Damage Control: NFL Reacts to Statements Made by League Executive About Link Between Football and CTE

On Friday, March 25, 2016, the National Football League beseeched the Third Circuit to not admit statements made by Jeff Miller, the NFL’s Senior Vice President for Health and Public Safety, at a recently-held U.S. Congressional committee roundtable meeting wherein Miller seemingly acknowledged a link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This was largely seen as the first time the NFL had recognized such a connection.

The NFL put forth the position that players’ efforts to supplement the record with Miller’s statements should be denied …

March 30, 2016 Litigation / NFL

Home Field Advantage: Reggie Bush and L.A. Rams Spar Over Proper Venue for Negligence Lawsuit

San Francisco 49ers running back Reggie Bush made a motion to remand a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Rams to state court on Thursday, March 24, 2016, following the Rams’ removal of the case to the Eastern District of Missouri.

During a November game at the Rams’ stadium, Bush ran onto a concrete surface which surrounds the field, where he slipped and injured his left knee. According to the suit, this incident occurred just one week after John McCown, quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, injured …

March 29, 2016 NFL

Growing Pains: Las Vegas NFL Stadium Proposal Unveiled, Met with Some Opposition

On Thursday, March 24, 2016, University of Nevada at Las Vegas representatives and executives at the Las Vegas Sands Corporation unveiled a proposal to the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee to build a $1.3 billion NFL-team-ready football stadium near the Las Vegas strip.

The SNTIC oversees the investment of state and local finances into city infrastructure. Based on a previous statement made by Sands, the project might seek approximately $780 million in public funding.

Although two major event facilities already exist in Las Vegas – …

March 29, 2016 Concussions / NFL

The Fallout: A Day After the Release of New York Times Investigation Findings, NFL Hit with New Lawsuit

It certainly was not the last we heard of it, and it did not take long for the other shoe to drop. Just one day following the release of a New York Times article claiming extensive flaws in the National Football League’s concussion research as well as ties with the tobacco industry, the NFL was hit with yet another negligence putative class action lawsuit in Florida federal court. This lawsuit, brought on behalf of a proposed class of NFL athletes “preliminary diagnosed with a …

March 28, 2016 Concussions / NFL

Constant Controversy: NFL Donated Large Sums to Congressional Research Panel

The plot continues to thicken in the ongoing dispute between the National Football League and former athletes who claim that the league failed to warn them of the long-term health risks of repeated head injuries. MapLight, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to “revealing money’s influence on politics,” recently released findings that since 2008, the NFL political action committee has donated $292,000 to 41 of the 52 members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In December, the Committee announced that beginning in 2016, it would …

March 25, 2016 Concussions / NFL

The Whole Picture: New York Times Investigation Calls into Question the NFL’s Concussion Research

“It was understood that any player with a recognized symptom of head injury, no matter how minor, should be included in the study.” — Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee

On Thursday, March 24, 2016, the New York Times published its conclusions following an investigation into research conducted by the National Football League from 1996 to 2001 into the dangers of head injuries to athletes. The Times’ investigation uncovered potentially major flaws and omissions in the research, as well as purported similarities between the NFL’s …

March 25, 2016 Concussions / NFL

Helmet Company Riddell Tries to Call Time-Out on Concussion Lawsuit

On the heels of the uncapped settlement in multidistrict litigation between the NFL and former players seeking damages for concussion-related conditions, helmet manufacturer Riddell Inc. has tried to call a time-out on their own multidistrict litigation.

A group of former NFL players filed two motions requesting a pretrial conference with Riddell in Pennsylvania Federal Court. Riddell filed a response arguing that the Rule 16(a) pretrial conference is premature and inappropriate based on three main factors. First, there is a pending appeal to the uncapped settlement …

March 17, 2016 Concussions / NFL

NFL Acknowledges Link Between Football and Brain Disease

There has been a lot of recent publicity regarding the NFL, concussions, brain disease, and player safety. This longstanding attention reached a surprising point on Monday, March 14, 2016 when the NFL’s top health and safety officer acknowledged a link between football-related head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

This acknowledgment arose during a concussion discussion assembled by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. During this discussion, Jeff Miller, the NFL’s senior vice president, was asked if there was …

March 1, 2016 Concussions / Litigation / NFL

NFL Concussion Litigation: Plantiffs’ Numbers Continue to Grow

On Tuesday, February 23, 2016, the children of retired NFL Quarterback Rudy Bukich joined the ongoing litigation against the NFL and Riddell Inc., alleging that the league and the helmet manufacturer were aware of the dangers of football but failed to take steps to mitigate it.

Rudy Bukich, now 85 years old, played for four NFL teams during the years of 1953 through 1968. The plaintiffs allege the following in their complaint:

Rudy Bukich has suffered extreme long-term brain damage, has advanced dementia, is kept …

February 29, 2016 Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Trademark / Litigation / NFL

Copyright Controversy: NFL Players’ In-Game Performances Protected by Individual Publicity Rights

In a decision issued Friday,February 26, 2016 the Eighth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment ruling against NFL athletes John Frederick Dryer, Elvin Lamont Bethea, and Edward Alvin White.

The dispute dates back to 2009 when a number of ex-NFL athletes sued the NFL, alleging in part that the NFL misappropriated their “names, images, symbols, and likenesses, to promote the NFL, sell NFL-related products, and otherwise generate revenue for the NFL” in violation of state right of publicity law and the Lanham Trademark Act of 1946. …