Now greed making NFL brain cases even sadder
Once we understood about concussions and various other long-term brain issues suffered by NFL players, it was heartbreaking.
Just as a single example, the suicide of San Diego star linebacker Junior Seau made you want to weep.
Then when the truth emerged that the league had known for years about the danger to its athletes and repeatedly lied about it, sadness turned to disgust.
You would think the situation couldn’t get worse, even after the league agreed to a $1 billion settlement with hundreds of retired players – an admission that the NFL had never really cared about its athletes’ lives after football.
And yet, unbelievably, things actually have taken an uglier turn.
Crippled, sick and dying ex-players have become helpless spectators as attorneys fight and scratch over the money that was meant to help those players, along with their families and caregivers.
We’re now at a stage that can only be called sickening.
READ THESE first few paragraphs of a story written for ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” by Mark Fainura-Wada, perhaps the best investigative reporter working in sports today.
Fainura-Wade wrote: “The $1 billion concussion settlement — nearly six years in the making yet still to deliver a penny for brain injuries stemming from football — is revealing the underbelly of the legal system to former players and their families.
“As they finally close in on being compensated for brain injuries, those former players and their families have been facing an onslaught of issues – from attorney retainer fees that could reach as high as 40 percent, to lawyers poaching clients from competing attorneys, from a slew of opportunists seeking a piece of the pie to lawyers effectively threatening to sue former players to ensure they get their fees.
“‘This case has done nothing but show lawyers at their worst,’ said Jason Luckasevic, a Pittsburgh attorney who filed the first concussion-related case against the NFL in 2011 and represents about 500 former players.”
How bad is that?
Things have gotten so grubby that two dozen wives of former players recently sent a plea to Judge Anita Brody, who is overseeing the class action case, asking her to address concerns that legal fees will be hacking away at the money earmarked for families.
IT’S JUST about nauseating that attorneys are at war over a pot of $112.5 million that was set aside for legal fees.
Even more staggering is that several firms are petitioning for a handsome hunk of that common fund, while at the same time representing individual clients for fees ranging up to 25 or 40 percent.
Meanwhile, there is a cottage industry springing up in an attempt to sign potential clients before the mandated deadline (Aug. 7), and several companies have grabbed ex-players as spokesmen to pitch the “NFL brotherhood.”
These outfits are selling the notion that filing to be part of the suit is somehow complicated and baffling, and that former players need help navigating it.
Kicker Michael Husted, who played in the league for nine years, scoffed at the pitch that registering online requires legal help.
“If you can read, you can fill it out,” Husted said.
What’s really so sad about this knife fight to divide the money meant to help is that the former players are getting hurt all over again.
After risking their health and potentially their lives in a league that lied to them, these once-proud athletes now face dementia, ALS and other brain-related damage while attorneys scrap over their money — and the NFL looks the other way in silence.
Yet every weekend, crowds will roar in stadiums across America and millions will watch on TV.
I’m not sure how to change things, but I do know there’s something really wrong with this whole damn picture.
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Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press. Reach Steve via email: scameron@cdapress.com.