Sports

Mega-Lawsuit Filed Against NFL Claims League Glorifies Violence & Hid Brain Injury Dangers

Mega Lawsuit to Be Filed Against NFL Over Promotion of ViolencePHILADELPHIA (AP) — A concussion-related lawsuit bringing together scores of cases has been filed in federal court, accusing the NFL of hiding information that linked football-related head trauma to permanent brain injuries.

Lawyers for former players say more than 80 pending lawsuits are consolidated in the “master complaint” filed Thursday in Philadelphia.

Plaintiffs hope to hold the NFL responsible for the care of players suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions. Other former players remain asymptomatic, but worry about the future and want medical monitoring.

The league did not immediately respond to news that the single, mega-lawsuit would be filed but has denied similar accusations in the past.

The suit accuses the NFL of “mythologizing” and glorifying violence through the media, including its NFL Films division.

“The NFL, like the sport of boxing, was aware of the health risks associated with repetitive blows producing sub-concussive and concussive results and the fact that some members of the NFL player population were at significant risk of developing long-term brain damage and cognitive decline as a result,” the complaint charges.

“Despite its knowledge and controlling role in governing player conduct on and off the field, the NFL turned a blind eye to the risk and failed to warn and/or impose safety regulations governing this well-recognized health and safety problem.”

Mega Lawsuit to Be Filed Against NFL Over Promotion of Violence

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (AP)

Mary Ann Easterling will remain a plaintiff despite the April suicide of her husband, former Atlanta Falcons safety Roy Easterling, who had been a named plaintiff in a suit filed last year.

Easterling, 62, suffered from undiagnosed dementia for many years that left him angry and volatile, his widow said. He acted out of character, behaving oddly at family parties and making risky business decisions that eventually cost them their home. They were married 36 years and had one daughter. She believes the NFL has no idea what families go through.

“I wish I could sit down with (NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell) and share with him the pain. It’s not just the spouses, it’s the kids, too,” Easterling, 59, told The Associated Press from her home in Richmond, Va. “Kids don’t understand why Dad is angry all the time.”

Roy Easterling played for the Falcons from 1972 to 1979, helping to lead the team’s “Gritz Blitz” defense in 1977 that set the NFL record for fewest points allowed in a season. He never earned more than $75,000 from the sport, his widow said. After his football career, he started a financial services company, but had to abandon the career in about 1990, plagued by insomnia and depression, she said.

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“I think the thing that was so discouraging was just the denial by the NFL,” Mary Ann Easterling said. “His sentiment toward the end was that if he had a choice to do it all over again, he wouldn’t (play). … He was realizing how fast he was going downhill.”

The list of notable former players connected to concussion lawsuits is extensive and includes the family of Dave Duerson, who shot himself last year. Ex-quarterback Jim McMahon, Duerson’s teammate on Super Bowl-winning 1985 Chicago Bears, has been a plaintiff.

The cases are being consolidated for pretrial issues and discovery before Senior U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia.

The players accuse the NFL of negligence and intentional misconduct in its response to the headaches, dizziness and dementia that former players have reported, even after forming the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee to study the issue in 1994.

“After voluntarily assuming a duty to investigate, study, and truthfully report to the public and NFL players, including the Plaintiffs, the medical risks associated with MTBI in football, the NFL instead produced industry-funded, biased, and falsified research that falsely claimed that concussive and sub-concussive head impacts in football do not present serious, life-altering risks,” the complaint says.

The problem of concussions in the NFL has moved steadily into the litigation phase for about a year.

According to an AP review of 81 lawsuits filed through May 25, the plaintiffs include 2,138 players who say the NFL did not do enough to inform them about the dangers of head injuries. The total number of plaintiffs in those cases is 3,356, which includes players, spouses and other relatives or representatives.

Some of the plaintiffs are named in more than one complaint, but the AP count does not include duplicated names in the total.

“We want to see them take care of the players,” Mary Ann Easterling said.

Comments (64)

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  • smok3r
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 1:07pm

    Guess they gambled or made bad investments and need some cash. These former players can’t really be this stupid or maybe they are. Everyone knows football is a contact sport and these former players are full of it. Looking for a pay day. When the NFL becomes NFFL (National Flag Football League) I only want to pay $1.00 admission fee. So that means major pay cuts. $10 an hour sounds about right for player wages. Maybe these guys committed suicide cause their heyday was over and couldn’t do anything else. Whats next? not to keep score cause it might hurt someones feelings. Damn *******

    Report Post »  
    • edcoil
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 1:44pm

      According to the report last year, 80% of NFL football players, three years after leaving the NFL are unemployed, divorced and bankrupt.

      This is all about the money – I played in the 1970′s and everyone knew all the risks and decided it was worth playing back then.

      Report Post »  
    • lukerw
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 2:47pm

      Sports… are based upon Competition that demonstrate a Military-like Skill. To fix this… just GAY It Up!

      Report Post » lukerw  
    • black9897
      Posted on June 8, 2012 at 10:16am

      Give me a break. It’s voluntary. Think it’s bad, don’t play or watch.

      Report Post » black9897  
  • Bill Wallace
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 12:56pm

    Let me see…Roe v. Wade gave you the right to do with your body what you want, and I take that would include playing football.

    Football is a game that is entirely about tackling an opponent coming at you.

    And yet players now want to sue for willingly engaging in an activity that resulted in damage, that was known to be risky? How perfect. They get millions of dollars to play a “game” and now want to sue.

    Report Post »  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 12:47pm

    Why stop with the NFL? You all played college ball, sue the NCAA and the school you attended. What about the county school system where you played high school ball? Sue your mom and dad while your at it, they signed a permission slip for you to play peewee football. If you had not blown every cent you ever made on bling, you wouldn’t need to do this, now would you?

    Report Post » Gonzo  
    • football lady
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 7:54pm

      Oh, and sue your parents if you ever played football in the yard — no helmets of course.

      Report Post »  
  • G-WHIZ
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 12:16pm

    At first, football-players were just soccer with a better ball and (to me) a much less stuffy group of rules. Then, the PC’s said:”gee they are going to hoit their widdow-heads” and demanded heavey leather helmets and pads. The hevy-helmets’ weight caused many neck-disslocations and spreigns. Then the PC-croud forced evryone to wear special heavy plastic helmets, sholder and kneepads. The players found-out they could play much harder with all this “protection”. after many new “broken bones” and new-style spraigns, the PC-croud said:”Oh they’re playing too hard, the’re too many ingeries!!” So the PC‘s demand the elimination of football because it’s “too dangerous”, now.
    How ’bout eliminating all that crapp they wear, except for a skull-cap, t-shirt, geanz or shorts, and hard-toed gym-type shooes(for kikking-ball). Then you’all see them tone-down their game to using more stratagy instead of just muscle-only-rolling-over-everyone-game.

    Report Post »  
  • Thayes
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 12:04pm

    If i were lucky enought to own an NFL team I would dump it close up shop and head for islands out of US juristiction. No personal responsibility in the game these men love and play so hard at. but now we are hurting because we are getting older someone has to pay and there is money to be made. For me the NFL will now be a four month hiatus from sports. It is time for the players to take some responsibility and quit trying to determine how much an owner should profit from their investment. the players want all the glory, all the game time and all the Gold what they wont accept is any of the risk. Someone to pay me just cause I existed in the sport. WHo would have thought in a industry wher you have a generous pension and medical benefits you just dont have enough to live on after ten years in the NFL making hell even the league min of over 500k. Most families survive on a little over ten percent of that and do just fine. But I am in the NFL gotta have a twenty thousand sq ft house, seven cars, and wifes girlfriends, travel first class and eat at the best. They are acting like the elite in politics and I have no need for either. tune it out this season.

    Report Post » Thayes  
  • AlansTigg
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 12:02pm

    This seriously makes me sick, aside from the obvious lack of personal responsibility, brain injury is not an exact science. Alzheimer’s disease is barely understood let alone its causes being able to be pin pointed. We are turning into a nation of pansies and just begging someone stronger to come in and take over

    Report Post » AlansTigg  
  • auburntaylors96
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 11:48am

    say goodbye to the nfl. our litigous society ruins everything it touches. gee, i guess it never occured to the players that (2) 300 pound men, who can each run a 4 second 40 yard dash, running into each other might cause bodily damage. i feel for anyone with declining health but to assert the players didn’t understand the health risks of playing is absurd. these people and their slimy lawyers will be the end of professional football. maybe a professional chess league will take the place of football.

    Report Post »  
    • johnjamison
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 12:04pm

      Football is a violent sport. Anyone whose signs a contract for the NFL knows this already. Maybe it should banned along with every other sport as all of them can cause damages to the body from Tennis elbow,to golfer rotocups,to Nascar fatalities.

      Report Post »  
  • RodT82721
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 11:44am

    Another Gold mine for lawyers!

    I wonder how many that signed onto this lawsuit had to kidnaped and held against their will and made to go out there, under the lights, as tens of millions watched them get hit in their head?
    Or did everyone of them work really hard to get shape to be allowed to try out, then when they were actually selected to make a team, jumped with joy. Big bucks now!

    Now they want to sue their league, because they didn’t protect them from an unknown. Of course these players, didn’t know either, or if they did, they put the big bucks above their own futures.

    Isn’t this a lot like the cigarette law suits? A big pot of money, just sitting there for the lawyers to get. While all those smokers that sucked down a couple packs a day, told the world they had no idea it could harm them – wasn’t their fault! Pay me for being stupid!

    At least the lawyers will make out really well with this one. Really big bucks just waiting for one of them to come up with a scam to clean up.

    Report Post »  
  • LukeAppling
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 11:38am

    When you play fotball you are taking a risk of injury all children know that. When you play professional football that risk is magnified everyone knows this as well. Everyone who has played football knows this and accepts the risk. Combine that risk with the huge dollars now abvailable with lawyers and we have as jesse jackson said “a tsunami” of opportunity to enrich lawyers and a few football players but mostly lawyers.
    An example of this is the “mesothesioma” and asbestos enrichment of lawyers but not the victims who accepted the risks when they were hired. Shame on all parties.

    Report Post »  
  • lvjohn
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 11:07am

    I am all for the lawsuit except for one thing, if they sue they should have to give back all the money they earned from the NFL. These people are lucky they were in the NFL if they were not they would have been in prison or worse. Most of these idiots and thugs would have never had the lifestyle the NFL afforded them.

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  • Jenny Lind
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:51am

    I think we will have to wait and see stats that come out in the trial, and if possible when the leagues knew. If they did at some point, they had a responsibility to sit down with all the players, tell them what they had learned from over the years, and MAKE them choose to go on or get out. That would be the right thing to do. Everyone knows it is a dangerous game, but if odds go up atronomicaly the players had the right to know the percentages so they could make the choice.

    Report Post »  
  • Popp40
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:36am

    Before I start I want to say that I feel bad for these guys and wish them the best, however, where is personal responsibility in this? They are blaming the NFL for this, yet they did not realize that in a sport where one of the main objectives is to physcially hit someone. Look, I played football all the way through college and I knew the risks, but I took it anyways because I enjoyed the game. These guys knew the risks and still played the game, but now they are trying to turn around and say “they didn’t know”. Sorry but they need to take some of the responsibility.

    Plus, looking at this scientifically, how many of these individuals may have had dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions in their families to begin with. Now I‘m not saying that football didn’t cause these in some of the players, but did this study look at EVERYTHING, did they look at ALL VARIABLES and how the numbers corresponds with the gerenal public. It has become common practice for research to only concentrate on what fits an agenda and not look at everything.

    As I said I feel bad for these guys and I wish them well, but they need to stand up and take some responsibility for their own actions. They knew the dangers and what could happen, they had access to doctors other than the “Team” doctor.

    As it is going now football will be outlawed as “too dangerous” or it will be severly changed and will look totally different then what is now and how I played it.

    Report Post »  
    • marhee9
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:55am

      I couldn’t agree more, personal responsibilty no longer has a place in our society. EVERYTHING is SOMEBODY else’s fault now. So how could any parent teach their children personal responsibility today? I also feel bad for anyone who has long term illness, but what did these guys think they were getting into? They didn’t know the NFL included violence. We never heard the old timers who wore leather helmets complain. Why do you think that was? Because society took personal responsibility for their own actions. This is pathetic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ovzRxR4PI0

      Report Post »  
    • HorseCrazy
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 11:35am

      completely agree. I am a HUGE seahawks fan I never miss a game but these guys need to take some responsibility. seriously if they cannot figure out that this sport and the money come with some damage to the body then they shouldn’t be playing at all. What part of getting hit and tackled over and over again sounds good for the brain and joints. I thought the dr’s on the sidelines were just there for fun?! come on, this is garbage, lets see the courts ruin the NFL I see it coming. I hope none of these idiots gets a penny. Seriously I am sick of the whiners. Maybe I should sue my horse for my slipped disc after all my horse should have alerted me to the dangers of riding a wild animal that weighs 1275lbs right?

      Report Post »  
  • oyster0302
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:34am

    This is the reason the NFL jumped on the Saints. CYA

    Report Post »  
  • deerfawn
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:32am

    personally I’m a hockey fan, but this is utterly stupid. We have turned into a sue happy society. Have an accident oops sue somebody for your screwup don’t take personal responsibility. Don‘t tell me they didn’t know smacking heads over and over was safe. I mean that really plays into the whole jocks are morons stereotype.

    Report Post »  
  • JeanetteVictoria
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:21am

    Boy did Rush ever predict this.

    Report Post »  
  • DiamondDog
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:18am

    Maybe the NFL will be sued out of existence and we can have more of Dancing with the Stars.

    Report Post »  
    • copatriots
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:37am

      That will only last until the lawsuits for knee and leg injuries from having to dance in high heels. And surely dancing can’t be good for your back. And the trips and falls! Danger, Will Robinson!

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REvmhBO99I4

      Report Post »  
    • Popp40
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:37am

      Or we all can start watching soccer….but wait….soccer has just as many head injuries as football….yet you don’t hear about them….why?

      Report Post »  
  • ZAP
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:17am

    Good idea IYAM .Bubble Wrap Uniforms.I would go to the games just to hear it POP

    Report Post » ZAP  
  • GERATMO
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:17am

    I smell liberalism. So why dont we just change the rules to two hand touch so nobody gets hurt? This is a physical game that requires that you hit your opponenet as hard as you can. You cant say rip that guys head off but dont hurt him.

    Report Post » GERATMO  
  • mountainmover101
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:15am

    I really wouldn’t mind if this sinks the NFL and professional sports altogether. Sports used to unite people and give fans a sense of pride and camaraderie. It used to teach the players sportsmanship , cooperation and dependence of teamwork. Those days are gone. The only thing that professional sports has done these days is instill division, hatred and a retaliatory attitude in the fanbase. The players are, for the most part, millionaire idiots, thugs or criminals.

    I know that this will probably go nowhere but one can always hope for a world free of such nonsense.

    Report Post »  
    • drbage
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:36am

      What I would love one of the players in the NFL or co-litigants in the lawsuit to do is answer this question: who held the gun to your head to make you play football? It never ceases to amaze me that these overly pampered, well padded and greatly remunerated players never are satisfied and now blame everything that happens to them on the NFL management. Guess they could never play rugby which can be just as violent, yet the players have little protection from all these “life threatening injuries.” Perhaps they should have stayed in college and got an education.

      Report Post »  
  • Detroit paperboy
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:14am

    Might as well throw in knees and ankles while your at it……….sheeese .

    Report Post »  
  • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:11am

    Just like working in heavy construction, they knew the risks and I am sure they signed waivers, had the appropriate insurance. Glorifying violence? Why don’t the also sue Hollywood for their involvement for making sports movies and glorifying the violence there? I‘m sorry for these people’s losses, but they knew the risks of what they were getting into. How many boxing retirees do you see suing the boxing industry?

    Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • TRILO
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:10am

    They did not know that getting hit in the head over years was not going to create any damage to their bodies later in life? Really? They may have been good players in their day. Now they are just a group of losers in a sue happy society, who lived high on the hog when the cash was good, trying to cash in.

    Sports is no longer for the love of the game, it is for the love of the money. Sad.

    Report Post » TRILO  
  • RightUnite
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:08am

    The only ones who will make out like bandits will be the Lawyers of course…..

    Report Post »  
  • thekuligs
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:03am

    Wow, this is stupid. They had their day as a pro-athelete and now they need to do something because they gravy train has stopped. Every sport is dangerous, especially one where you plow into eachother, but I suppose these were never the brightest lightbulbs. They had ZERO complaints when they were being drafted and they had to have played ball before then. Highschool? College? I suppose they will be filing a lawsuit against them next.

    Report Post » thekuligs  
  • iyam
    Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:00am

    can we just go ahead and bubble wrap society and get it over with?

    Report Post » iyam  
    • copatriots
      Posted on June 7, 2012 at 10:08am

      Exactly. I sure am glad I grew up in this country when we still had some semblance of freedom left. Although, I’m not sure how I survived childhood without all the regulations and Big Brother protection. One by one, individual freedom is being litigated and/or willingly voted away by the “bubble wrap” crowd.

      Report Post »  
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