THIS could be the end of college sports all together. This was for a single plaintiff and his wife. Considering the THOUSANDS of players that have had concussions in college sports, this is a huge slippery slope.
Just for example, if they lost lawsuits to 10,000 athletes at this level the NCAA would be facing $18 BILLION in payouts plus legal fees.
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This would pretty much end all sports
Did we know the long term effects of concussions in the 70s? Certainly not like we do today.
We've know for a long time the affects to the level we currently know. What we don't really know is CTE. The studies are still very preliminary and not to a point we can say anything other than we need to keep studying it.
Yeah, this is going to change the game.
Like most cases like this, the amount actually paid out will be way less than the headline number. And when the final number is established, lawyers will get a lot of it and taxes will get a lot of it. Ex-players won't get that much.
Waste of money.
Meant to be punitive, doesn't benefit enough victims. Benefits the lawyers, though.
Lawyers
Always
Win
It's the LAW
Yes, this makes so little sense.
You establish that CTE can only be diagnosed via autopsy and many of the symptoms are similar to Alzheimer's--which also does not have confirmatory testing until autopsy. Alzheimers is not necessarily related to Football but a jury can confidently conclude that not only are his symptoms definitely from CTE related to Football but the NCAA was grossly negligent? For potential injury that would have occurred nearly 50 years ago??
Then how does the wife also get $8mil if she didn't actually suffer the direct effects? Were they even married when he was playing?
Absolutely Bizarre logic.
The logic presented was that the Wife has suffered the last 15 or so years having to be the caregiver. I think there was also testimony to violent outbursts attributed to the CTE.
But shouldn't she then have to file her own lawsuit v. NCAA?
And how were they grossly negligent to her??
Was the NCAA supposed to put a waiver on his marriage application "this man played football and may (or may not) have violent outbursts and cognitive decline in the future"??
And where does this stop?...are high school athletic associations now also liable? Pop Warner leagues too??
Those parts I can't reconcile.
That unfortunately is the buttered slope we are facing and the angle keeps getting more severe.
The American way of it has to be someone else's fault for my choices.
Her payment should have been as caregiver then.
$ 8 million? I don't think so.
Juries be crazy, because they think they're sticking it to the man, not realizing that THEY are also the man, as any costs come back to the people. The NCAA is a nonprofit.
Why was this suit against the NCAA and not SC St.?
Lawyers always go for the biggest bag. (In other words, "Because that's where the money is.")
So they sue the wealthiest, not the most responsible.
Plus, other suits have been successful against the NCAA. Shark don't go after the fastest and fittest. They pick at the wounded to get their bit. It's an "excuse me, while you have your checkbook open..." partially.
This is bullshit as is the ruling that the NCAA never disclosed as the NCAA published a medical handbook in 1933 that warned that multiple concussions were thought to be the cause of punch drunk syndrome. The lawyers skirted that by instead alleging that the NCAA was at fault by
I also wonder if the player was told the risks by coaches and doctors back then but if they are no longer alive to contradict the claim he was never told.
The guy was drafted into the NFL but never played as the Bills put him on injured reserve for several years....yet the NFL wasnt sued either in this case.
He is the father of three former NFL players including Defensive End Robert Geathers Jr, who played 11 seasons for the Bengals after starring at Georgia. Clifton (Dolphins/Cowboys/Colts/Redskins/Eagles) and Kwame (Chargers/Bengals) also made it to the NFL. Robert Geathers 3rd is a 3* Safety in the Class of 2027. Geathers brother was also in the NFL and his son's both played college football.
Pretty clear the family has not worried about continuing to use football as a way to earn a living.
What VTKey said is 100% correct.
Lawyers always go for the biggest bag.
Check out a short essay called After the Fall by Jon Krakauer as well as The Death of Common Sense by Philip K. Howard to see how it is not who is at fault that gets sued. After the Fall is especially good at showing how, even if a product is clearly misused, the manufacturer still gets sued and it is often better to settle and pay a lot but avoid bankruptcy and liquidation on the 1% chance that there are enough idiots on a jury to side with the "victim".
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/570397/after-the-fall-by-jon-kr...
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Common-Sense-Suffocating-America/dp/0812982746
Yep and as I learned in my 'business law' class at VT in the 1980s, that's why you see the idiotic warning labels like 'don't try and fold your stroller with the baby inside it". My fave example was two neighbors who decided to trim the hedge between their lawns by holding their power mower and running it along the top and one slipped and had his hands mangled but successfully sued the manufacturer cause it didn't specifically warn them NOT to do so. Companies hire lawyers to think of the dumbest things to possibly happen with their products and put a warning label or instructions...e.g. don't use your hair dyer in the shower...
John Stossel had a great list of these too. Based on actual lawsuits. Off the top of my head, I remember:
Do not use while unconscious.
Do not use as a hair dryer (It was a paint stripping heat gun)
There were a bunch more.
The reason why we have new style gas cans (who all here remembers that thread) is people pouring gas out of the can onto a fire and suing for that.