Settled

The NFL has settled lawsuits brought by 4,500 former players over brain injuries suffered on the field. Former U.S. District Judge Layn Phillips, the court-appointed mediator, announced that the NFL and NFL Properties will contribute $765 million to provide medical benefits and injury compensation for retired NFL players, fund medical and safety research, and cover litigation expenses. The settlement still must be approved by U.S. District Judge Anita Brody.

$765 million! Sounds like a ton but this is an amount that the NFL can handle. That's a total payment of $23.9 million per team over twenty years. For the first three years, each team will pay just under $4 million each year. After that, the cost will drop to about $700,000 per year for the remaining 17 years. Some thought that this lawsuit could bankrupt the league. That would never happen. Like nature, the NFL will always find a way. The league certainly would have preferred to have paid nothing but if this had gotten to a jury the amount would have been so much larger. A jury would have seen the hobbled former players on one side and "fat cat" owners on the other and torn the league apart. The way that I look at this settlement is that this is the money that the league should have been paying into some kind of disability fund for decades. The care for former players has been pathetic. Owners and recent players are rich because of  mostly crippled former players. Much of the disrespect for the medical concerns of former players came from a former player, Gene Upshaw. It was sad to see Upshaw turn his back on his peers as the Executive Director of NFL Players Association. These were his teammates and peers that he ignored. He saw himself working solely for the current players. The NFL owners weren't going to help the players that got them all that cash if they didn't have to. Upshaw certainly didn't care if they did.

The problem that I've had with this lawsuit is that every player that has ever played football has known about the dangers of the game. It's never been a secret that head trauma is a possibility when large men collide. That's why football helmets have been available for over 100 years. That's why the helmets have gotten more sturdy over the years. That's why mothers dread the day that their son might want to play football. Only a bit of common sense is necessary to understand the possibility that head trauma could have a lasting impact. People accept that injuries to joints, bones, and muscles can build up over years. It's no great leap to accept that the same could happen with the brain. Did the NFL know more about head trauma than they let on? Who knows? Medical researchers are just now discovering the effects of repeated head trauma. I doubt that the league was ahead of the curve. Some of the owners are geniuses in business but I question whether they know their way around a CAT scan or even the difference between a CAT and a CTE. I just don't think that it matters what the league may or may not have known. The players knew that they were playing a violent, dangerous game. They knew, or should have known, that they'd be paying for it when they were done. That's not to say that the owners shouldn't help those players that literally gave their body and mind when they need it most. For many of those players, it all works out in the end. The NFL should have been taking better care of these players all along. They have to now. The sad part of it all is that maybe former players like Junior Seau, Andre Waters, Dave Duerson, and Ray Easterling might have gotten the help that they desperately needed.