NFL Players Notified That Brain Injury Settlement Reduced to Nothing

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NFL players who were set to receive compensation from a traumatic brain injury settlement have discovered that their payout will be reduced to almost nothing.

Award notifications from the NFL brain injury settlement have been sent out to families, and in many cases, recipients are shocked to discover that much of the money has been withheld.

A years-long brain injury multidistrict litigation has finally come to an end, but not as lucratively as participating players had hoped.

The National Football League had settled the players’ claim with more than $1 billion that was supposed to have compensated players and their families who had been affected by brain injury that reportedly incurred during a player’s tenure with the NFL.

USA TODAY reported that former players and families who are receiving their award notifications are saying that much of the money that they were supposed to have received is being withheld.

In many cases, recipients are receiving just pennies on the dollar of what they expected to receive, and in other cases, award notifications are even in negative balances due to withholdings, meaning that people who expected to receive money have ended up owing money.

Such was the case for Sarah Goldston, the 90-year-old woman who is the widow of Ralph Goldston. Ralph was one of the first black NFL players to play for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1952. Tragically, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s during his retirement.

Sarah learned that she was set to receive $160,000 from the settlement to compensate for Ralph’s injury.

However, in her award notification, she recently learned that she would not be receiving that amount, and instead was notified that her award was negative $740.

She says that the court kept some of the money to cover Ralph’s medical bills in the case the family had not fully paid them.

Players and families can appeal their award decision, but that will reportedly cost an additional $1,000 per case.

Some of the withheld money will reportedly be going to lawyers fees, and some experts say that these fees are charged unfairly.

Allegedly, lawyers who had worked on the case for only 15 months but were then fired before the case was settled billed up to 25 percent of a player’s settlement award.

Columbia Law School professor John C. Coffee Jr. expressed disdain to USA TODAY for this practice, saying that players “should be outraged,” because lawyers demanding such high compensation for very little work is “unjust enrichment.”

Coffee’s statement, along with the anger and confusion expressed by many award recipient, suggests that more legal battles are to come, as players fight back against the NFL for allegedly unfair award amounts.

The settling players are represented by Seeger Weiss LLP, Anapol Schwartz Weiss Cohan Feldman & Smalley PC and Podhurst Orseck PA.

The NFL Concussion Class Action Lawsuit appeals are In re: National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation, Case Nos. 15-2206, 15-2217, 15-2230, 15-2234, 15-2272, 15-2273, 15-2290, 15-2291, 15-2292, 15-2294, 15-2304 and 15-2305, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.