So…this is probably going to make me sound like a big grump but I get annoyed when football players, whether they be in the professional league or in pop warner, get injured and then decide to sue.
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? You CHOOSE to play a game (or choose to let your child play a game) that is incredibly violent, so it should be on you when something bad happens.
Who agrees?
Dont know of recent players suing, the players have a strong union. Amatuers I can visualize suing if they were encouraged/bullied into practicing without hydration or without proper equipment. The recent settlement was because teams and trainers hid the dangers of playing while concussed. I’d like to see an example of these lawsuits the OP thinks are questionable.
Well by your logic coal mines and offshore oil rigs should get rid of those pesky safety regulations because employees know these jobs are risky. The question isn’t whether a job is risky, but if an employer fails to give a reasonable effort to protect safety (or worse hide evidence about safety hazards).
The recent law suit asserts that the NFL knew about the link between repeated head injuries and severe health problems (dementia, loss of speech, loss of mobility) and did not inform the players.
You can’t make an informed choice if the people with info hide it from you and then proceed to profit from your actions. The terms of the lawsuit include better education for players so they can make educated choices as well providing care for players who are debilitated.
If the NFL knew about the connections (dementia, loss of speech, loss of…) then one has to say that the NCAA also knew, or should have known. I’m sure a team of lawyers is working on getting their 33% of a Billion dollar settlement, as we speak.
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a college or university having a boxing team…the rarity of which would seem to make it certain that the NCAA is aware that blows to the head can cause all sorts of nasty aftereffects…of course they are culpable. Why wouldn’t they be?
It doesn’t make you sound like a big grump. It makes you sound like someone who forms opinions based on things they half-heard on the radio. If a kid signs up for Pop Warner and is beaten to death by another player, is that a risk he voluntarily assumes?
Why does one “have to” say that? The NCAA is a voluntary organization which regulates intercollegiate participation in dozens of sports. The NFL is effectively a closed shop which organizes one sport.
There actually were several colleges with boxing teams in the past, but after a series of in-ring deaths in 1960 the sport was abandoned as an intercollegiate activity.
If you hire somebody to do a job, you assume a certain amount of responsibility to ensure a safe working environment.
Don’t assume that NCAA schools are exempt from this either. Schools can be found to have a duty of care with respect to their student athletes, and letting their brains get scrambled could be found to violate that duty.
There are lawsuits working their way through the court system against the NCAA for concussion culpability as we speak. A U.S. District Court judge is currently mulling over the poposal by several plaintiffs to combine them into a class action suit.
There has been evidence uncovered that half of college trainers have knowingly put players back into games after coming off the field and showing signs of possible concussions. Who can blame them? The coach has a big paycheck to protect.
The behavior of the NFL in regard to player injuries has oftentimes been deplorable. Calling them on it goes back to the 1982 Pettis Norman lawsuit. Sports Illustrated and Playboy published articles about it. From a 1982 SI story:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125862/4/index.htm
At that time, pro sports was almost sacred so it was difficult to win against them no matter how aggrieved you had been. It’s just like Curt Flood’s lawsuit challenging the reserve clause in baseball.
Pete Gent, who played for Dallas wrote “North Dallas Forty”. It’s a thinly veiled description of how the organization handled and mishandled players. It’s quite revealing.
It’s a good thing that we are getting to the point where all sports organizations are being held responsible for their behavior. TashKitty should re-frame the question and ask, “whatever happened to corporate responsibility.” Mitt Romney will tell you corporations are people.
The trouble is that players are treated as disposable parts. They know that if they stay out of the lineup because of injuries, they will be cut. The NCAA is even worse, for not only will the teams cut you, you will also lose that athletic scholarship and be forced to drop out of college.
So are the players not intelligent enough to think that perhaps getting your brain bruised multiple times could be dangerous?
they aren’t there on academic scholarships.
really though, who doesn’t know that one can get hurt playing football. Every person I ever knew was aware of it.
Before learning about it did you think that you could accumulate life altering disabilities from repeated non-concussion related hits to the head? Did you think that even one concussion can leave you with permanent brain damage? Why do you think a 21 year old kid with no significant medical training would know that?
DOCTORS weren’t smart enough to realize the broad consequences of repeated sub clinical head injuries. It took 1000s of Iraq and Afganistan soldiers returning with TBI to make people realize it. However, once it became clear, that info was held back, the suit alleges.
Plus, the NFL gave them safety equipment and safety rules. Why wouldn’t the players assume it was enough?
Hurt is one thing. Players assume they’ll heal, unless it’s truly catastrophic. These long term effects are horrific.
Hurt, yes, but note the terminology–concussions are talked about as a brain “bruise.”
Bruises–the normal ones on the body that are all purple and whatever–heal, usually with no further effect once the healing process is done.
And that’s the way that most people thought about concussions until very recently. Take a big blow to the head, worst case, take a few days off to heal it up, and you’re good to go.
But now we know that this is not the case–so the question for any lawsuits is when did the people in charge start to know about this change, and how well did they communicate this down.
Nobody knew that the cumulative effect of minor brain injuries could be debilitating until at least the 1970s.
I think the mistake is looking at it in black and white. There are shades of gray; like most things when you become an adult.
Ifeg playing football; I would expect that to be part of what he pote my kid broke his arm or lntially signed up for. However, if he suffered a brain injury I’d certainly want to know what precautions they’d taken to prevent that from happening; ESPECIALLY in youth sports.
I never hit the college level but I played football from middle through high school. Aside from the relatively minor injuries like broken arms, legs, sever bruising, etc., etc. we were aware that there was a small risk of catastrophic injuries to the spine, neck or head that could prove fatal or debilitating for life. We were never made aware that anyone was at risk for any other type of injury. I played from the late 1980s through the mid 1990s. I do recognize that I certainly wasn’t at as much risk as college or professional players. It’s just that nobody I knew was even aware of the risk at the level I played.