Read the Retired Tampa Bay Bucs’ Lawsuit Against the NFL – Plus More on the Late Lee Roy Selmon

Those of you who want to read the complaint in the latest concussion lawsuit against the National Football League – but don’t want to spend $9-plus downloading the 35-page document from the website of Los Angeles Superior Court – can go to http://muchnick.net/retiredbucslawsuit.pdf.

This filing, on August 29, is on behalf of a group of retired players, most of whom were Tampa Bay Bucs. It amends the original August 26 complaint to remove the names of Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon and his brother Dewey, and replace them with another plaintiff, Scot Brantley.

Days before Lee Roy Selmon’s fatal stroke last week, media reports alerted plaintiffs’ attorney David A. Rosen that the original complaint mistakenly included the Selmon brothers. Rosen immediately amended the papers. In a phone conversation with me today, Rosen described Selmon as upset about the error but also entirely (and characteristically) gentlemanly about it and the correction.

Rosen reemphasized that this was simply a clerical error caused by the fact that his law firm was simultaneously working with Lee Roy and Dewey Selmon on other matters. One of those matters is a contemplated action over non-brain-injury-related disability claims on behalf of retired players.

I consider Rosen’s explanation credible. I am not alleging that Lee Roy Selmon, like the late Dave Duerson, was in denial about concussion syndrome, or that Selmon had ever evidenced neurological issues – whether or not related to his football career – prior to last Friday’s tragic stroke. Moreover, unlike Duerson, Selmon never served on an NFL disability review board that rejected claims of other ex-players. Finally, unlike Duerson, Selmon did not endure business reverses or bankruptcy, an episode of domestic violence on a police blotter, or any other indication that he might have suffered from the mental and emotional breakdowns associated with chronic traumatic encephelopathy.

Nonetheless, as a reporter on the concussion story I also believe this gruesome twist of Selmon’s final days – a mistaken link to a traumatic brain injury suit just prior to sustaining what is sometimes also called a “cerebrovascular accident” – calls for a close look at his medical history. People do have strokes, and people do die at age 56 (or younger). It’s just that far too many of them are football players. When they’re not Hall of Famers, we often don’t find out about it, even when they were professionals. And if they were amateurs, our ability to gather good information and draw the right lessons from it is downright negligible.

Irv Muchnick

SEE ALSO:

Lee Roy Selmon’s Death, From a Stroke, Is Latest Cruel Irony of Football Brain Injury Saga

‘You Have a Point’ About Lee Roy Selmon Coverage – Tampa Tribune’s Joey Johnston