It was great news for retired NFL players who are still suffering from conditions caused by blows to the head while they were playing professional football. The NFL’s cap on concussion settlement cases has been lifted.
Unfortunately there are many former NFL players who are still experiencing ill effects from their days in the league. Finally they will be getting some help from their former employers.
The NFL Commissioner’s office, both past and present, has come under serious criticism because league had knowledge of the harmful effects of concussions on their players for years, but chose to ignore the data.
The mindset that concussions are ‘just part of the game of football’ is no longer acceptable and the knowledge that NFL officials had definitive information as to the long term effects of repeated blows to the head, but chose not to make the facts public, is downright despicable.
The NFL, led by Commissioner Roger Goodell, had previously tried to put a ceiling on the amount that the league would be responsible for. However, Judge Anita
Brody rejected their figure of $765 million back in January as insufficient to meet current and future needs. This was a logical move considering the very limited knowledge we have about how playing football effects severe neurological diseases.
Considering that the NFL takes in almost $10 Billion each year, the previously proposed figure does seem paltry. They should want to take better care of the dedicated players who made them what they are today, which is the richest and most successful sports league in the world.
So now it looks like all of the retired players, or their surviving family members, who were diagnosed as qualifying for the concussion settlement will be getting the funds they need and deserve, from the NFL. Great news for some long suffering retired NFL players we all enjoyed on the field.
Many of the recipients have been in desperate need of help with overwhelming medical bills and the costs of health care facilities they have been left with after retiring from professional football, although the causes of the problems occurred during their tenure with the NFL. It’s been a long standing problem whose solution is long overdue.
However, it must be noted that this apparently generous move by the NFL only covers former NFL players and their families. For the guys still out there playing and those still coming up, nothing at all has changed for the time being.
