Brain Disease and the N.F.L.

More than 4,000 retired players are suing the National Football League for failing to protect players from chronic risks of head injuries routinely inflicted in professional football games — and then willfully concealing those risks from players. 

In a brief summarizing the players’ position, lawyers say that:

 serious head injuries “cause neurocognitive decline, permanent mental disability, and even death.”

The suits are grouped in more than 200 cases. In Philadelphia this week, attorneys for both sides appeared before Judge Anita Brody of Federal District Court, who is considering whether the cases can proceed. 

The N.F.L. argued that the cases amounted to a labor dispute that the judge should dismiss. Issues of health and safety, the league argued, are covered by the collective bargaining agreement between the players’ union and the league and thus should be addressed in a traditional labor-management setting, not a federal courtroom.

Judge Brody should allow the cases to proceed. Though the players would have to show that their injuries were not sustained in college or high school, they deserve the chance to prove in court that there is a link between the violent professional game and head trauma, and that the injuries occurred because the N.F.L. breached a common-law duty to avoid this harm.

Last year, an extensive study of brain samples from deceased football and hockey players, military veterans and others who suffered repeated hits to the head added to the mounting evidence of a link between head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or C.T.E., an incurable, degenerative disease leading to dementia and depression.

The players contend that for decades the league knew of these risks and had a duty to warn about and protect against them. Instead, they argue in their brief, the N.F.L. engaged in a “campaign of disinformation.”

After years of debate in the volatile court of public opinion, the place to address and resolve these serious and important charges is in a steady and independent court of law.
  

 

April 11, 2013
Brain Disease and the N.F.L.
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Source:
 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/12/opinion/brain-disease-and-the-nfl-go-to-court.html?nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130412&_r=0