Women Lead The Charge In Battle Over The NFL and TBI

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Posted on 12th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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 The New York Times during the past week has done a series of stories about the parties leading the fight to win compensation for retired National Football League players who have contracted early dementia.

 In a story in the Sunday Times, headlined “In the Fight to Address Head Trauma, Women Lead the Way,” sports writer Alan Schwartz continued his in-depth coverage of the issue with a lengthy profile of the women who have taken up the cause.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/sports/football/11women.html?ref=sports

 He starts out writing about Eleanor Perfetto, who has brought a workman’s compensation claim on behalf of her husband, Ralph Wenzel, in California that could set a precedent in terms of the league’s liability. She is seeking compensation for her spouse’s early-onset dementia, which she claims was caused by his injuries during seven seasons as an NFL lineman.

 Perfetto has a PhD in public health, and is a senior policy director at Pfizer.

 Next on his Schwartz’s list is Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat who — like Perfetto – testified during last fall’s hearings before the House Judiciary Committee on pro football and concussions. 

 At the hearings Sanchez blasted the NFL’s lenient policies on concussions, which sparked some changes. For the Sunday Times story, Sanchez offered a quote that will ring true for any woman who has ever competed in a male-dominated industry.

 “People underestimate you, and it makes you very powerful,” Sanchez told The Times. “The NFL is so male and macho and testosterone-dominated, I don’t think they figured that women were going to be a force to be reckoned with in this thing, and they’re finding out the hard way.”

 Perfetto and Sanchez aren’t the only women who have been vocal participants in the football-concussion debate. There is also Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist at the Boston University School of Medicine, who has linked brain damage in ex-players to football.

 The Times also cites former Tampa Bay Buccaneers president Gay Culverhouse, who blasted the NFL during the congressional hearings and even started a foundation to help out players.

 The story also talks about the wife of former NFL tight end John Mackey, Sylvia Mackey. She almost went bankrupt when he came down with early-onset dementia. She went on to convince the NFL and the players’ union to create a plan to assist families like hers.

 The final female advocate on behalf of NFL players in The Times story is Kwana Pittman. She is the niece of ex-NFL player Andre Waters, who killed himself in 2006. Pittman got her family to agree to have Waters’ brain matter analyzed. The testing found extensive brain damage, bringing the issue of football and the long-term impact of concussions into the national spotlight.    

Ex-Football Players, Now Lawyers, Defend Peers In Workman’s Comp Cases In California

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Posted on 9th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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 Now here are two attorneys who can really relate to their clients.

 Two former pro-football-players turned lawyers are now representing roughly 1,000 ex-players in what could be landmark worker’s compensation cases in California, according to The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/08/sports/football/08lawyers.html?hpw

Ron Mix in the 1960s was with the San Diego Chargers, and was a Hall of Fame lineman. Mel Owens in the 1980s was a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams. Now both men are lawyers. They are representing retired National Football League players who have developed early-onset dementia at much higher rates than the general population.

Their clients – who have won roughly more than $100 million in awards — are their contemporaries, and peers.

The story about Mix and Owens is the third by Times sports writer Alan Schwartz on how ex-players are filing workman’s comp claims in California to seek compensation for some of the illnesses, like Alzheimer’s disease, that they have developed.

In the first story, Schwartz said these workman’s compensation cases more offer the first determination on whether the NFL can be held liable for dementia linked to brain injuries while playing  football, as they have been held liable for bone and muscle injuries. California is the sole jurisdiction that lets long-retired players file for workman’s compensation even if they only played one game in the state.

The story raises the issue of whether it is wise for Mix and Owens’ clients to take lump sum payments, or instead try to secure lifetime medical care for their long-term conditions, which are likely to deteriorate over time. The settlements are typically in the $60,000 to $100,000 range.

Some of the retired players interviewed did not seem to fully understand the workman’s compensation process, and how if they turned down a settlement they would be entitled to their case hard by an administrative law judge, not a jury.   

California May Be Forum For Deciding Whether The NFL Can Be Held Liable For Retired Players Developing Alzheimer’s Disease

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Posted on 8th April 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Brain Injury

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A case in California is shaping up as a test of whether the National Football League is liable for the dementia that is striking retired players who sustained head injuries during their careers.

 The details of the case are carefully spelled out in a lengthy Page One story in The New York Times by sports writer Alan Schwartz, whose aggressive coverage of the NFL-concussion issue has been submitted for a Pulitzer Prize. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/sports/football/06worker.html?ref=todayspaper

 The detailed story centers of the case of Ralph Wenzel, who was a NFL lineman from 1966 to 1973. He was diagnosed with dementia when he was 67.

 His wife, Dr. Eleanor Peretta, filed a workman’s compensation claim on her husband’s behalf in California. Apparently, retired pro athletes from across the country file claims in California for injuries they sustained decades ago.

 That’s because under California law, any pro athlete who played even one game in the state “is eligible to receive lifetime medical care for their injuries from the teams and their insurance carriers,” according to The Times.

 In fact, right now some 700 former NFL players have filed claims in California, and they can expect to get settlements of anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000. 

 Those lump sums have been for injuries such as injured shoulders and knees. But Wenzel’s case is significantly different, and could be precedent-setting. That’s because it is blaming Wenzel’s former employment as a football player for his devastating onset of dementia.

 The case could be worth over $1 million for Wenzel and his wife, and could also result in the NFL being held liable for similar awards from retired players who have developed Alzheimer’s disease, on the hook for $100 million or even more, according to The Times.

 The looming issue scared the Arena Football League, which just resumed operations, enough that it decided not to have a franchise in California. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/sports/football/06arena.html

 Schwartz has a follow-up story on the NFL-workman’s compensation issue Tuesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/sports/football/07bengals.html?hpw

In that piece, he describes how NFL teams now starting to contest the workman’s comp claims filed by former players in California. And some teams, to avoid the problem in the first place, are including clauses on their contracts that say players can only file for workman’s compensation in the state where their team plays.

For example, the Cincinnati Bengals now have a clause in player contracts that says they can only file for workman’s compensation in Ohio, according to The Times.