While football is a truly exciting sport, National Football League (NFL) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) players know all too well the risks involved in an aggressive sport like American football. The NFL has had its fair share of terrible and devastating injuries to its players. Yet, of all the injuries inflicted on-field, none is more enigmatic and distressing than head blows that could lead to severe brain injuries. This particular injury is putting the league into a legal tailspin and gives Commissioner Roger Goodell severe headaches.

Such is the reality of "America's Game." Many argue that it is just the nature of the sport, but new technology is shedding light to the realities of brain traumas like concussions and blows to the head, especially if repeated, are linked to permanent brain damage.

Last year, future NFL Hall-of-Famer, Junior Seau, committed suicide after battling depression and the reported "voices in his head." Recently, a team of scientists studying his brain tissue concluded that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy from repeated blows to the head during a career that spanned two decades. With the findings, Seau's family recently filed legal lawsuits against the NFL, the NCAA, and Riddell Athletic Gear.

The NFL has had numerous cases of retired players, many of them forgotten, whose lives after football are marred by the effects of repeated blows that resulted in perhaps hundreds of medically undocumented concussions. With the current lack of understanding, signs of the injury are hard to spot. The urge to win and the love of the game soon takes over again and the injury is ignored until it re-surfaces later.

With new technology, athletic organizations have done their best in recent years to protect players from the dangers of concussions by enforcing strict policies that prevent brain injuries. Regardless, hundreds of lawsuits from retired players are being filed all across the United States against the league for not doing enough to protect them from head injuries in the past.

(Originally Published Eisenberg Gilchrist and Cutt)

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If you frequently visit my blog, you surely have noticed how active I've covered the issue of concussions in professional sports recently. This type of injury is a serious concern particularly for the National Football League (NFL) who is facing hundreds of lawsuits from former players who are experiencing some negative effects of undocumented concussion injuries during their heyday. As part of my ongoing coverage, we just learnt that the National Football League is taking some steps to address the issue.

According to sources, the NFL is teaming up with General Electric for a four-year initiative to develop brain-imaging technology that will effectively detect concussions and the creation of materials for helmets and protective gears that will better protect its players from permanent disability. The NFL is putting in $50 million initially to start the project.

The project was initiated in light of recent damaging wrongful death lawsuits that questioned the NFLs integrity and motives. The latest one came from the family of future Hall of Fame inductee, Junior Seau. The family claims that the NFL knew the risks of concussions but continued to market the sport’s ferocity. With its popularity and longevity hanging in the balance, the league’s top brass decided to act proactively, sooner than later.

Seau suffered through depression and mood swings allegedly brought about by multiple, undetected concussions. He committed suicide last year and his brain was donated to researchers. The team found that he suffered from a neurodegenerative brain damage.

Last week, the NFL Players’ Association released the results of their health and safety survey where they found out that 78 percent of active players do not trust team doctors and medical staff citing a doctor in San Diego as a clear example of a medical practitioner known to commit malpractices while continuously employed by the team. The Union also announced that the players will donate $100 million to Harvard University for comprehensive Health and Safety research.

Wrongful death lawsuit filed against NFL

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The National Football League can add another lawsuit to its growing list of lawsuits from former players suffering from concussion-related brain injuries. Junior Seau's family sued the league for wrongful death weeks after results of a report that confirmed suspicions that the future Hall of Fame inductee may have suffered a neurodegenerative brain disease as a result of two decades of repeated, often-undocumented concussions.

Seau, who spent most of his career in San Diego and Southern California, fatally shot himself in the chest last year. His death raised concerns over the effects of concussions on the well-being of the league's former players. This started a wave of lawsuits against the NFL.

The lawsuit filed in the San Diego County Superior Court alleges that the NFL, although well aware of the risks involved, deliberately concealed certain information from players while continually marketing the violent nature of the sport.

Seau apparently changed significantly over the last years of his life, making bad business decisions and being depressed and indifferent toward his family. His behavioral changes were allegedly an effect of the chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, that was only recently diagnosed by experts.

Sources indicate that his family is currently not claiming any financial compensation, but wants NFL to acknowledge fault, to care more for its former players and to make the sport safer. American football has recently faced a lot of heat. Nicknamed "America's Game," it is widely regarded as the most popular sport in the country.

This might change if ferocity of the game is toned down for safety reasons. Some players are now trying out newly developed Kevlar linings designed to minimize impacts in their helmets. They hope that new technology will help salvage the sport's damaged reputation.

Concussions could possibly cause serious brain injury. These injuries can have lasting effects on people and death may even be the result. Depending on the outcome of these types of lawsuits, the NFL could find itself increasingly liable for the financial consequences of these injuries to players.

Written by Vee Dela Casa for the Law Offices of Lee Arter, February 4, 2013. For the U.S. published version, click here)

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Tags: brain injury, compensation, concussions, NFL lawsuits, loss of a loved one, wrongful death

About The Author

Victor Dela Casa is a Filipino-Canadian who spent over a decade working as a business professional in Canada. Worked in IT, finance, marketing, international trade, public service, project management and the maritime industry. Earned degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines and Business Administration Honours from Eastern College. Currently based in the Philippines and working as a professional writer for a multi-national business processes firm.