Dementia Claims in NFL Concussion Settlement Are Going Unpaid. Why?
By Ken Reed
Lawyers representing former NFL players who have filed dementia claims under the NFL concussion settlement, say the league is “muddling the claims process.”
“The NFL seeks to rig the Settlement system. This is part of the League’s DNA,” said Gene Locks, a Philadelphia-based attorney who represents 1,100 players in the case.
NFL representatives strongly disagree with that charge.
“The notion the NFL is throwing sand in the gears and trying to block and obstruct, nothing can be further from the truth,” said a league official who requested anonymity due to not being authorized by the league to discuss the case.
The numbers in the case make it hard to accept the NFL’s position.
Dementia claims represent by far the largest segment of medical diagnoses under the settlement, and only a small percentage have been paid to date. Out of 1,712 claims made in the first year of the settlement, 1,113 cite a diagnosis of neurocognitive impairment. Of those, only six have been paid for a total payout of $4.85 million.
One attorney who specializes in brain injury law isn’t surprised by the way the settlement process has gone to date.
“It’s played out the way I anticipated,” said, Michael Kaplan, who co-authored a brief in 2016 for the Supreme Court on behalf of the Brain Injury Association of America outlining potential problems with the NFL settlement.
“These players are beginning to wake up and understand the settlement is a fraud. The majority of players who deserve compensation are not going to get compensation.”
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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