mgteich

So, the nfl owners should set up a fund for veterans? It is unreasonable to suggest that no one in society should receive any redress for grievances because veterans are treated worse.

The nfl has made billions. Arguably, the nfl has mistreated its employees. A court (or settlement) can provide for some fairness between the parties of the conflict: nfl players and nfl employers. Or the court can decide that no such compensation is appropriate.

Potstickas

I don't see flag football coming.

The NFL will work on tweaking the on field play, equipment, and provide good to great medical coverage post retirement.

However, at a certain point, it will probably come down to legal CYA. Make incoming NFL players sign a waiver that they understand the possible injuries that they may incur playing in the NFL and that they will not sue the NFL for certain types of injuries that happen playing the game.

In return the players get to earn millions of dollars.

Gumby

Agreed; it should never come to dramatically affecting the rules of the game.

If there is someone with any kind of injury - hereditary or sustained - there is always a lawyer looking to find someone with deep pockets to pay. that will never go away.

I feel bad for any of the guys who have injuries THAT THEY CAN DIRECTLY ATTRIBUTE to the violence of the game.

But the NFL has already implemented items, like taxing current revenues and salaries for the veteran player medical & retirement funds, that should help cover them. Maybe it needs to be a bigger pot - but GOVT does not need to do this (vet union reps and active union w/ NFL should suffice).

If the NFL was slow to implement some safety rules (mandating new helmets or outlawing the cement slab-astroturf field surfaces) then they could rightly face some minor penalties (that will probably be blown up by our court system into multi-millions).

But these guys shouldn't get an individual huge paydays based on knowledge about injuries /safety equipment discovered/devised in the 2000s when they played in the 1980s. That isnt fair either.

Wolfpack

All the waivers in the world get thrown out the window if it can be demonstrated that a party was negligent (or worse, acted with malice) and that's essentially what these lawsuits are saying about the league.

BradyFTW!

Exactly. I'm sure that the league already covers itself to the maximum extent possible in player contracts, but if it can be shown that the link between normal head trauma sustained while playing football and long-term brain damage was known and actively withheld from the players, then it just doesn't matter. There are some rights that you can't sign away, even if you're willing to. If you could, then every employer everywhere would force you to, and they wouldn't be rights at all.

ivanvamp

Everybody is a victim.

BradyFTW!

Do you know the specifics of the cases? Awful lot of judgment being thrown around on this thread, considering how little we actually know. It's entirely possible that all 126 players have a pretty compelling case, we just don't know yet.

Out of curiosity, if it becomes evident that a lot of these players suffered debilitating injuries under clear negligence from the league, and were bankrupted as a result, will you feel that they deserve the money that they get? Or have you already arrived at the "everybody's a victim" conclusion, and that's that?

Frezo

Furthermore, no employment contract can supersede federal or state safety regulations.

patfanken

I apologize for not reading the entire thread, but I don't have a lot of time and I want to get this off my chest because its bothering me. I HATE this lawsuit. I'm a old guy who has played the game on a lot of levels and coached the game at the HS level. I am VERY well aware of the dangers of concussions and why they occur. I repeat, I HATE this lawsuit.

I think its BS that after all this time players can go back and try and get a crack at the money tree because they are "shocked" to find out that in a collision sport its possible to get a concussion. I can only relate this to when, in Cassablanca, Louie turns to Rick and say's, "I'm shocked to find out there is Gambling going on in this establishment", and then takes his winnings.

No one got to the NFL without some level of college education. Most get their degrees. No one forced any player to take the huge amount of money they got (relative to the times) to play the game. It's a HAZARDOUS job, folks.... Not everyone can do it......and they get paid accordingly. I doubt that any miner, including those who don't even have a HS diplomas knows that their job is hazardous to their long term health. Its not safe to be a cop, fireman, ironworker, or work on an oil rig.

Its no secret. And neither is the likelihood that if you play a game professionally where you run into one another at high rates of speed, it just might not be good for your health. But you do it anyway because the relative pay makes it worth the risk. And its not like every football player is going to have debilitating long term health problems, the vast majority never do.

Have we gotten so far away from the concept of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY that ANY problems we have. MUST be the blame of someone else. Has "its not my fault" replaced "Land of the Free" as the national motto.

I'm fine with doing everything possible to protect players. But nothing can change the laws of physics and having 320lb men who can run sub 5 second 40s, simply means greater collisions. I'd be all for having weight limitations for the game. I'd be all for having equipment changes. I'd be all for having the damned game coached better, because of a lot of injuries occur because of poor techniques, especially in the NFL.

I know I'm rambling now, but it pisses me off that players get hurt every year because their technique in tackling is so poor, Yet at the same time they now limit coaches ability to teach it correctly by limiting contact in practices. That's the players, btw, who lobbied for more limited practices. Instead of fining someone who hits another player with a perfect form tackle with his face in his chest, they should fine the idiot to blindly throws his body at a player with his head down. That would improve technique damned fast I bet.

OK, OK, I know, enough already. I'll stop now, but I worry about how all this will effect the game and I don't like where its headed

BradyFTW!

These lawsuits won't have much of anything to do with being shocked that you can get concussions from head trauma. That won't be in dispute, and never was. What will be in dispute is whether a) it was known that repetitive, non-concussive trauma that occurs in every player leads to severe brain damage, b) whether this knowledge was kept from the players, and as a result c) whether the league was negligent in creating a reasonably safe workplace in light of this information, if it was known.

Any if a cop, firefighter, miner, iron worker, or oil rig worker can show that their employer knowingly endangered them in negligent fashion, then they too can and should sue.

And that's why guys who suffered from torn ligaments, broken bones, etc., are not joining in on this lawsuit. Those were known risks that the league addressed to the best of its ability by instituting necessary rules, providing access to treatment and medical care, etc. The question is going to be whether they did the same for head trauma, or whether they knowingly swept it under the rug and misled the players and the public. We don't know the answer to that yet, and most likely won't for some time.

That's an enormous straw man. I'd suggest that you go and look up the legal definition of negligence with regards to the employer's duty to its employees. It's fairly specific, and it by no means absolves individuals of personal responsibility.