Updated 7:00 p.m. ETPHILADELPHIA The NFL and more than 4,500 former players want to resolve concussi...

1. NFL, former football players to settle concussion lawsuits
for $765 million, judge says
Updated 7:00 p.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA The NFL and more than 4,500 former players want to resolve concussion-related
lawsuits with a $765 million settlement that would fund medical exams, concussion-related
compensation and medical research, a federal judge said Thursday.
The plaintiffs include at least 10 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including former Dallas
Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett. They also include Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim
McMahon and the family of Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau, who committed suicide last year.
Play Video
Politics
Obama talks football, politics on Super Bowl Sunday
In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley in advance of the Super Bowl, President
Obama answered questions on a variety of topics...
Play Video
Health
High-tech football helmets designed to protect players
An Oklahoma City area school district is taking extra steps to protect high school football players.

2. Newcastle Racers are going high-tech with th...
Play Video
CBS This Morning
Junior Seau: NFL great remembered
Junior Seau, former San Diego Chargers star football player, was found dead in his California home,
from an apparent suicide. CBS News special co...
$675 million of the settlement is allocated to compensate former players for brain injuries and $75
million is slated to provide baseline medical exams, CBS correspondent Jim Axelrod reports. The
payments are to occur over 20 years.
Many former players with neurological conditions believe their problems stem from on-field
concussions. The lawsuits accused the league of hiding known risks of concussions for decades to
return players to games and protect its image.
The NFL has denied any wrongdoing and has insisted that safety has always been a top priority.
Senior U.S. District Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia announced the proposed settlement Thursday
after traverse city months of court-ordered mediation. She still must approve it at a later date.
The settlement likely means the NFL won't have to disclose internal files about what it knew, when,
about concussion-linked brain problems. Lawyers had been eager to learn, for instance, about the
workings of the league's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee, which was led for more than a
decade by a rheumatologist.
In court arguments in April, NFL lawyer Paul Clement asked Brody to dismiss the lawsuits and send
them to arbitration under terms of the players' contract. He said that individual teams bear the chief
responsibility for health and safety under the collective bargaining agreement, along with the

3. players' union and the players themselves.
Players lawyer David Frederick accused the league of concealing studies linking concussions to
neurological problems for decades.
Plaintiff Kevin Turner said lawyers he was thankful for the settlement, reports CBSSports.com's
Ryan Wilson. The former Eagles and Patriots running back now suffers from ALS and will serve as
the lead plaintiff for one group of retired players.
"The benefits in this agreement will make a difference not only for me and my family, but also for
thousands of my football brothers who either need help today or may need help someday in the
future," Turner said. "I am grateful that the NFL is making a commitment to the men who made the
game what it is today."
CBS Sports correspondent James Brown told Scott Pelley on "CBS Evening News" that the
settlement is also good for the "78 percent of players who leave the league within two years" and
"are facing bankruptcy," citing a 2009 study.
He added that 18,000 players being covered are not being covered by any medical insurance right
now
Critics of the settlement, however, say the NFL isn't paying up enough. CBS Sports analyst Jason
LaCanfora wrote in http://tcpersonalinjurylawyer.com/ an editorial he believes the league was still
getting its way.
"Sure, $765 million sounds like a lot of money, but with the business of the NFL better than ever and
the new TV contract just kicking in and labor costs fixed through this 10-year CBA (collective
bargaining agreement) and young talent on their rookie contracts cheaper than ever, well, trust me,
this is chump change," he wrote.
NFL writer Will Brinson writes that while the plaintiffs are certainly not losers in the case, the NFL
didn't lose either.
"There are few things more American than NFL football. But one of them is throwing money at a
problem and hoping it will go away," Brinson wrote.
Brown added that the payout takes the topic of concussions "out of the national conversation so the
league can focus on football for the first week" of http://www.superlawyers.com/index.html the
season.
Brody had initially planned traverse city to rule in July, but then delayed her ruling and ordered the
two sides to meet to decide which plaintiffs, if any, had the right to sue. She also issued a gag order,
so it has been unclear in recent weeks whether any progress was being made.
The lawyers were due to report back to her Tuesday, but Brody instead tcpersonalinjurylawyer.com
announced in court files Thursday that the case had settled.
In recent years, a string of former NFL players and other concussed athletes have been diagnosed
after their deaths with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Those ex-players included Seau
and lead plaintiff Ray Easterling, who filed the first suit in Philadelphia in August lawyers 2011 but
later committed suicide.

4. Play Video
CBS Evening News
Research shows the dangers of sport-related concussions
New research reveals brain damage among athletes in many sports -- not just football. Jim Axelrod
reports on the toll concussions can take on pla...
About one-third of the league's 12,000 former players have joined the litigation
http://zanyincident9167.sosblogs.com/The-first-blog-b1/Commercial-cases-land-in-hands-of-trial-lawy
ers-b1-p7.htm since 2011. They include a few hundred "gap" players, who played during years when
there was no labor contract in place, and were therefore considered likely to win the right to sue.
The timing of the settlement allowed the NFL to drop the issue from the national conversation
before the start of the new season.
All 32 clubs were scheduled to play their final exhibition games Thursday night, in preparation for
the start of the regular season next week. The first real game is next Thursday, with the reigning
Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens playing at the Denver Broncos.
Concussions -- and the former players' lawsuits -- had become a main theme of recent NFL seasons,
with players, coaches and league officials all forced to address the topic repeatedly, especially as
new plaintiffs came forward on nearly a weekly basis. It was the sort of public relations distraction
the league has become skilled at avoiding -- and the easiest way to set this topic aside, of course,
was to have the court cases resolved.
© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nfl-former-football-players-to-settle-concussion-lawsuits-for-765-millio
n-judge-says/