Next wave of concussion lawsuits hits conferences, and for Penn State, schools

Submitted by bluebyyou on

The next wave of lawsuits are being filed, except this time it is more than just the NCAA, and includes conferences and universities as well.  This IS a big deal and has potential to be very problematic, particularly if conferences and individual schools are held liable.

http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/next-wave-of-concussion-…

Former college football players at Penn State, Auburn, Georgia, Oregon, Utah and Vanderbilt are suing the NCAA, their former conference and -- in some instances -- their former school over how their concussions were treated.

Six class-action lawsuits filed Tuesday represent the start of the next wave of concussion litigation in college sports, even as the NCAA finalizes a $75 million settlement from a different lawsuit related to concussions. Chicago attorney Jay Edelson, who is leading this latest effort to sue the NCAA, said 40 to 50 class-action lawsuits will eventually get filed on behalf of tens of thousands of ex-football players.

"The goal of the suits is to get people who are injured financial compensation -- something that hasn't happened as of yet," Edelson said.

A federal judge in Illinois gave preliminary approval in January to the NCAA's settlement from a 2011 lawsuit brought by former Eastern Illinois football player Adrian Arrington over how the association handled concussions. The judge had one significant caveat: Athletes could still sue their university, conference and the NCAA as a class under certain terms, meaning the NCAA didn't receive the blanket immunity it sought.

wolverine1987

May 18th, 2016 at 5:28 PM ^

for not being on top of the still emerging science of concussions. That will be very productive. And of course, if you get concussed, you should definitely get money for that... 

Tater

May 18th, 2016 at 7:31 PM ^

Concussion management may be an "emerging science, but for at least 60 years, it has been considered unwise to put a player with a concussion back into a football game.  The problem is that too many coaches and players "looked the other way" and pretended there was no concussion.  

egrgoblue

May 18th, 2016 at 8:40 PM ^

Team docs were not sending clearly symptomatic (photophobia, disoriented, amnesia, nausea/vomiting etc) concussed players back into a game 60 years ago or 10 years ago. However, that's not how the majority of concussions present on the sideline. 10 years ago, and probably more recently, "mild" or Grade I concussions (now an obsolete/irrelevant terminology) were observed for 15-30 minutes and reevaluated. If "symptom free" and after a brief neurological exam (with no controls or validated metrics) they were often cleared to return to play that game. They almost certainly would return to practice quickly and play the next week.

That was common, "standard of care". Trainers, docs and all really didn't know any better. It hasn't been until fairly recently that the medical community has realized how much we don't know about concussion and the potential for significant long term consequences that exists with even "mild" concussions.

The sideline management of concussions is drastically different now than 7-10 years ago. I think that trying to hold an institution, team, training staff or doctor accountable to today's standards for actions many years ago will be difficult.

pescadero

May 18th, 2016 at 9:32 PM ^

"Team docs were not sending clearly symptomatic (photophobia, disoriented, amnesia, nausea/vomiting etc) concussed players back into a game 60 years ago or 10 years ago. "

 

Umm... ya, they were.

 

pescadero

May 19th, 2016 at 11:07 AM ^

Well - it seemed so very obviously a false assertion on his part I didn't think anyone would need to see any evidence..



http://www.sbnation.com/2015/11/22/9779622/case-keenum-concussion-rams-…



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nY5hNq3VUQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYyrrr-Kzms

 

http://www.wndu.com/mmm/headlines/57003092.html

"The study also found that 16 percent of football players reported returning to play the same day they lost consciousness."

 

 

egrgoblue

May 19th, 2016 at 3:38 PM ^

was in response to a previous comment and spoke more to the evolving evaluation and understanding of concussion.

As to your claim of my obvious "false assertions", there will always be exceptions, but your "evidence" doesn't disprove my statement. Keenum and Morris are great examples of system failures. Morris was never evaluated by a health care professional. Seemingly, Hoke put him back in on his own. A trainer saw Keenum on the field. He may not have seen the hit, may not have seen him on the ground or spoke to the spotter, and by the time he reached him maybe Keenum "seemed" fine. The system, not a team doctor, failed these players in these instances and clearly there has to be improvement in that regard. Your last link supports exactly what I was saying more than anything else. By the way, brief loss of consciousness in football is not uncommon and probably underreported. Difficult to know incidence because players wake up before you can get to them. Brief LOC alone, in the absence of persistent symptoms, was not felt to be an absolute exclusion for return to play years ago so those numbers while suspect don't really surprise me.

Your tone is one of incompetence, neglect and conspiracy on the part of health care providers. I can guarantee that in the vast majority of cases there is nothing farther from the truth.

Are you a health care professional who has stood on the sideline of football games tasked with the well being of multiple players at once including the evaluation and management of concussion?

If not, I'd suggest you don't know what you don't know.

pescadero

May 19th, 2016 at 6:01 PM ^

A failure of the system is a failure of the team doctor.



 

Your tone is one of incompetence, neglect and conspiracy on the part of health care providers.

 

Medical providers for sports teams, especially professional, have a suprising history of neglect and incompetence. Just take a look at Dr. Joseph Maroon and the concussion issue in the NFL.

 

Take a look at NFL doctors complicit in their coverup and obfuscation of concussion knowledge.

 

Are you a health care professional who has stood on the sideline of football games tasked with the well being of multiple players at once including the evaluation and management of concussion?

 

No - I'm an athlete who actually played football during the time period mentioned and personally witnessed and experienced multiple players being allowed back on the field (and there were doctors and trainers present) after exhibiting obvious concussion symptoms. I saw clearly symptomatic (photophobia, disoriented, amnesia, nausea/vomiting etc)players being allowed back on the field regularly.

egrgoblue

May 19th, 2016 at 9:54 PM ^

that a failure of the system is a failure of the team doctor necessarily.

I am an athlete who actually played football too. I played concussed multiple times because the doc never knew. Happened a lot back then, hopefully far less now.

The medical community is working very hard to implement safe guidelines for the evaluation and management of concussion. It requires an integrated system with buy-in from the team/institution, coaches, trainers, multiple different physician specialties and the players themselves. I am a team doctor for high school and professional teams. While there may be exceptions, the vast majority of us care a great deal about the athletes we are responsible for and truly want what is best for them.

pescadero

May 20th, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^

"I disagree completely that a failure of the system is a failure of the team doctor necessarily"



A team doctor can, at any time, yank any player out of the game.

A team doctor is responsible for educating the coaches, school, and players adequately in concussion recognition and appropriate response.

 

"I am an athlete who actually played football too. I played concussed multiple times because the doc never knew."



If you lost consciousness and the doc didn't know... doctors fault. If you vomited and the doc didn't know... doctors fault.If your coaches knew you were in any way concussed and let you play...



"It requires an integrated system with buy-in from the team/institution, coaches, trainers, multiple different physician specialties and the players themselves."

I agree - and it requires that Doctors, as the senior medical official, refuse to work without these things and act as a whistleblower when unsafe conditions or lack of buy-in by appropriate constituents doesn't happen.

 

 

Mr Miggle

May 18th, 2016 at 6:36 PM ^

of concussion science, do they not? Who is in a better position to do so? Many were slow to protect their players. Many schools did not bother to formulate a concussion protocol until the NCAA mandated it in 2010. At that time half of the schools didn't even require concussed players see a doctor before going back into a game. I'd guess that was lagging pretty far behind the known science.

Here's what is alleged in the lawsuit. If they can prove this, that's certainly not a given, they deserve to win.

For decades, the NCAA, schools and conferences knew about debilitating long-term dangers of concussions and sub-concussive injuries "but actively concealed this information to protect the very profitable business of 'amateur' college football," the suits claim. The defendants are accused of encouraging players to return to play after suffering concussions.

 

wolverine1987

May 19th, 2016 at 7:07 AM ^

this allegation is complete horseshit. Its a claim made up by lawyers because as you say, if proved true (or, in the case of jury empathy, if they feel it could have been true) they will win money. Common sense says it's not true. It was ten years or so only that most consussions were considered "getting your bell rung" and after you could count the fingers in front of you, you were back in. There was no consiracy, that's ludicrous on its face. 

Mr Miggle

May 19th, 2016 at 10:04 AM ^

what the NCAA or the schools knew? Not trying to be snarky, but it's hard not to see the players or even the coaches being the last to know.

It doesn't have to be a grand conspiracy. I think it's very easy to make the case that schools and the NCAA were motivated not to draw attention to concussion and CTE problems in football. Maybe they hoped the problem would go away if they just ignored it. Maybe they feared liability claims if they acknowledged the dangers, but their measures were inadequate.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the claims in the lawsuit are overblown. I would also not be surprised to find discussions within conferences and the NCAA that led to delays in addressing the problem. About half of the NCAA members set up concussion protocols before they were mandated. How much was known is to be discovered, but would anyone be surprised if the NCAA wasn't acting in the best interests of their atheletes?

 

 

ijohnb

May 19th, 2016 at 10:39 AM ^

you want to say that there were certain instances in which coaches put players back into a game for competitive reasons after a concussion before the protocol was in place, well yeah, it seems quite clear that happened.  However, this suit suggests that the NCAA and schools were concealing sensitive information regarding concussions systematically for the "good of the game."  That information regarding concussions and CTE is precisely what is coming out now and the limited information that was possesed at the time is likely what lead to the concussion protocol.   The development of the concussion protocol is evidence of the NCAA and school actively trying to address a situation they were becomming aware of, not evidence of them actively conspiring to conceal the issue. 

In reply to by ijohnb

Mr Miggle

May 19th, 2016 at 5:10 PM ^

"The development of the concussion protocol is evidence of the NCAA and school actively trying to address a situation they were becomming aware of, not evidence of them actively conspiring to conceal the issue." 

Maybe that's correct. I would like to think so, but I can't help but think that they knew enough to act before 2010. Maybe they delayed it until they felt they no longer had a choice. Were they waiting for definitive proof before taking some common sense steps to protect the players? Maybe some schools were pushing for something to be done and it took quite awhile to convince the majority to go along. We can hope that the discovery process will show what happened.

The NFL was accused of hiding what they knew from players. I believe the terms of their settlement will keep what the league knew and when from being made public. I don't want to draw too many conclusions from that, but I would expect the NCAA to know just as much as the NFL.

 

wolverine1987

May 19th, 2016 at 11:23 AM ^

unless someone presents you with incontravertible evidence and you ignore it. I'd bet there never was a single NCAA discussion involving concussions at any level any time up until the last few years or so. Why? Because no one ever thought it was a serious issue worth discussing back then, before the recent spate of new evidence/articles etc

pescadero

May 19th, 2016 at 6:05 PM ^

I think the fact that a number of conferences/schools instituted concussion policies years before the NCAA policy belies that.

 

...and it doesn't need to be "incontravertible evidence" - they just need to show that the doctors/schools did not adhere to the "standard of care". That is what tort law requires. See the Bolam Test.



 

maizenbluenc

May 18th, 2016 at 8:44 PM ^

He was a center, and he was in pretty bad shape with Parkinson's like symptoms. I am pretty sure Bo would have been on the side of taking care of former players.

I think injuries sustained playing in college should be covered for life. CTE can't be diagnosed, so CTE outcomes should be covered as well.

Stop building palaces with the revenue, and start insuring players.

funkywolve

May 18th, 2016 at 11:08 PM ^

Almost all of these players started playing when they were really young.  While I agree the universities and conferences might have some responsibility, to place it all on them assumes high schools, jr highs and pop warner leagues are not at fault.  Part of the problem is the repeated pounding the brain takes and the brain didn't start taking that pounding when the players went to college.  It more than likely started when the players started playing football.

Esterhaus

May 18th, 2016 at 5:39 PM ^

 

I cannot comprehend any of this. I believe I played football once and was concussed. Where do I sign up for these lawsuits? Oh the billboards along the highway, thanks man. /s/future millionaire despite my NFL career never panned out and I'm 5'10 170 lbs and myopic with no hand-eye coordination, yee haw

ppudge

May 18th, 2016 at 5:42 PM ^

"The goal of the suits is to get people who are injured financial compensation -- something that hasn't happened as of yet," Edelson said. "Oh and a big pile of money for me," he continued under his breath.

jg2112

May 18th, 2016 at 5:46 PM ^

If these lawsuits are successful in any way, and the attorneys next target high school football (where the concussion protocols, training, and resources are far inferior to college), football associated with high schools (especially public ones) may cease to exist.

Mr Miggle

May 18th, 2016 at 7:01 PM ^

This lawsuit only covers cases before 2010, when the NCAA mandated schools set up a concussion protocol. Surely high schools have followed suit by now. Even with fewer resources, they still have a duty to protect their players.

Sopwith

May 18th, 2016 at 6:16 PM ^

they used to call it "getting your bell rung." It kinda sounded like a good thing. Walk it off for a few minutes and get the hell back in there.

JOHNNAVARREISMYHERO

May 18th, 2016 at 6:31 PM ^

The main issue I have with all this is the lack of personal accountability - the players who "tough" it out and keep quiet,  then come back later saying their injury was mistreated.

Hell even Morris was waving off the coaches acting like he was fine to stay in.

 

 

ppToilet

May 18th, 2016 at 6:50 PM ^

But from my vantage point, it was clear that Shane wanted to come out and was in no position to make that kind of decision. It also seemed pretty clear to most of the people in the stands, as I recall.

JOHNNAVARREISMYHERO

May 18th, 2016 at 7:16 PM ^

I thought for sure he was waving people off, but I do understand your point.  The whole situation was botched by Michigan and the whole thing would have ended if the Big Ten refs weren't just as imcompetent as Hoke.  

Overall, the main concern I have is what about all the players who know something is wrong, but don't say anything when the issue isn't blatantly obvious.    Because you hear guys all the time say they probably had dozens of concussions  -they played through it and didn't say anything because they wanted to stay in the game.  

The doctors have a job to do, but there has to be some personal accountability on players to answer the call when their bodies are saying something is wrong.  

Mr Miggle

May 19th, 2016 at 10:05 AM ^

are in a condition to make good decisions? They don't get to wave off doctors when a concussion is suspected.

The problem is that in the past, they were allowed to make those calls. They were often under pressure from coaches to tough it out, so might have thought they had no choice.

drzoidburg

May 18th, 2016 at 9:20 PM ^

When they are blacking out like biakabutuka claims, they aren't thinking clearly and are in no condition to make such decisions. Besides, pressure from their teammates and coaches dictates that no one will be asked to be taken out. That's why a 3rd party needs to make the call

carolina blue

May 18th, 2016 at 6:54 PM ^

Sorry, but this seems like garbage. I feel bad for the kids, but it's not like the NFL where they knew for years about the effects of head trauma. Without proof of knowledge AT THE TIME, then forget it.




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Mr Miggle

May 19th, 2016 at 6:40 PM ^

then why wouldn't the NCAA and it's member schools? What would be their excuse not to? Ignorance is not a great defense when you have a responsibility to be informed.

Not only are there hundreds of schools involved, but a large number with their own medical research centers. As a group, no one has more resources in this area. They also had a greater duty to protect their players. NFL players at least have a union to represent their interests. College players depend on their schools and the NCAA.

xtramelanin

May 18th, 2016 at 7:39 PM ^

some of these suits.  the law is different in different states, but that might be a hurdle for anyone pursuing a public university or high school.

and i definitely see the end of football in this.  even if various schools want to play, no insurance company will cover them.   

enjoy football this year, maybe next, because it might be the last time you ever see it in any significant form.