Retired football players could be eligible for the NFL Concussion Settlement Agreement if they suffered from concussions or head trauma while playing for an NFL team.

While most people think of a player who has been knocked out as having the most severe trauma, studies show that repeated minor trauma causes serious brain problems as well.

What is CTE?

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a degenerative brain disease believed to be caused by repetitive brain injury. When the brain is directly injured, proteins gather around that affected area.

When brain cells are healthy, the healthy cells eat the proteins, but in CTE, the proteins eventually outnumber the healthy brain cells. The healthy brain cells are too few to adequately clear the brain.

CTE has been seen in 87 of 91 (96 percent) deceased retired NFL players. When these post-mortem examinations were done, 40 percent of the brains that tested positive for CTE belonged to offensive and defensive lineman.

Lineman clobber each other on every play during every game; the trauma to the brain might not be over-the-top every time, but the repetitive nature of the minor head trauma poses the greatest risk for developing CTE.

Not long ago, physicians believed that CTE was a problem that could only develop after a plyer had suffered violent collisions that lead to undeniable concussions. This new evidence proves that not to be the case.

NFL Concussion Settlement Impairments

In addition to CTE, other brain ailments qualify for coverage of the NFL concussion settlement. These include:

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease
• Dementia
• Memory Loss
• Parkinson’s Disease

PBS’s Frontline has been tracking concussions in the NFL since 2012. In 2015, there were 199 recorded concussions, the most since they started counting. Many of the injured players missed only one game, if any at all.

The higher number of concussions lead to Frontline producing a series, “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis.” In addition, Frontline produced a two-hour documentary telling how head trauma problems were initially discovered by Dr. Bennet Omalu when he performed an autopsy on retired NFL player Mike Webster.

Webster died at age 50 of a heart attack, but an autopsy proved he had CTE after playing in the NLF for 17 years, most of those years as a center with the Steelers.

NFL Concussion Settlement Maneuvering

The NFL concussion settlement agreement is 150 pages long. An involved, strict set of rules, regulations and deadlines exist in order for retired NFL players to obtain the maximum amount of money they deserve.

Attorneys familiar with the NFL concussion settlement can help you obtain the benefits you deserve. If you or someone you know played for the NFL and now suffer from neurological disorders, do not hesitate to seek legal counsel.