Don King, on Mike Tyson


"Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter?
He went to prison, not to Princeton."



"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music
and the dancers hit each other."

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

NFL Concussion Litigation

 This site is the cat's meow when it comes to Football related concussions and the legal fall-out when players try to be compensated for pain and suffering and long-term disability, etc.

Link: http://nflconcussionlitigation.com/

 

About

Providing up-to-date coverage and legal analysis of the lawsuits filed by former NFL players against the NFL regarding its alleged concealment of the risks associated with concussions.


Paul D. Anderson is a third-year law student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is focusing on Sports Law, Class Actions, Labor & Employment Law, and Business Litigation. 

He will spend his final semester of law school interning at the Department of Labor, and devote the remainder of his time covering the NFL concussion litigation. Paul will be studying for the Bar this summer and (tentatively) plans to work at a firm in Kansas City and develop a niche Complex Sports Litigation Practice.

Paul shares a passion for sports and the law. Primarily baseball, but since Major League Baseball is on the path of enjoying more than twenty years of labor peace and has fortunately, for the most part, remained out of the courtroom, Paul turned his attention to the current litigation battle heating up in football regarding concussions.
 

Follow him on Twitter @PaulD_Anderson and feel free to email him with any questions at PaulD_Anderson@me.com. Of course, a blog is not successful unless the visitors and publisher enjoy dialogue, so all comments are encouraged.

Legal Disclaimer
This blog is published by Paul D. Anderson, a law student at UMKC. He is not a lawyer, and the content on here does not constitute legal advice.

The purpose of this site is to disseminate information of interest to persons with an interest in the topics covered here.

The information provided on this site is provided only as general information for education purposes, and topics may or may not be updated subsequent to their initial posting. Information on this site may change from time to time, including individual posts. 

NFL Concussion Litigation

Curtis Whitley, Latest Wrongful Death Suit Filed Against the NFL

2012 March 26
by Paul
 
It was a late Sunday night in 2008 when friends found Curtis Whitley lying face down in a trailer, dead at the age of 39. Whitley lived a well-depicted life of a bad boy: snorting crystal meth, driving erratically high on drugs and alcohol, and breaking NFL’s policies like a bat out of hell.

He played six years in the NFL and was suspended twice due to violations of the NFL’s drug and alcohol policies.

Was it the drugs and alcohol or something else that led to Whitley’s premature death?

According to the most recent wrongful death lawsuit filed by Whitley’s family, the NFL was responsible for Whitley’s demise by “conceal[ing] important medical information….” According to the lawsuit, Whitley suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).


Whitley’s brain was one of the several brains of former NFL players examined by Drs. Bennett Omalu and Julian Bailes that was found to show signs of CTE.


 Although an autopsy report determined that Whitley’s cause of death was due to a drug overdose, during the latter part of his life he did suffer from symptoms directly related to severe cognitive decline, including paranoia, suicidal thoughts and extreme depression, according to the complaint.
 


This is the fifth wrongful death lawsuit filed against the NFL and the 51st concussion-related lawsuit.
The complaint alleges similar facts as the other lawsuits, and asserts six counts: negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, actual fraud, wrongful death, and survival and pain and suffering.

The family is represented by Stuart Fraenkel and Nicole Andersen of Kreindler & Kriendler LLP. Andersen stated that the law firm plans on filing additional lawsuits in the coming weeks.

 Case Caption: Alfred Camarena on behalf of the Estate of Curtis Whitley v. NFL – filed in California Superior Court, Alameda County on March 21, 2012.




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Naveen Jain: Keeping Football Exciting While Reducing the Threat of Traumatic Head Injuries

 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).


Naveen Jain: Keeping Football Exciting While Reducing the Threat of Traumatic Head Injuries

 

Founder: Moon Express, Intelius, InfoSpace; Board: X Prize, Singularity U 

Keeping Football Exciting While Reducing the Threat of Traumatic Head Injuries 

Posted: 03/27/2012   

I am concerned about the level of violence in football today, and its long-term effects on the physical and mental health of its players.  Athletes at all ages are bigger and stronger than ever before. And they are being encouraged -- sometimes even incentivized to play to injure. 


More athletes and former athletes than ever, at every age, are being diagnosed with brain injuries and the number of concussions and trauma-inducing incidents appear to be on the rise because of the physicality of our players. 

The truth is, what Americans enjoy about football is much of what makes the sport dangerous. However, I believe there must be a way to find the art of success and vitality in football, without the driving the level of impact that causes serious risk of head trauma, paralysis and other life-changing injuries. 

We must spotlight the serious threat that head injuries and brain trauma can have on the lives of our young athletes. With a better understanding of the early warning signs and symptoms of brain trauma, and by following proper steps to identify and clear athletes to resume participation after an injury, we can ensure they live longer, more fulfilled and healthier lives. 




 Read More:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naveen-jain/sports-injuries_b_1380791.html
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Mark Rypien sues NFL, says he sustained repeated head injuries during career - The Washington Post

Mark Rypien sues NFL, says he sustained repeated head injuries during career - The Washington Post

 

Mark Rypien sues NFL, says he sustained repeated head injuries during career

Mike Powell/GETTY IMAGES - Mark Rypien is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that seeks compensation and medical care from the NFL for “repeated traumatic injuries to his head” that he incurred during his playing career.

By ,

Former Washington Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that seeks compensation and medical care from the NFL for “repeated traumatic injuries to his head” that he incurred during his playing career.

In the suit, which was filed March 23 in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Rypien — along with 126 other former professional football players — allege that the NFL was aware of the dangers and risks of “repetitive traumatic brain injuries and concussions for decades, but deliberately ignored and actively concealed” the information, court documents say.
Personal Post
Theirs is the latest in a rising number of concussion- and head trauma-related class action suits leveled against the NFL by former players. The league is facing about a half-dozen class-action suits and “many more” multi-action suits from an estimated 1,000 former players, according to Gene Locks of the Locks Law Firm in Philadelphia.
Locks’s firm is representing more than 600 former players, including Rypien, in class-action suits.

NFLConcussion Litigation.com, a site that tracks such cases, lists 51 suits against the NFL.
“We think the league delayed, didn’t do a competent job of monitoring, and in many cases disregarded what it knew about concussions,” Locks said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “It’s a sad commentary.”

According to the suit, Rypien, 49, suffered multiple concussions and head injuries during his playing days. He says he suffers from “various neurological conditions and symptoms related to multiple head traumas.”


The lawsuit involving Rypien was first reported by the Washington Times on its Web site.

Rypien spent six of his 11 NFL seasons with the Redskins, and in 1991 had his finest season, leading Washington to victory in Super Bowl XXVI and winning the Super Bowl MVP award. He also played for the Cleveland Browns, St. Louis Rams, Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles.

The former quarterback, who lives in Spokane, Wash., is joined by 13 other former Redskins players — Michael Batiste, Keith Biggers, Jason Doering, Brad Fichtel, Terrell Hoage, Ethan Horton, Ernie Hanet, Bruce Kimball, Ronald Middleton, Ed Simmons, Walter Stanley and James Steffen — in his suit.

They, along with the other plaintiffs, seek “medical monitoring, as well as compensation and financial recovery” for what the lawsuit describes as long-term and chronic “injuries, financial losses, expenses and intangible losses.”

“Our class-action wants the league to check all of these players out, and if they’re okay, give them a clean bill of health,” Locks said. “And if not, we want them to pay for medical care so these players’ conditions, hopefully, don’t get worse. And if the players’ conditions are serious enough, we hope the league will give them compensation.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said repeatedly that his goal is to lower the risk of head injuries in the league. He has handed out hefty fines and suspended players for helmet-to-helmet hits over the last several seasons.

In addition to changing rules to further protect quarterbacks and wide receivers, the NFL last season moved kickoffs up to the 35-yard line, which led to more touchbacks, and decreased the number of concussions by 40 percent, the league reported this week.

The new attention to preventing head injuries coincides with the timing of class-action suits from former players who have suffered concussions. 

Last fall, a group of former players — including wide receiver Mike Furrey, who suffered a concussion in 2009 while in training camp with the Redskins and never played again — sued the league. Since then, the number has steadily risen.




Staff writer Mike Wise and researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

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Pacquiao paid less than P7M in taxes for 2010: BIR | ABS-CBN News

Pacquiao paid less than P7M in taxes for 2010: BIR | ABS-CBN News


 Pacquiao paid less than P7 million (approximately US$162,999) in income taxes for year 2010, the chief of the Bureau of Internal Revenue said Wednesday. 


 Pacquiao earlier declared assets at the end of 2010 at P1.13 billion ($26.3 million) and no liabilities, making him the wealthiest member of the House of Representatives. 

Forbes.com magazine estimated he spent $7 million in his election campaign in 2010 while also earning $35 million for his two fights against Joshua Clottey and Miguel Cotto.


His lawyer, Abraham Espejo, claimed the boxing champ lost several endorsement deals in the United States because of the tax case.
 

“[Pacquiao] has a book of accounts so he has to present that. He also has endorsements so he has to submit his contracts. He has a TV show. He has to submit his contract for that. He said he paid the [Internal Revenue Service]. Then show us the receipts,” Henares told radio .
 
Pacquiao also reportedly owns a shopping mall, a building-for-rent, restaurant, beauty salon, convenience store, and a water refilling station in General Santos City.

The BIR filed charges against Pacquiao early March after the boxer allegedly snubbed the agency’s summons to submit certain documents. Pacquiao was charged with violation of Section 266 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), and if convicted, he can be fined as much as P10,000 and imprisoned for two years.
 



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Scott Belsky - One Good Post every day.

Scott is my discovery for today.  He is very organized to present his ideas and to move creative projects forward.
He is ubiquitous on the Web which is a secret to promoting your projects on the internet.  I try and find one interesting 'thing' every day.  He was spotted right away this morning and I stopped web surfing at that point.  this is a good idea.  Stop!  and do something else.  Like go to the store, library or walk around the block with Lola.

I think this would be a good new discipline.  Usually,  I just keep 'surfing' the net which is how one person can operate 110 blogs.  But my experiment is nearly over and I'll be working on maybe 25 blogs at most.  Several blogs amnd topics stand out above the others so the readers have voted, even though they didn't know it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsQtptwMCFI&feature=related
http://youtu.be/lsQtptwMCFI





Scott Belsky on How to Avoid Idea Plateaus

by
“Ideas are cheap and abundant,” proclaimed legendary management consultant and self-described social ecologist Peter Drucker, “what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action.”
Hand raise: Who here has had a big idea, the kind that keeps you up at night excitedly plotting its release into the world, only to have it plateau and lose steam before coming to fruition? We thought so. And how do we handle that? We come up with a new idea, a shot of creative dopamine to the brain, only to have it suffer the same fate. In his excellent talk from last year’s 99% Conference — one of our favorite cross-disciplinary event series — Scott Belsky breaks down how this trap works and how to avoid falling into it.

 The project plateau is littered with the carcases of dead ideas that have never happened. What do we do? We just generate a new idea. We do it again and again and again. What we continue to do is we escape this project plateau with a new idea, and instantaneously we return to this high of excitement, this willingness to execute. And this is why there are more half-written novels in the world than there are novels.” ~ Scott Belsky

 If you haven’t yet read Scott’s book, Making Ideas Happen, we strongly encourage you to do so. Barely a year old, it’s already one of the most important books on creative entrepreneurship ever published. Drawing on years of research and hundreds of interviews, Besky goes after the holy grail of ideation with a club and a smile. From what people who bring ideas to life have in common to understanding the chemistry of collaboration to how to avoid short-circuiting your reward systems, it’s the kind of guide that will make you just the right amount of uncomfortable and, in the process, better and smarter about your work, your productivity and your creative endeavors.
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Monday, March 26, 2012

Bert Sugar, Hall of Fame boxing writer, dies

 The accolades and obituaries are showing up for a 'character' who was at home around the fights.

Bert Sugar, Hall of Fame boxing writer, dies

 Mount Kisco, N.Y. -- Bert Sugar, a boxing writer and sports historian who was known for his trademark fedora and ever-present cigar, died Sunday of cardiac arrest. He was 75.

 
Mr. Sugar was born in Washington, D.C., in 1936. He graduated from Maryland and went to law school at Michigan. He passed the bar in his hometown and worked in advertising in New York City before he got into writing in the 1970s.

 Mr. Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. According to the hall's website, Mr. Sugar wrote more than 80 books, including "The 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time." 

He also appeared in a handful of films, including "The Great White Hype," starring Samuel L. Jackson.


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