More NFL Ex-Players’ Lawsuits ‘Head’ to Court

The crack staff of Concussion Inc. is crunching on the production of our forthcoming ebook, UPMC: Concussion Scandal Ground Zero. This has left me even more than ordinarily underresourced to cover the waterfront on new litigation by former National Football League players, which allege a longstanding league cover-up on the issue of traumatic brain injuries.

Two more lawsuits were filed this week — bringing the total, I believe, to seven. Readers should follow the announcements of them in mainstream news sources. I’ll try to pull together a scorecard next week.

What often happens when there are multiple similar or overlapping actions in many jurisdictions is that the court system finds a way to consolidate them into fewer cases, perhaps even a single case, so as to ease the strain on the judicial system. I don’t know that that will happen here, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

The process will take years to unfold. The legal handwriting, however, is on the wall. It would be a serious disservice to youth athletes simply to sit back and wait for the lawyers for damaged ex-pros to slug it out. There are urgent public policy reforms needed at the amateur levels of the unconscionably dangerous activity of tackle football.

Irv Muchnick