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Thursday, December 01, 2011
Courts - "College Athletes Move Concussions Into the Courtroom"
That is the headline to a very long story by George Vecsey of the NY Times, published yesterday. A quote:
[Derek Owens is] one of four plaintiffs in a class-action suit that claims the N.C.A.A. has been negligent regarding awareness and treatment of brain injuries to athletes.The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, represents Owens, Adrian Arrington and Mark Turner, recent college football players, and Angela Palacios, a former college soccer player.
The legal action comes after a five-year flurry of awareness of brain injuries in contact sports and follows lawsuits filed this year by dozens of former N.F.L. players who claim the league was negligent in its handling of brain trauma. The issue has moved from science labs to Congress and now to courtrooms, where the financial exposure of the sport’s governing bodies may be tested.
The N.F.L. is subsidizing care for some of the most seriously damaged of its former players, after public and Congressional pressure forced the league to acknowledge the gravity of the issue. But the damage did not begin with the first hit in an N.F.L. training camp. Players have been absorbing blows to the brain since they were children.
“I hear from former players who were taught spearing,” said Representative Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California, who has been an active participant in Congressional hearings into brain damage among N.F.L. players.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 1, 2011 09:04 AM
Posted to Courts in general