On Monday, the concussion settlement took a giant leap toward becoming official. Regardless of the debate among former players as to whether the deal goes far enough, one prominent Hall of Famer believes that the process of cleaning up the mess won’t undo the damage.
“To still subject us to that situation, I just thought it was inhumane,” running back Tony Dorsett recently told the Dallas Morning News as to allegations that the league and the teams withheld information about the true risks of head injuries. “I just can’t believe one human being would treat another human like that. . . . I just find that really hard to swallow. I wouldn’t do my dog like that.”
Dorsett added that the settlement “doesn’t make up for anything,” and that it merely signifies “that we finally got the owners to do the right thing.”
His comments come at a time when his cognitive function, per the Morning News, seems to be slipping.
“My brain is priceless,” Dorsett said. “There isn’t enough money that they can give me to make me want to look the other way.”
If that’s the case, and if other players feel that way, they should perhaps opt out of the deal and proceed with the litigation. If they believe that the NFL deliberately hid information about the consequences of concussions, the best result won’t be to cash a check but to force the folks responsible for that behavior to answer for it in a court of law.