Scandals & Feuds ·
From Challenged Brain Research to a Proposed NFL Settlement
League committee members disputed research on lasting brain injury. In 2013, retired players alleging concealment reached a proposed $765 million agreement; the NFL admitted no wrongdoing and denied withholding information or misleading players.
After Dr. Bennet Omalu published findings of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster’s brain in July 2005, three members of the NFL’s Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee sought to have the paper retracted. Drs. Elliot Pellman, Ira Casson and David Viano challenged the diagnosis itself. “Omalu et al’s description of chronic traumatic encephalopathy is completely wrong,” they wrote, arguing that the report lacked a medical history establishing a long-standing illness.
The demand was part of a broader dispute over what football’s head injuries could mean after players left the field. The committee had begun publishing scientific papers in the journal Neurosurgery in 2003. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue welcomed the work, expressing confidence that it would improve athlete safety. The committee’s findings offered reassurance: A January 2004 paper reported that more than half of concussed players returned to play within one day and that symptoms resolved quickly in the vast majority of cases.
Other researchers were raising different possibilities. In November 2003, University of North Carolina researcher Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz published findings suggesting that players with previous concussions were more likely to sustain another and might recover neurological function more slowly. The NFL committee disputed those conclusions in an October 2004 paper. It also said that, although brain disease associated with head hits appeared in other athletes, including boxers, there was no sign of it in professional football players.
By 2013, the dispute had moved into litigation involving more than 4,500 former players. Some had dementia, depression or Alzheimer’s disease that they blamed on blows to the head; others feared future illness and wanted monitoring. Their lawsuits accused the NFL of concealing the long-term dangers of concussions and rushing injured players back onto the field. These were allegations, not findings of wrongdoing. NFL attorney Beth Wilkinson publicly denied that the league had withheld information or misled players.
On Aug. 29, 2013, shortly before the season began, the league and the plaintiffs announced a proposed $765 million settlement after months of court-ordered mediation. It would cover all 18,000 former NFL players, with most of the money designated as compensation for certain neurological conditions, $75 million for medical examinations and $10 million for research. Current players were not covered. The agreement still required approval from U.S. District Judge Anita Brody.
The NFL admitted no wrongdoing and maintained that safety had always been a priority. “We thought it was critical to get more help to players and families who deserve it rather than spend many years and millions of dollars on litigation,” executive vice president Jeffrey Pash said.
For former running back Kevin Turner, who had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the proposed agreement offered the prospect of support for his children. At 44, he thanked both sides. “Chances are ... I won’t make it to 50 or 60,” he said. “I have money now to put back for my children to go to college and for a little something to be there financially.”