PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A federal appeals court has upheld an estimated $1 billion plan by the NFL to settle thousands of concussion lawsuits filed by former players, potentially ending a troubled chapter in league history.
The decision released Monday comes nearly a year after a district judge approved the revised settlement and weeks after an NFL official speaking to Congress acknowledged for the first time a definite link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the brain decay found in dozens of former players after their deaths.
Critics appealing the settlement had argued that any deal include future payments for CTE. The appellate judges acknowledged their concerns but found the settlement was for the greater good of all players.
“This settlement will provide significant and immediate relief to retired players living with the lasting scars of a NFL career, including those suffering from some of the symptoms associated with CTE. We must hesitate before rejecting that bargain based on an unsupported hope that sending the parties back to the negotiating table would lead to a better deal,” Judge Thomas L. Ambro wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
The league has been dogged for years by complaints that it hid the risks of repeated concussions in order to return players to the field. The deal avoids the need for a trial and means the NFL may never have to disclose what it knew when about the risks and treatment of repeated concussions.