Led by former Washington Redskins quarterback Mark Rypien, 126 former National Football League players filed a mass-tort lawsuit in a U.S. District Court on Friday. The lawsuit alleges that the NFL violated labor laws by deliberately hiding information about the risks of head injuries, thus exposing players to serious personal injuries such as brain damage and neurological disorders. The players believe that, had they known about the risks of repetitive traumatic brain injuries, they would not have chosen to play in the league.
According to the lawsuit, Rypien is currently afflicted with many symptoms related to multiple head traumas, including various neurological conditions. Gene Locks, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, differentiated between the injuries that players knew that they would sustain in the short-term and the hidden effects of long-term brain injuries. He said that, “It’s scary the extent to which these guys have been hurt. When we played football, broken bones, busted noses, tears of tissue were kind of expected. Nobody said you’d get a head injury. These injuries are insidious, they are latent, degenerative, and it gets worse and worse as you get older with certain players.”
This is just one of a flurry of concussion lawsuits that have hit the NFL, all of which claim that the NFL was deliberately negligent about the safety of their players. Although cases such as these may seem much different than most workplace accidents, they are emblematic of the kind of labor law violations that can easily result in personal injuries and wrongful deaths. In any work-related accident or injury, our personal injury attorneys in New York City specialize in winning large personal injury settlements from negligent employers. If you have been injured in the workplace, contact our offices today.