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Notre Dame College Athletes Head Trauma Class Action Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: Notre Dame college athletes lodged a class action lawsuit against the school and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
- Why: The college athletes say that the school and NCAA failed to tell them about the long lasting and devastating effects of head trauma they suffered while participating in popular sports, including football.
- Where: The lawsuit was filed in Indiana federal court.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and University of Notre Dame have, up until 2010, kept football players and the public in the dark about an epidemic that was slowly killing former college athletes, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
The class action lawsuit was filed in Indiana on August 25 by Mary Elizabeth Morrison, as attorney-in fact of Richard Morrison, who alleges that the school and athletic association failed to implement adequate procedures to protect Richard Morrison and other Notre Dame football players from the long-term dangers associated with repeated head trauma. And that they did so knowingly and for profit.
Mary Morrison says that Richard Morrison and the Notre Dame Du Lac football players were raised to live and breathe the game, but the university and athletic association governing its football program had a reckless disregard for the health and safety of generations of those Notre Dame college athletes.
College Athletes Face Debilitating Injuries After Head Trauma, Concussions
For decades, NCAA and Notre Dame knew about the debilitating long-term dangers of concussions, concussion-related injuries, and sub-concussive injuries (referred to as “traumatic brain injuries” or “TBIs”) that resulted from playing college football, but recklessly disregarded this information to protect the very profitable business of “amateur” college football, the lawsuit states.
It says that during the course of a football season, college athletes absorb more than 1,000 impacts greater than 10 Gs (gravitational force) and, worse yet, the majority of football-related hits to the head exceed 20 Gs, with some approaching 100 Gs.
To put this in perspective, if you drove your car into a wall at twenty-five miles per hour and weren’t wearing a seatbelt, the force of you hitting the windshield would be around 100 Gs, the claim points out.
“Over time, the repetitive and violent impacts to players’ heads led to repeated concussions that severely increased their risks of long-term brain injuries, including memory loss, dementia, depression, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (‘CTE’), Parkinson’s disease, and other related symptoms,” claims the college athletes head trauma lawsuit.
NCAA, Schools College Athletes Concussion Protocols Inadequate
Richard Morrison played football at Notre Dame from 1985 to 1988, as a nose guard, and during that time he suffered numerous concussions, as well as countless sub-concussive hits as part of routine practice and gameplay, the class action lawsuit says.
Since the inception of Notre Dame’s football program, through at least 2010, there were no adequate concussion management protocols or policies in place to address and treat concussions suffered by college athletes, the claim alleges.
“For instance, when Richard Morrison and other Notre Dame players experienced a significant head injury or concussion, they would quickly be returned to the field of play or only be taken out of play or practice for an inadequate period of time.”
The lawsuit adds that, despite knowing the dangers of the Richard Morrison’s or other players’ repeated concussions, NCAA and Notre Dame failed to adopt or implement adequate concussion management safety protocols or return to play guidelines for college athletes.
As a result, Richard Morrison now suffers from issues including including short-term memory loss, loss of concentration, impulsive behavior/poor inhibition, emotional instability, depression, speech and language difficulty, fatigue, confusion, anxiety, insomnia, motor impairment, tinnitus, major neurocognitive disorder, and frontotemporal dementia, the claim states.
As a member of the NCAA, Notre Dame agreed to abide by the NCAA Constitution –which has the overarching principles of safeguarding its athletes — and is charged with implementing and enforcing NCAA guidelines in a meaningful way to protect the health and safety of Notre Dame college athletes, the claim reads. However, it adds, neither defendant followed through on their commitments.
“While in school, Notre Dame football players were under Defendants’ care. Unfortunately, Defendants did not care about the off-field consequences that would haunt students such as Richard Morrison for the rest of their lives,” the claim alleges.
Morrison wants to represent all college athletes who participated in Notre Dame’s football program between 1952 and 2010.
The Notre Dame college athletes head trauma lawsuit is far from the first legal action the NCAA faces claiming its concussion protocols and policies were inadequate. In 2016, the Association and several athletic conferences were hit with a total of six class action lawsuits filed by former college football players who claim the NCAA and conferences failed to protect student-athletes from the danger of repeated head injuries. In 2014, the NCAA paid $75 to settle concussion class action lawsuits.
Tell us if you think college athletes that suffer long-term brain injuries stemming from football should be entitled to damages in the comments section!
The former players are represented by Jeff Raizner of Raizner Slania LLP and Benjamin H. Richman, Jay Edelson and Rafey S. Balabanian of Edelson PC.
The Notre Dame College Athletes Head Injury Class Action Lawsuit is Morrison v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, Case No. 3:21-cv-00635 in U.S. District Court For The Northern District Of Indiana.
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