NFL Head Trauma Lawsuit Says League Hid Risks from Players

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

The NFL was hit with another lawsuit alleging the organization hid the risk of head trauma from players and their families.

According to the NFL head trauma lawsuit, filed by former Chicago Bears player Craig Steltz and his wife, players were not told of the affects that repeated head trauma would have to their health over the course of their lives.

The NFL lawsuit claims the league had an obligation to protect players’ health and safety, but failed to disclose the devastating effects traumatic brain injuries (TBI), even mild ones, can have on players in the long run.

Steltz allegedly “suffers from symptoms of brain injury caused by the repetitive, traumatic sub-concussive and/or concussive head impacts [he] sustained during NFL games and/or practices.”

This is not the first lawsuit the NFL has faced over the risks of concussions on players. In 2014, the NFL agreed to pay thousands of former players and their families to end a lawsuit alleging the organization was aware of the devastating consequences of head trauma routinely experienced by professional football players but failed to disclose that information.

The settlement was approved in 2015 and provided medical exams for retired NFL players, money for those who developed a number of diseases, including ALS and dementia, money for deceased players’ families, and funding for education about head trauma and football safety.

The plaintiff in the recently filed NFL head trauma lawsuit contends that since he did not retire from the Bears until August 2014, he and his family are not covered by the previous NFL concussion class action lawsuit settlement.

Further, alleges the NFL head trauma lawsuit, the organization had a duty, outlined in the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the organization, to act in their best interests regarding their safety and health.

By failing to warn players about the research linking even minor head trauma to lifelong negative health consequences, the NFL failed in its duty, alleges the former player.

According to the NFL lawsuit, the organization went even further and allegedly misrepresented medical evidence about the effects of concussions. The plaintiff alleges that the NFL “market[ed] the game and their products as safe when defendants knew or should have known the risks and negative health effects of brain trauma [they] caused.”

The “NFL knew that the risks of brain injury could be reduced by implementing changes to the game,” alleges the NFL head trauma lawsuit. However, the organization “withheld the information it knew . . . and ignored the known risks to all NFL players.”

For its part, the organization has filed a notice of removal of the NFL head trauma lawsuit to federal court in Louisiana.

The plaintiffs are represented by Norman F. Hodgins III of Hodgins Law Group.

The NFL Head Trauma Lawsuit is Steltz, et al. v. National Football League, et al., Case No. 2:18­-cv­-08307, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.