Per Jason Hirschhorn at SB*Nation:
Following years of legal haggling, most of the retired NFL players eligible have decided to accept the terms of the NFL concussion settlement, according to a report by ESPN’s Outside the Lines. Tuesday is the deadline for players not satisfied with the proposed settlement to opt out and pursue the case in court on their own outside of the original class. OTL claims that out of more than 18,000 plaintiffs, “as little as a few dozen — and no more than a few hundred” will actually decline the settlement.
With the majority of eligible players expected to accept the terms of the settlement, it increases the likelihood that Federal District Judge Anita Brody will grant approval at a fairness hearing in November.
Brody rejected the original $765 million settlement proposal due to concerns of insufficient funding. The NFL subsequently agreed to an unlimited settlement that includes cash payments and medical monitoring. However, a number of plaintiffs in the case have argued that the unlimited settlement is compromised by a complex set of criteria for determining eligibility for compensation. For instance, the settlement does not cover players diagnosed with CTE after July 7 or recognize tests for CTE among living players (something that researchers have only recently been able to do).
Plaintiffs who choose not to accept the settlement can choose to opt out and pursue the legal fight on their own, or they can object and make the case that Judge Brody should reject the deal. While few retired players will decline the settlement, that should not be mistaken for satisfaction with the terms. As OTL notes, this may simply be the best of an unfavorable situation…
More info at the link. Any thoughts?
Howard Beale IV
Now if the NHL would join…..
Major Major Major Major
Good step in the right direction.
Now remove the pads and helmets and turn it back into rugby, the sport where killing your body is a bug, not a feature.
KG
Welcome to complex class action settlements
jw
I sympathise with the players, however I don’t believe that one of them didn’t know what they were in for. That doesn’t mean that the NFL shouldn’t support their ‘wounded warriors’. Football is a tough sport. I’ve enjoyed it for years and paid plenty for watching it and I’ll continue to watch it. Sure, the guys make millions but the NFL makes jillions, so I think that the NFL should pay up.
‘Course the team owners are mostly Repubs, I’d guess.
KG
@jw: I think most players knew there was a risk of injury. But what most of the lawsuit has been about has been the NFL hiding the true nature and extent of injuries and basically allowing athletes to play when their mental health was compromised
Heliopause
I’ve had a couple of class action settlements that I never claimed. One was for overpriced CDs, the other was for overpriced Ticketmaster (pardon the redundancy) tickets. Each was worth a few dollars and, as I mentioned, wasn’t worth my time to claim. Anybody else?
Mnemosyne
Close to 20 years ago, I remember reading an article about a former NFL player who had had to have his leg amputated below the knee after he retired because the team doctor had sent him back out to play with a fracture in his lower leg — just gave him some cortisone shots and sent him back out the next week. For obvious reasons, the fracture never healed right and ended up requiring an amputation.
The NFL’s reaction? Hey, he knew it was a risky sport. Not our problem.
Jordan Rules
@Mnemosyne: That instant cortisone “cure” is going to haunt many former pro athletes.
Tommy
I will never forget. Never. I so wanted to play football. My grandfather, a small town rural doctor said no (he read all the medical journals). They didn’t want Tommy (that would be me) getting hit in the head. Often. Time and time again.
I can chart all the scars on my body and I have a lot of them. Skateboards. Doing all kinds of crazy stuff. This or that. Dad never said no and encouraged it all, but NO to football. This was the early 80s.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy: Well, it seems your grandfather knew what he was talking about.
Is he still alive? You might want to say thank you :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
@Tommy:
I should add to that, I think it’s ultimately unhealthy to keep kids battened up in cotton wool, never allowing them to take risks, etc. It sounds as though your parents and grandparents had a good sense of what was natural childhood rough-and-tumble, and what was potentially injurious to the point of life-changing trauma.
Gian
Since it’s an open thread this is a story about a huge cat:
pe.com/articles/cat-751865-big-biggie.html
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: No he isn’t and to be honest never very close with him. If I could give anything to spend a day or two with him I’d give it. A difficult man, but somebody that I miss.
He wasn’t the “feel happy” guy. He was the get in the game and fight. If you don’t you are a wimp. So he’d not want you to play a contact sport like football, well there was something going on from a medical point-of-view.
Culture of Truth
In the imaginary world, complex lawsuits and white collar prosecutions for ‘crashing the economy’ are easy to win. In the real world, it’s different.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
I know what you mean. I had a difficult, and often distant, relationship with my grandmother, despite the fact that we lived in the same house until I was 20 (I have to say, with some really good moments mixed in). But I would give a lot to spend some time with her now that I am older and presumably more mature and understanding.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: I went to see my niece play a soccer game two weekends ago. She is 6. She took a soccer ball to the chest from like six feet away. Hardest kick I’d seen that day. Left a mark on her chest. After a few minutes (and she was totally fine) I heard my brother say, well if you are OK then get back in the game. I guess we kids don’t fall that far from our parents :).
Howard Beale IV
@Gian: That;s a big fscking cat.
Tommy
@Howard Beale IV: Wow. My brother lived with me about a decade ago. His cat was 28 pounds, but not really fat. Just large. He never seemed to like me that much and at times I felt like there was a small mountain lion stalking me :).
Corner Stone
@Tommy:
At what position?
Tommy
Gosh I am a wimp. Need to head to Ferguson. Only about 30 miles from my front door. Watching the local evening news and people are still protesting. Hardcore. I am a wimp.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: So fucking go there. I bothered to show up at the protests in Madison, WI, and Iwas one of the first through the doors when we reoccupied the Capitol. It wasn’t dangerous or anything, but showing up matters. So go do it. I was was working for myself at the time, like you are, so I had the discretion to leave “work” and go.
Tommy
@Corner Stone: RB. For years we played football at a local place, “green space” in todays terms. City Hall. I tended to just run over and through people. I might have only been 5’4, but loved the contact the violence of the sport.
I don’t have to assume, I know when it wasn’t just the folks in my neighborhood things would have went south for me and I’d get beat down, but it was fun.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: So why don’t you go put the same skin in the game in Ferguson? Honestly, as a white guy, no one will shoot or club you. You can go and make a point without much risk.
Arclite
I think it’s long since past time that the NFL lost its tax exempt status.
Arclite
@KG:
Right, I don’t think any of the players knew that the injuries could lead to permanent and chronic conditions that could degrade their mental capacities to children and cause them to become suicidal. When you think about a football injury, you think something that will heal up in months, or a year at the most.
Lee
Here is how you solve the ‘complex set of criteria for determining eligibility for compensation’. If they are denied benefits and then after their demise they allow an autopsy which finds they are eligible, their survivors get Nx (10x?) the amount of benefits they were denied.
Peter Akuleyev
@Arclite: When you think about a football injury, you think something that will heal up in months, or a year at the most.
No, I think it is fair to assume that most professional football players should have been aware they were exchanging a shot at fame and fortune now for a significant likelihood of chronic knee and back issues later, and that there was a good chance they would be significantly crippled by middle age. To the extent that young men really can think about their future anyway. Still, there is a huge difference between being physically hobbled for life and seeing your personality drain away as your brain falls apart. I don’t think any NFL players willingly signed up for the latter.
shante
I can’t believe some of the comments I have read. Some people just can’t focus on the issue’s involved in when talking about football players and our lawsuit against the NFL. First, you should know the subject you’re going to comment on. People need to start looking into subjects that they comment on. From what I can tell from reading peoples comments. Some people just don’t have a clue about what they are saying. Instead, most people depend on what others say or what an individual might assume. Before I make a comment about anything I want to know facts. Facts that I can find very easily on the internet. We have all the information we need at our finger tips. People need to stop believing everything they hear about any subject and use what GOD gave all of us. Our brains and its ability to think and make an informed comment instead of just believing what we hear from the media. This is why it’s so easy for the media to form peoples opinion so easily. People are just LAZY, but are quick to have an opinion about things they have no clue about. I hope I’m making sense.
S.C.
Arclite
@Shante. @shante: Actually, you’re not making much sense unless you quote specific comments and how they’re wrong.