In April of this year, a seemingly historic settlement was reached between the National Football League and more than 5,000 retired players.
The subject: compensation for play-related head trauma that those players suffered during their NFL careers. The pact approved by a federal judge provides potentially for a $1 billion payout. As a Reuters-penned article on traumatic brain injury and the settlement states, as much as $5 million could be awarded in individual cases to players “who suffer from serious medical conditions associated with repeated head trauma.”
Those terms should virtually assure the unanimous approval of the players, right?
Not hardly.
In fact, some ex-players who consistently opposed the settlement’s terms took action last week by filing an appeal with a federal court, asking it to dismiss the pact.
As the above-cited article notes, the players’ central reservation regarding the settlement seems to be clearly focused on players who have been “merely exposed to head trauma” as opposed to those who have symptoms clearly showing current head-related injuries. The pact does not offer anything to ex-players who are diagnosed with traumatic brain injury in the future.
And that lack of inclusion in the pact “is the height of hypocrisy,” stated an attorney for the appealing players last week.
Reportedly, the settlement’s failure to provide for those players could affect as many as 19,000 former athletes.
A deadline of September 15 has been imposed on the league and settling players to formally respond to the request that the accord be thrown out.