Comments on: OTL report overstates the relevance of NFL disability awards

By: fightnamish

fightnamish — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 14:17:48 +0000

anyone else think this will hurt espn during the next tv negotiation?

By: plt2006

plt2006 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 13:28:13 +0000

Truthfully, this will never make it to trial. Both sides are just jockeying for a better position for the inevitable settlement that is coming.

By: fuglyflorio

fuglyflorio — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:53:23 +0000

Some of the guys they mention … including Webster … we’re huge steroid abusers. Maybe that had an effect? Ya think?

By: joetoronto

joetoronto — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:38:21 +0000

Always consider the source first.

By: jacksprat57

jacksprat57 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 09:55:40 +0000

Nice to know that sensationalism and tendentiousness aren’t universally the order of the day in the modern media, Mike. Watching the OTL video, I half expected to see Al Gore’s name in the production credits.

By: philvil41

philvil41 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 09:27:57 +0000

The NFL will win this case if it ever gets to court.Oh, and ESPN really sucks.

By: chronholio

chronholio — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:54:35 +0000

I’ve never been a fan of OTL, it’s too stuffy. They try way too hard to be like Real Sports. I like my sports news delivered with a dose of Seinfeld throwbacks.

By: plt2006

plt2006 — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 05:35:50 +0000

There are bigger issues regarding the Concussion MDL.

Preemption Under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), as argued by the NFL would mean this all goes to arbitration.

Also, given that the NFL has the 88 Plan to provide benefits to injured players,there are a Rule 23 (b) (2) & (3) issues if you go class action.

If you treat this as a class action you’ve also got too much variance in injury claims (unless you get too specific), too long of period of time for a medical monitoring program if you’re going to include any current players or young NFL alumni, a lot of difficulty in dividing up the classes (rules eras? positions? years? CBAs?) and then proving causation of the harm given that almost all the players played HS and College ball and you’re not likely to find detailed medical records of head trauma in discovery.

There are a lot of issues with the case and it’ll be interesting to see what the plaintiffs response to the motion to dismiss is going to be.