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More former college football players are filing suit against the NCAA and other entities for failing to protect them from serious head trauma.

Football Players Suing NCAA for Concussions

For many Americans, the start of fall heralds one of their favorite activities: cheering on their favorite college football team.  Whether you’re a diehard fan or a casual observer, few can deny the impact of college football on communities across the country.  But what happens to the players who are injured as a result of this beloved game?

That’s the subject of a class action lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Big Ten, Pac-12, Southeastern Conference and several universities.  The players claim that they have suffered serious health consequences as a result of their time as collegiate athletes and are seeking both compensation for their losses and new safety protocols to protect future players.

The Lifelong Effects of Head Trauma

As popularized in the 2015 movie Concussion, repeated blows to the head through games like football can lead to long-term effects.  This condition has been named chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.  It can cause a range of symptoms from dizziness and headaches to erratic behavior, dementia and suicidal thoughts.

Many high-profile deaths of former football players have been linked to CTE, including Junior Seau, Mike Webster, Frank Gifford and Adrian Robinson.  Living football players such as Brett Farve, Tony Dorsett  and Antwaan Randle El, have also been diagnosed with this disease, or with symptoms consistent with CTE.

The serious effects of repeated head trauma have led to a number of lawsuits against the National Football League and the NCAA, with players claiming that they suffer from irreversible damage to their brains based on their playing at the collegiate or professional level.  Recently, a judge approved a 75 million dollar settlement between the NCAA and multiple players based on harm from concussions. This money will be primarily used to medically monitor college athletes and to research the effects of concussions.  The settlement does not prevent players from filing their own personal injury lawsuits.

Players File A Lawsuit

At the end of August, seven former college football players joined 15 other former players in filing class action lawsuits against the NCAA.  A class action lawsuit is a type of lawsuit where a group of people with the same or similar injuries join together to sue a person, organization or company as a group.  These types of lawsuits have specific rules and procedures, and can often be an effective way for a group of injured people to prove a pattern of negligence on the part of the defendant.  It is also a way to lower the overall cost of litigation.

The players are seeking damages for injuries they received while playing college football, which they say has resulted in neurological and cognitive damage, including signs of CTE.  They claim that their concussions were improperly handled by their teams, and that this led to additional injuries.  The players further contend that the NCAA, conferences and schools knew for decades that traumatic brain injuries from playing football could have long-term dangers.

Playing sports like football can be tremendously beneficial to youth, but it comes with certain risks — particularly if the team does not take precautions to protect players’ health and well-being.  There is a significant potential for serious brain injuries in contact sports like football, rugby and hockey.  If you or your child has suffered a brain injury as a result of playing sports, and you believe that a team or school was negligent in protecting your child or providing care for the injury, you may have a viable claim against the team or school. A personal injury attorney can evaluate your case to determine if you can file a lawsuit against a team, school, conference or other organization. PLBH has experience handling a wide variety of personal injury cases.  Contact our officer at (800) 435-7542 or info@plblaw.com to learn more about how we can help you if you’ve suffered a personal injury.  We offer free initial consultations, and we never charge a fee unless we recover money for you.