Hawaii Injury Lawyer Blog

This past week, 75 former NFL players sued the National Football League in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that for 90 years the league knew about the risks of game-related concussions and that the NFL concealed brain injury risks from coaches, trainers, players and the public. The players also named helmet manufacturer Riddell as a defendant. According to the lawsuit, as early as the 1920s the NFL was aware of the harmful effects of traumatic brain injuries such as concussions on a player’s brain, but failed to adequately warn or prevent these risks.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are caused when excessive forces are applied to the head that result in damage to the brain. TBIs can occur as the result of a variety of types of accidents but are common results of sports accidents, car accidents, violence or Shaken Baby Syndrome. Effects of TBIs may include short-term memory loss, compromised cognitive functioning and in some cases, an inability to manage the activities of daily living. Where a TBI is the result of another’s negligence or wrongful conduct, a victim may be entitled to compensation.

Here, as well as allegations that the NFL knew as early as the 1920s about the effects of TBIs, the lawsuit also claims that the NFL commissioned a brain injury study in 1994 entitled “NFL Committee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.” But, according to the lawsuit it wasn’t until June 2010 that the NFL acknowledged that concussions could lead to dementia, memory loss, dizziness and other symptoms.