The issue, simply, is this: in the late 90′s, the NFL started getting NEW info about concussions. This new info had to do with the dangers that exist ONCE A BRAIN HAS ALREADY BEEN CONCUSSED. This new info was never disseminated to the players. The league sat on it.

I’ll draw a parallel to smoking:
Imagine that Phillip Morris found that a second cigarette, smoked RIGHT AFTER another poses a direct risk of . No one will, or should, sue for the damage the first cigarette did to them-cigs are bad, no sh!t. But keeping the info about the second cigarette’s danger is criminal.

Even armed with the new info, the players will continue to play concussed, most probably. It’s just the nature of the football culture. But at least players will be allowed to make an informed decision.

I do believe the NFL should take care of the older players health bills/insurance. Other than that. Reaching for the pot of Gold.

I don’t think so. The analogy doesn’t hold:

No one ever denied that bullets were lethal.
No one ever denied that fire burns you.

That’s the difference here, and why I think the “Goodbye, NFL, it was nice knowing you” crowd is a bit chicken-little on this story. At some point, the pool of affected players who could seek recompense for NFL misconduct will be capped… whether that is as of Merril Hoge speaking out about it, or Terry Bradshaw talking about it, or when concussions basically ended Aikman’s career, or any time in the past decade when a number of high-profile athletes had their careers cut short, or, at the outside, rookies entering the league this year after the suit was filed. At some point the NFL can demonstrate 1) they are addressing the issue as best they can, and 2) the knowledge has penetrated players entering the league that they are signing up for something that has the potential of affecting their later quality of life.

Which means that this is purely a dollars issue… possibly an on-going-dollars-issue (as some sort of trust for retired players), but still just a dollars issue.

Within your comparison, the best analog would be a case where some law enforcement agency was touting a particular bullet-proof vest as the best that money could by, when they knew that, really, it was substandard. Or a fire department who told their fighters that their masks were protection against X, Y, and Z sorts of chemical fires, all the while knowing that the masks were no such thing.

In other words, there would be no mass suit filed by cops, or by soldiers, or fire fighters, because there isn’t a wholesale lie told about the nature of their jobs. There would only arise a pool of plaintiffs in a situation where they’d been lied to (like what I just described).

Dont these guys realize that the only people that make any money in these types of lawuits are the lawyers???

And now they have their hands out?

This country was built on risk and rugged individualism, nobody forced these guys to do anything.

eh, sign o’ the times.

While I have sympathy for the former players post career health issues, I see this as an uphill battle for them. The NFL did not force them to play injured or before they were completely healed. It was entirely the player’s decision, not the coaches or the league to decide if they should continue to assume the added health risks of continuing to play such a violent game.

Um .Pretty sure the new rules nip any new future lawsuits in the butt.

Not sure about your flag football comment. Fans will be the ones that pay. In fact, the players and owners have profit sharing thats almost 50/50.

The players will be taking money from themselves,ticket prices will go up and in the end fans pay.

Players today hide injuries ,so they can keep on playing because of rules to protect them, what makes people think this is new?

Both players and the nfl knew they were getting beat up. Its like your bank robbery buddy suing you because he got shot because you didnt cover him good enough.

Both were doing something wrong at the time and had the same goals and same goals.

I think old skool players deserve to be taken care of.

New skool have had a chance to take care of things in the cba, but haven’t twice so far.
Now they are retired and care?

Go sue your High School and College as well. Sheesh!

Of course Dorsett is in there…

It might be prudent for the owners to go ahead and buy him his own island and stock it with plenty of rum and virgins.