There have been many articles written about the suits that recently have been filed against the NFL, suits that charge that the league either knew about, hid, or ignored evidence that repeated concussions can cause long-term brain damage in players.

But AP went quite a few steps beyond that, spending the last two months interviewing about a dozen of the more than 300 former players who are plaintiffs in the various suits.    

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/17085305/battling-with-memory-loss-dorsett-joins-concussion-lawsuit-against-nfl

AP’s conclusion won’t leave NFL officials with a warm and fuzzy feeling: “What emerged was, at best, a depiction of a culture of  indifference on the part of the league and its teams towards concussions and other injuries. At worst, there was a strong sense of a willful disregard for players’ well-being.”

Ouch. That may make the wings, chips and dip go down a little harder tomorrow if you’re an NFL official.

One of the former players that AP interviewed indepth was Tony Dorsett, who played for Pittsburgh and Dallas. An NFL Hall of Fame member, Dorsett offers up a chilling anecdote, particularly in light of what we know about concussions today.

Dorsett, who is only 57 now, recalled getting the worse hit in the head that he ever had in his career during a 1984 Cowboys-Eagles game. The Cowboys gave Dorsett a very brief exam in a locker room, and then sent him back out to play.  

To do something like that today would, in theory, be unthinkable. Dorsett would have undergone a thorough exam by a doctor, and undoubtedly would have been benched. Dorsett told AP that he was dazed and couldn’t think straight during that 1984 game, and that there were similar incidents were he suffered a concussion and was sent back out on the field.

Those helmet-to-helmet hits have taken their toll. Dorsett showed AP some of his brain scans, which indicate that the left side of his brain, which governs organization and memory, is lacking enough oxygen.

“He already forgets people’s names or why he walked into a room or where he’s heading while driving on a highway, and fears his memory issues are getting worse,” AP reported.

But that’s not the half of it.

“Other players describe an off-camera NFL that is darker than the carefully scripted show presented during  Super Bowl week,” according to AP.

The widespread use of painkillers by players, with the alleged encouragement of the league, and pressure from peers and coaches to play even if you were in incredible pain, are among the issues outlined by AP.

Dorsett isn’t the only ex-player who is bitter about what happened. Another retired player told AP that he expects the NFL to drag out the litigation, in the hope that older players will be dead by the time the whole mess is resolved.

So enjoy that half-time show with Madonna tomorrow, everyone.     

The league, according to The New York Times, has anted up several million dollars to produce the TV spot and a companion website, nfl.com/evolution. It looks like it is an attempt to rehabilitate the NFL’s image.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/sports/football/nfl-to-address-head-injuries-in-commercial.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=sports

The NFL has 120 seconds of very, very valuable commercial avails on NBC during the big game, which is pitting the New York Giants against the New England Patriots.  The Times reported that 30 seconds of ad time during the game is selling for an average $3.5 million. But the NFL  will still devote half of its ad time, 60 second, to its safety spot.

A cynic might question the NFL’s timing and motives.

The league is now facing a dozen lawsuits from ex-players who allege that the NFL hid, or ignored, evidence that repeated concussions can cause permanent brain damage. In fact, The Times quoted a lawyer who is representing some of those players. He believes the TV spot will paint an unrealistic, rosy picture about how the NFL has been addressing player safety for years. 

The ad was directed by a talented TV actor/director, Peter Berg, who was the force behind the high-school football drama “Friday Night Lights,” The Times reported. It will run at the end of the third quarter of the game, and will depict the sports “evolution,” in terms of gear and rules.

The commercial with apparently end with a comment by Ravens player Ray Lewis, who The Times reported will say, “Here’s to making the next century safer and more exciting. Forever forward. Forever football.”

In another interesting tidbit, The Times said that the players’ union and the NFL are talking about devoting much of the $100 million they have for medical research, as part of their contract, to the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health. That money would go toward research on concussions.

The commercial will probably be well produced and memorable, but it won’t make a batch of lawsuits disappear.   

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/us-panel-mulls-whether-to-merge-nfl-player-concussion-lawsuits-against-the-football-league/2012/01/26/gIQAxawGSQ_story.html

There were numerous press reports, including one by the Associated Press, on the hearing that took place before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Miami. 

At that proceeding, attorneys for the NFL and the suing ex-players argued that the cases should be consolidated for pretrial matters before Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.  She is located in Philadelphia, where the first players lawsuits over concussions were filed.      

The panel in Miami reserved judgment on consolidating the suits.

At least 300 players, and roughly that equivalent in terms of wives and family members, have charged that the NFL for years knew, and downplayed, the fact that repeated concussions can cause long-term damage to the brain. In retirement, many of these players are getting early-onset dementia, memory loss, depression and degenerative brain disease. 

Among those who are suing are former star players such as Lem Barney, Otis Anderson and Marvin Jones. But there was only one ex-player in court in Miami last week: Rich Miano, who played for the Jets, Eagles and Falcons.

He was quite eloquent in his comments to AP. Talking about concussions when he was playing, back in the day, Miano said they were referred to as “getting a stinger” or ”getting your bell rung.”

He told AP, “It was just, ‘Get back out there.’”

The NFL, like the player plaintiffs’ attorneys, wants the suits put together. But Beth Wilkinson, the league’s lawyer, wants them consolidated so that she can get them dismissed en masse.

She argued Thursday that the retired players’ grievances shouldn’t be litigated, that the allegations raised by the players should be be resolved under the NFL-player collective bargaining agreement. Needless to say, the players feel differently. So do I.

Several of the suits have named the vendor that supplies helmets to the NFL, Riddell, as a defendent, as well. According to The Miami Herald, Riddell’s attorney wants the lawsuits that cite Riddell handled separately from the one that don’t name the helmet company. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/26/2610282/nfl-ex-jocks-spar-in-miami-courtroom.html

This battle, of the NFL versus its former warriors, may end up rivaling the Super Bowl in terms of drama. And it could be a long one.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57362087/more-players-join-nfl-concussion-suits-file-in-pa/

The latest lawsuit filed in Philadelphia was brought by ex-Philadelphia Eagles players Ron Solt, Joe Panos, Rich Miano, four other players and their spouses, according to AP. 

The wire service quoted part of Wednesday’s lawsuit: ”Rather than warn players that they risked permanent brain injury if they returned to play too soon after sustaining a concussion, the NFL actively deceived players, by misrepresenting to them that concussions did not present serious, life-altering risks.”

More than 100 former players filed a similar lawsuit in Philadelphia earlier this month, and the very first complaint of this kind was brought against the National Football League in Philly last year, AP reported.

So far at least eight suits, claiming that the NFL ignored or kept secret evidence tying concussions to permanent brain injuries, have been filed in New Jersey, New York, Florida and Georgia, according to AP.

The league is seeking to consolidate the lawsuits in Philadelphia, where the very first case filed last year has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Anita Brody, AP reported.  

The NFL denies the allegations in the lawsuits, and claims the litigation should be thrown out because the claims are prohibited under collective bargaining agreements.      

One of the plaintiffs in the suits is former Minnestota Viking Brent Boyd, whose lawyers, according to AP, claim he is the only living player diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE. It is a degenerative brain disease that has been detected in tests on brain tissue from deceased football and pro hockey players.

Last week was also the week when the NFL mandated that there will be an independently certified athletic trainer, whose job it is to keep an eye out for concussion-related injuries, present at every game.

Was this NFL move just coincidental to the suits, or directly related to them, we wonder.

Several ex-player suits were filed in Atlanta early last week, and the other was filed in Miami last Thursday. The latest lawsuit was lodged by former Miami Dolphins Patrick Surtain, Oronde Gadsden and 19 other players, according to the Associated Press.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/story/2011-12-23/concussions-lawsuit/52194476/1

That suit alleges that the NFL hid evidence that tied concussions to long-term brain injury. Essentially, the players alleged that the league downplayed the dangerousness of their concussions ”with the intent of inducing NFL players, including plaintiffs, to return to play as soon as physically possible after having suffered a football-related concussion and to promote an aggressive style of football that would attract viewers,” accordingt to AP’s quote from the lawsuit.

The litigation noted that  in the wake of scientific evidence about the long-term impact of concussions, the NFL formed a committee in 1994 to study the issue. But, according to the lawsuit, this supposedly independent committee in 2003 found that concussions didn’t create long-term harm to the brain.

In 2010, the lawsuit rather pointedly noted, the NFL canned the heads of that research committee, and the new chiefs of the committee described the original research was flawed and “infected,” AP reported.

In Atlanta last Wednesday several suits were filed on behalf of  former Green Bay Packer Dorsey Levens, Jamal Lewis, Fulton Kuykendall and Ryan E. Stewart.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/136070433.html#

Those suits charged that the NFL “has done eveything in its power to hide the issue and mislead players” about the effects of concussions going back to the 1920s, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Levens’ lawsuit said that he sustained multiple concussions during his eight-year tenure with the Packers. The retired player, who now resides in Atlanta, also played for the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles.

According to the Journal Sentinel, the suit says, “Levens was not warned by defendants of the risk of long-term injury due to football-related concussions or that the league-managed equipment did not protect him from such injury. This was a substanial factor in causing his current injuries.”

Now Levens has brain injuries and symptoms such as headaches and memory loss, according to his suit.

The NFL issued a statement in response to that first batch of suits. It was denial, as usual. The Journal Sentinel printed it.

“The NFL has long made player safety a priority and continues to do so. Any allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit. It stands in contrast to the league’s actions to better protect players and advance the science and medical understanding of the management and treatment of concussions.”

Indeed.

On the topic of lawsuits, we like what AOL FanHouse columnist David Steele had to say. First of all, he pointed out that there were actually three groups of recently filed suits against the NFL regarding concussions. One was filed in Miami earlier this month by 12 plaintiffs, including the New Orleans Saints Kyle Turkey and Patrick Surtain. According to Steele, that lawsuit charges that the NFL gave them an anti-inflammatory drug that “magnified the severityy of concussions.”

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-12-24/concussion-lawsuits-could-be-tip-of-crisis-for-nfl

“Two lawsuits filed this week by retired players suffering the effects of concussions from their playing days remind everybody that the league still has to answer for itself over its years of neglect,” Steele wrote.

He then referenced the Dec. 8 incident when Pittsburgh Steeler James Harrison did a helmet-to-helmet hit on Colt McCoy of the Cleveland Browns. Harrison was suspended, but the Browns’ handling of McCoy’s had injury was less than exemplary.

On Oct. 23 Dielman was hurt when there was “about 12 minutes left in the game” against the New York Jets,  The New York Times reported.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/sports/football/nfl-officials-get-new-directive-on-concussions.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=concussions&st=cse

It was obvious that he had sustained a head injury. He was having problems maintaining his balance while out on the gridiron. Yet he was not immediately pulled out of the game. He finished playing it, and was not assessed for a concussion until afterward.

Guess what? Dielman had a seizure on the flight back to California from New York.

In light of what happened to Dielman, the NFL last week put out a directive advising game officials to carefully look for symptoms of concussions in pro players, according to The Times.

An NFL spokesman told The Times, “Our game officials will receive concussion-awareness training and will reman alert to possible concussions during games.”

Isn’t “concussion-awareness” what the NFL and newspapers across the country have been talking about for at least the past two years?

Who dropped the ball here? Who failed Dielman?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/sports/football/nfl-plans-more-scientific-study-of-concussions.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=mitchel%20s.%20berger&st=cse

The Times, in a story headlined “NFL Plans Broader Concussion Research,” got its information from Dr. Mitchel S. Berger, a leader of the NFL committee and subcommittee on brain injuries. Berger is chairman of the neurological surgery department of the University of California San Francisco, and made his remarks at the 2011 Congress of Neurological Surgeons in Washington earlier this month.

Berger said that the NFL’s subcommittee on brain and spine injury has been conducting conference calls with the players’ union and is aiming to have a presentation ready for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell soon, according to The Times.

The prior NFL research was led by Dr. Ira Casson, and Berger seems to echo what a Congressional committee believed about Casson’s work.

“There’s really nothing we can do with that data in terms of how it was collected and assessed,” Berger was quoted saying by The Times.

The new study will encompass 1,400 people aged 45 to 59, according to The Times. They will be divided into three groups: retired NFL players; those who only played college football; and a control group of non-athletes.

Berger explained that baseline tests for the three groups will be done, followed by exams every three years.

In addition, there will be a parallel study with three groups in the same categories as the subjects 45 to 59, but they will be older, 60 to 75, The Times reported. That parallel study will involve 400 subjects.

Goodell also addressed the surgeons’ convention, saying that nothing was more important to the league than the safety of its players. 

Let’s hope he’s telling the truth.          

This week those 75 retired NFL players filed suit in Superior Court in Los Angeles against the NFL and Riddell, which manufactures helmets, according to The New York Times. The plaintiffs include Ottis Anderson, who had playd for the Giants, and Vernon Dean, who had played with the Washington Redskins. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/sports/football/retired-players-sue-nfl-over-treatment-of-concussions.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=NFL%20suit&st=cse

The lawsuit is trying to hold the NFL liable for over the years downplaying growing evidence that head injuries cumulatively lead to permanent brain damage. It wasn’t until 2010 that the league warned players about the long-term effects of concussions, which mean retired players never got any warning. And many of them are paying the price now.

The suit alleges that the NFL didn’t “regulate practices, games, equipment and medical care so as to minimize the long-term risks associated with concussive brain injuries.” As a result, these veteran players contend that they now suffer from memory loss, headaches and other side effects from their years of playing.

NFL officials have no one to blame but themselves for this litigation. The NFL created a committee on concussions in 1994, and it aggressively supported the position that concussions didn’t cause lasting brain damage. 

Nonetheless, the NFL told The Times that it will “vigorously” fight the lawsuit.

As The Times pointed out, the players have filed their suit while the NFL is close to reaching a new contract with players. Part of that new deal has clauses that aim to limit the chance of brain damage during off-season workouts.

The NFL has already made changes to protect players from the long-term damage of concussions. But it wasn’t exactly a noble action. The league didn’t aggressively make changes until after a Congressional committee in 2009 put a national spotlight on the NFL’s mishandling of concussions. 

For example, nowadays a player believed to have sustained a concussion is  benched for the rest of the day, and can’t return to the field until he gets clearance from an independent medical expert.

The suing players are seeking unspecified damages for injuries that they incurred while playing in the 1980′s. It may be hard to prove that the NFL should have been warning these players about the impact of concussions back then.

But it seems that the NFL should pay a price for not just ignoring reports about the dangers of concussion, but publishing studies that claimed that mild brain injury didn’t pose a long-term threat to players. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/sports/football/03duerson.html?ref=sports

CTE, as it is known, is the mentally debilitating disease that’s been found in the brains of nearly two dozen deceased National Football League players. It is caused by repeated trauma to the brain, and its symptoms include depression and memory loss.

As it turns out, Duerson had actually correctly diagnosed CTE in himself. Then he took a took a gun and committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.

He chose the chest, rather than the head, so that his brain would remain intact. He wanted it to be tested at Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which has been testing donated brain tissue from deceased pro-football players.   

According to The Times, Duerson, who was 50 when he took his life, in a suicide note wrote, “Please, see that my brain is given to the NFL’s brain bank.”

His last wish was granted. And at a press conference Monday, the center in Boston announced its findings on Duerson’s brain, the CTE diagnosis.

“It’s tragic that Dave Duerson took his own life, but it’s very meaningful that he recognized the symptoms of the disorder — it validates the condition,”  said Dr. Ann McKee, who was quoted by The New York Times.

Validates it indeed.

The NFL for years denied there was any link between the concussions that players repeatedly sustain and permanent brain damage. If it had taken responsibility, and taken measures to protect players, perhaps Duerson would be alive today. 

Duerson, who played college ball at Notre Dame, had four children with his ex-wife Alicia. They were all at the press conference.   

His 25-year-old son Tregg said he hoped that the research being conducted now would help save everyone from Pop Warner to NFL players from the same fate as his father.

Tregg also said he hoped his father had not died in vain. So do I.    

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704700204575642812360573640.html?mod=WSJ_NY_Sports_LEFTTopStories

The Wall Street Journal Monday offered an inspiring profile of Chrebet, who is now a financial adviser with Morgan Stanley in Red Bank, N.J. The story painted Chrebet as an underdog, ”a small guy from a small school,” who played well for the Jets and put himself in “the path of 225-pound behemoths.”  

He suffered at least six documented concussions, and many undocumented ones. ”A lot, a lot, a lot,” Chrebet told The Journal.

But in November 2005, Chrebret had his career-ending concussion. In a game against the San Diego Chargers, Chrebret was tackled. His helmet crashed on the turf. Chrebet told The Journal that he remembered “a flash of white light, a few muddled voices, then nothing else.”

Today Chrebet doesn’t remember getting tackled, coming off the field or getting home. He woke up with a headache and asked his wife what was up. “She told him he was done,” The Journal said.

Chrebet had been retired: The Jets’ team doctor didn’t want to take responsibility for him.  

 He had enough money not to have to work a 9-to-5 job, but Chrebet was bored. He tried several new careers, including being a restaurateur and owning racehorses. Then he decided to pursue his interest in finance, and got his brokerage and securities licenses.

With all the news that’s come out about the long-term damage concussions cause, let’s hope Chrebet’s life ends well. 

He told The Journal that he has some of the side effects of post-concussion syndrome, “but declined to elaborate.” And in the past, Chrebet has admitted that he has migraines and short-term memory loss.

Hopefully, those countless concussions will not eventually take a terrible toll on Chrebet.  Or better yet, we’ll know how to cure those who suffered such brain damage.