View Full Facsimile of NFL Retired Players’ Concussion Cover-Up Lawsuit Complaint — Plus Muchnick Notes

The 86-page complaint by retired National Football League players, alleging an historical cover-up by the league of brain trauma dangers – filed July 19 in Los Angeles Superior Court – is viewable at this link:

http://muchnick.net/concussionsuit.pdf

Some notes:

• There are 75 named plaintiffs (not including, in most cases, spouses as well): Vernon Maxwell, Broderick Jones, Kendall Williams, Mike C. Richardson, Renard Young, LonZell Hill, George Visger, Terry Wright, Newton Williams, Duane Galloway, George Jamison, Brian Hooks, Fred McNeill, Reginald Rogers Sr., Melvin Jenkins, Antonio Gibson, Alvin Moore, Lyvonia A. Mitchell, Kirk Cameron Jones, James E. Robbins, Robert J. Frederickson, Charles E. Miller, Edward P. Lee, Patrick Heenan, Toby L. Wright, Kelly Kirchbaum, James Hood, Richard Mercier, Brett Romberg, Steve Korte, Joe Harris, Rodney Hampton, Lewis D. Tillman, Larry Kaminsky, David Kocourek, Robert Weathers, Wayne Hawkins, Anthony Hargain, Edward Payton, William H. Mandley, Shante Carver, George Goeddeke, James Michael Schnitker, Christopher Calloway, Thomas C. Randolph II, Gary Jones, Ottis Anderson, Leonard Russell, Rory Graves, David M. White, Philip Smith, W. Vernon Dean, Anthony Covington, Anthony Jones, Steve Reese, Donald Bessilleau, Harold L. Jackson, Todd Johnson, Chris Goode, Bruce Walker, Derrick S. Reynolds, David Lewis, Ronald Lippett, Roland James, Mark S. Duper, Brian Ingram, Anthony Collins, Steve Nelson, James E. Willis, Anthony Hancock, Jeff Burris, William C. Bradley, Kelly Goode, Raymond Clayborne, Steven Zabel.
• Defendants are the NFL, NFL Properties, and various entities with past or present ownership of the Riddell helmet manufacturer.
• Lead plaintiffs’ attorney Thomas V. Girardi is also in the news these days as the lawyer for Bryan Stow, the San Francisco Giants’ fan who was beaten near death this spring outside Dodger Stadium and now faces lifelong disability and care expenses.
• Counts 99 thru 103 record the work of Dr. Bennett Omalu, between 2002 and 2007, in finding chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the brains of Mike Webster and three other dead NFL players, and in associating CTE with the “punch-drunk syndrome” long ago identified in boxers; plus related topics
• Count 104 notes the establishment by the NFL in 1994 of its Committee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
• Count 105 notes publication in 2004 of the committee’s finding of “no evidence of worsening injury or chronic cumulative effects” from multiple concussions.
• Count 106: “… Commissioner Roger Goodell in June of 2007 admitted publicly that the NFL has been studying the effects of traumatic brain injury for ‘close to 14 years …’”
• Count 110: “NFL possesses monopoly power over American Football.”
• Other historical evidence and assertions are presented dating back as far as the 1890s.
• Count 120: Original NFL committee chaired by Dr. Elliot Pellman, “a rheumatologist who is not certified as to brain injuries and/or concussions.”
• Count 121: “After 14 years of purported studies,” committee concluded that “mild TBI’s in professional football are not serious injuries.”
• Counts 124 thru 129 allege a campaign by NFL committee doctors Pellman, Ira Casson, David Viano, and Mark Lovell to discredit the work between 2002 and 2007 of Omalu and others, including Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz.
• Count 130: “Because of Congressional scrutiny and media pressure, the NFL scheduled a league-wide Concussion Summit for June 2007. Unfortunately, the NFL in keeping with its scheme of fraud and deceit issued a pamphlet to players in August 2007, which stated: ‘there is no magic number for how many concussions is too many.’”
• Count 131: Dr. Casson publicly downplayed additional CTE findings on two other dead players by Dr. Ann McKee in 2008.
• Count 132: At 2009 hearings of the House Judiciary Committee, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez drew a parallel between the NFL and the tobacco industry’s past denials of the health hazards of smoking.
• Count 133: NFL has been “on direct notice” on this issue “since at least 2002.”
• Count 144: NFL acknowledged that 2007 concussion guidelines were inadequate, and enacted stricter regulations in 2009.
• Count 145: NFL and Riddell did not warn of long-term risks until 2010.

More later on individual plaintiffs’ stories.

Irv Muchnick