Another Lawsuit!

Now the NFL is being sued by former players claiming teams provided them with illegal drugs, including narcotics and painkillers, that caused medical complications down the road. In particular, players became addicted to painkillers. Riding on the attention of the earlier concussion lawsuits, some players are now looking to cash in on the frequent use of painkillers in football. The NFL would probably never have been the target of any of these lawsuits if they had done a better job of taking care of their former players. Too many players have had a tough go of things since their glory days in the NFL. Too many experienced those glory days when they weren't paid so gloriously. The huge contracts are still a fairly recent thing. Through the 1970s and even into the 1980s, most players had to find offseason jobs to provide for their families. Those are the players that are suffering the most. The NFL and the NFL Players Association have ignored them for too long. Now, it's come back to haunt the NFL in form of lawsuits. It amazes me that all of these lawsuits target the NFL and and never the NFLPA. The NFLPA is sitting on a pile of money too. It may not be as big as the NFL's pile but it's pretty big. The NFLPA is an organization that is supposed takes care of the players but never seemed too interested in the impact of painkillers and concussions on those players. It's also an organization that has routinely turned it's back on former players.

The thing that really bothers me about these lawsuits is that the players make themselves out to be innocents in all of it. Every person that has ever taken part in a football game knew that there was the possibility for injury. Every person knew that there was the possibility for head trauma. Even in the very early days of football when the game resembled a very violent mosh pit, players knew. That's why most of them took it upon themselves to protect their head in some manner. Some grew their hair long and thick. Others found a flimsy piece of leather. It wasn't long before those flimsy pieces of leather became mandatory. Eventually those flimsy pieces of leather became a hard helmet. If a player, at any time in the history of the game, didn't know that he risked injury in a football game, he was an idiot. Anyone that has played football as anything more than a passing fancy has probably played the game while injured. Football players do everything that they can to stay on the field. They play injured. If painkillers are available, players will run, or limp, to them. Players do not have to be forced to use painkillers. The NFL isn't even alone in making them available. College football. High School football. College football players will do whatever it takes to stay on the field. High school players too. At least in the NFL the players are paid to take those risks. If we could turn back the clock, I'll bet that nearly every single one of the players involved in any of these lawsuits would gladly take the field again. They'll reach for that flawed helmet. They'll reach for that needle if they could play the game again. For well over a century, football players have gladly accepted the risks to play this game. They should also accept much of the blame.