NFL disability lawsuit overview:
- Who: The National Football League and its retirement and health plans are facing a class action lawsuit from former NFL players Stacey Bailey and Eric Curry.
- Why: The plaintiffs claim that the NFL uses a different baseline for individuals based on race and thus assume that some races are less intelligent when judging cognitive losses.
- Where: The NFL race-norming lawsuit is filed in federal court in Maryland.
The National Football League and its retirement and disability funds are facing a class action lawsuit claiming that the groups discriminate based on race in their assessment of cognitive disabilities.
Former NFL players Stacey Bailey and Eric Curry are suing the league and the funds claiming that they are assumed to be less intelligent and thus received less disability benefit because of their race.
Both former players claim to have multiple serious impairments but were graded as having only mild impairments by the NFL disability system because of the race-norming, the lawsuit claims.
“Because plaintiffs are African American, when they applied for disability benefits, multiple scores from their cognitive test battery were adjusted using the plans’ race norming methodology,” the NFL disability benefits lawsuit claims. “As a result, the cognitive decline measurements from the tests appear smaller than they would have been had plaintiffs been provided the same treatment under the plans as certain Caucasian participants.”
The NFL disability benefits plans are being criticized for systemic bias that is motivated by financial considerations in an attempt to limit how much benefit is paid out to the former NFL players that the plans were designed to help, the lawsuit claims.
Former players should be judged against their previous cognitive abilities, not those of their race, lawsuit claims
The plans are supposed to provide benefits to the former NFL athletes for cognitive changes compared to their previous acumen, not compared to others of their race, the NFL race norming lawsuit says.
The American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology, in fact, recently wrote a paper stating that the term race lacks a clear definition because there is such a wide variety within each racial group and the organization recently wrote that it supports eliminating race as a variable in neurological test interpretation altogether, the NFL lawsuit claims.
In other NFL-related news, retired NFL player Michael Oher filed a lawsuit claiming the Tennessee-area couple who took him into their home as a teenager lied about adopting him and, instead, tricked him into signing a conservatorship so they could enrich themselves.
Have you been subjected to discrimination based on race? Let us know in the comments.
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