NFL Sued By 75 Former Players For Allegedly Concealing Brain Injury Risks

LOS ANGELES -- Seventy-five former players are suing the National Football League, claiming the league concealed information about the danger of concussions for decades.

The negligence and liability suit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court lists Raymond Clayborn, Ottis Anderson and Mark Duper as plaintiffs, among others. Most players listed their wives as co-plaintiffs.

Helmet maker Riddell also is a defendant.

The suit alleges the NFL knew as early as the 1920s of the harmful effects of concussions and claims that information was concealed from coaches, trainers, players and the public until June 2010.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello says the league hasn't seen the suit but would "vigorously" contest any claims of that kind.

Comments

[Rocktopus]

10:39 PM on 07/21/2011

More crying.

[MyResponsibility]

10:43 PM on 07/20/2011

Ridiculous lawsuit. DOCTORS are the source of what dangers of concussions are, not leagues or coaches. I suspect players chose a payday in lieu of physician advice to the contrary.

[Erasmus Funderburke]

01:43 PM on 07/21/2011

You might want to consider more realistic expectations of doctors. Most physicians simply would not have the data to be able to advise players on these issues.

The NFLPA and the League (along with their insurers) would be the appropriate folks to study the issue.

[MyResponsibility]

02:10 PM on 07/21/2011

I couldn't disagree with you more. Concussions sustained as a result of gridiron play are no different than a concussion received in a car accident, or boxing, or hitting ones head on the floor after a fall, or any other impact where the brain bounces within the cranium. Are you, like the football players, believing that the league/team physicians were in a better position to understand concussion injuries and their deliterious long-term affects than are neurosurgeon or any other specialty that specifically treats, as a matter of discipline, concussions/brain injuries? I think not.

[Bruce388]

03:34 PM on 07/20/2011

I'm not sure football is a sport. It's more of a meat grinder. The current news over brain injuries is recent, but destroyed knees, shoulders, arms, etc, have been part of the "sport" for decades.

[CANTHATBE]

02:22 PM on 07/20/2011

I don't need to hear any evidence. Of course the NFL knew and they said everything was ok in the 90's. The NFL pays a lot of the health claims so they knew exactly what was happening on a wide scale.

[GuiltyOne]

12:47 PM on 07/20/2011

Back to the days of no helmets ...how fun would that be ... you know there would be flying into a pile then ...

[pepper1311]

12:19 PM on 07/20/2011

No one knew football is violent heat on collisions.

[EStreetShuffler]

11:51 AM on 07/20/2011

I feel bad for anyone suffering from head injuries and all their accompanying side effects.

But this sounds a lot like the smokers who cough and cough while they stand in line to buy more cigarettes and then decide to sue the tobacco companies because they have cancer.

If the NFL deliberately withheld important medical information from players and the public, then they deserve to pay for that decision. But I don't see this suit doing much other than making a bunch of lawyers a lot of money.

[Spartan112]

12:51 PM on 07/20/2011

"If the NFL deliberate­ly withheld important medical informatio­n from players and the public, then they deserve to pay for that decision."

That's the crux of the suit and if it bears out it makes your first paragraph moot. The point is that while people could see the short term effects of head injuries the long term effects were largely unknown to the general public.

[EStreetShuffler]

02:57 PM on 07/21/2011

Agreed. My only other point was that if the evidence of any kind of cover-up is weak, then unfortunately we're left with guys who have been getting banged around in the head since high school or Pop Warner complaining about headaches. I'm afraid that's how these guys may be portrayed, which is too bad.

As a reporter I once covered a dispute between people who moved in to a neighborhood near an airport and then sued because air traffic got busier during the next few years after they moved in.

The residents complained the FAA and various other agencies deliberately withheld info about increasing air traffic. The suit went nowhere because there was no smoking gun. Airline traffic picked up because the area was growing.

The judge also let the residents have it for moving close to an airport and then complaining about the noise. I'll never forget his other comment: "If you life next to a farm, you're going to smell the cows sooner or later."

[brianmouland]

01:59 PM on 07/20/2011

These players should have known the risks before they embarked on their carreers. Most sports come with a high risk of injury, it was their choice now sadly they have to pay the price.

[Geelee]

10:34 AM on 07/20/2011

How many of them would not have accepted their contracts to play footbal had they known in advance of the future possibility of such injuries? I contend none of them would have walked away from the NFL contract. I am sorry they are now suffering, but the overwhelming majority not only chose that game over safer ones because their testerone got the best of them. They ENJOYED the rough and tumble and the high they got out of playing football, and thrilled at the good hits they made on others...as much as Ali enjoyed his equally assaultive pursuit. I feel a lot more, however, for people who sustain head injuries as a result of truly accidental causes that result in dementia. Perhaps this new knowledge will cause beginning players to put a lot more of their lucrative salaries into insurance for ling term care than into gold chains and exorbitantly priced cars and houses.

[pepper1311]

12:21 PM on 07/20/2011

WHAT!! take a menial job or a NFL contract. These guys are not ready to do surgery. One to two years of college credits at best.

[pepper1311]

12:22 PM on 07/20/2011

Respond to another's post, that they would not have played knowing the out come.

[Spartan112]

10:01 AM on 07/20/2011

Best of luck to them. They are probably right, but the NFL has deep pockets and good lawyers.