NCAA Fails to Protect Student Athletes, Class Action Says

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Big 12 Conference are facing yet another class action lawsuit, this time brought by five former college football players who claim the organizations fail to protect student athletes.

Plaintiffs Cory Brandon, Kelvin Chaisson, Derrick Cherry, Jarrod Blake Roberts and Joseph Walker are all former football players from Big 12 schools who played from as far back as 1994 through as recently as 2014.

Each plaintiff alleges he suffered numerous concussions during his college football career. As a result of these concussions, all five plaintiffs now claim they suffer from long-term brain and neurocognitive injuries.

Like other plaintiffs in many similar NCAA concussion class action lawsuits, these five allege the NCAA and the Big 12 schools knew for decades about the problem of concussions among student athletes.

Throughout that time, the defendants allegedly reaped profits from college sports comparable to those seen among professional sports leagues – profits the plaintiffs say came at the expense of the health and well-being of amateur student athletes.

Both the NCAA and Big 12 have a legal duty to promote player safety, according to this NCAA concussion class action lawsuit. Providing a safe competitive environment is a core responsibility for the NCAA, the players say.

To that end, the association and member conferences have exercised control over the rules of play, player behavior both on and off the field, and how to address player safety.

But despite the defendants’ acknowledgement of that responsibility, the plaintiffs argue, they failed to fulfill that duty by taking reasonable steps to reduce and manage the risks of concussions and associated injuries faced by college football players.

This NCAA concussion class action lawsuit is just one of several similar claims filed against the NCAA and conference schools within the past year.

By September 2016, at least seven such actions had been filed. Plaintiffs generally allege the NCAA and its affiliated schools knew about the problem of traumatic brain injury for decades, yet failed to take prudent steps to protect their student athletes.

A consolidation of these actions reached an NCAA concussion class action settlement last year. Under terms of that settlement, the NCAA must pay $70 million and set up a medical monitoring program that will provide free medical screenings for qualifying student athletes.

Student athletes who played an NCAA-sanctioned sport at an NCAA-sanctioned school at any time prior to July 15, 2016 may qualify to participate in the medical screening program.

In the football players’ current action, the plaintiffs propose to represent a Class that would include all persons who played football at any Big 12 school from the 1990 season through the 2016 season and who now suffer from long-term brain or neurocognitive injuries or disabilities or are likely to develop such problems in the future.

They are asking the court to award damages, restitution and disgorgement, attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation, all with pre- and post-judgment interest.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorney Vincent P. Circelli of Circelli Walter & Young PLLC.

The NCAA Concussion Class Action Lawsuit is Cory Brandon, et al. v. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, et al., Case No. 1:17-cv-00074, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.