Lawsuit on the NFL?

In an article found on CNN, former NFL players are suing the National Football League (NFL). Why would players sue the organization that they prided in? Because of their brains.

These NFL players are claiming that the NFL “knew as early as the 1920s of the harmful effects of concussions on players’ brains but concealed the information form players, coaches, trainers, and others until June 2010.” They expected the NFL to be up to date with this information and protect them from injury as much as possible. Blame on the NFL goes for failing to regulate guidelines for the league on this subject or have return-to-play standards for players with concussion. The NFL’s Brain Injury Committee claimed they had no knowledge “of a link between concussion and cognitive decline.” This statement is unlikely, some sources calling the situation “fraud”.

Studies from the NFL Committee on mild traumatic brain injury published findings that found “no evidence of worsening injury or chronic cumulative effects”. They also state that NFL players can return to play safely on the day of a concussion. This is reckless behavior (and asking for a lawsuit if you ask me). In high-school and youth leagues (and general well practice), Athletic Trainers are not permitted to clear a player to participate after a suspected concussion that same day. The player must wait until the next day to be cleared to participate. “It was not until June 2010 that the NFL acknowledged that concussions can lead to dementia, memory loss, CTE and related symptoms by publishing (a) warning to every player and team”.

Even when the NFL had this information, “the NFL did not warn any past players, including the plaintiff, or the public of the ‘long-term brain injury caused by concussions’”. The article also states that “Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a degenerative, dementia-like brain disease linked to repeated brain trauma. The disease has been found in the brains of 14 of 15 former NFL players studied at the Boston University School of Medicine Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy as of May (2011).”

The article provided above shares stories of former NFL players who committed suicide at ages 38-50. This complication with continuous impacts, called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), is a progressive degenerative disease which presently, can only be definitively diagnosed postmortem in individuals with a history of concussion and sub-concussive impacts. The signs and symptoms of CTE include gait disorders, speech slowing, extrapyramidal signs, mood disorders, paranoia, agitation, social withdrawal, poor judgment, and aggression. This disease is greatly found in individuals involved in boxing and is often called “punch drunk syndrome”. Since this condition is predominantly found in boxing, a sport that clearly involves repeated impacts, doesn’t that alarm the NFL that the hits in football can produce the same dangerous and deadly results that boxers have?

A documentary film called "Head Games" was even made in order to explain the dangers of this condition.

What are your thoughts on the situation with the NFL and what do you think the result will be in regards to the lawsuit?