case. Nor would any credible scientist claim to know the exact percentage; because there's just no way of knowing.
HeHateMe Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 how does this affect current players, future retired players?
Tiberius Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 how does this affect current players, future retired players? Good question. Who knows. I saw one writer arguing that the NFL has a lot of leverage because if this goes to trial the lawyers for the NFL will simply point out all the head injuries a player might have had in HS and College. So I think the next battle will be at the HS and college level. Tons of kids get their bells rung in high school football and other sports. The law suits will be happening
26CornerBlitz Posted September 5, 2013 Posted September 5, 2013 Four ex-NFL players file new concussion lawsuit against league: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000237961/article/four-exnfl-players-file-new-concussion-lawsuit-against-league
BillsWatch Posted September 5, 2013 Posted September 5, 2013 Four ex-NFL players file new concussion lawsuit against league: http://www.nfl.com/n...-against-league Yep. Get one settlement and then go for more money.
26CornerBlitz Posted September 5, 2013 Posted September 5, 2013 Yep. Get one settlement and then go for more money. I don't know how viable this suit will be from a financial perspective, but I hope we at a minimum we get to find out how much and when the NFL knew about the long term effects of head trauma.
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