Lawyers representing more than 2,000 former NFLers who have "suffered concussion-related ailments" on Thursday filed a master complaint against the league in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, "streamlining the case by consolidating 85 concussion-related lawsuits," according to Sam Farmer of the L.A. TIMES. The NFL has until June 19 to raise any issues with the complaint, "although the judge has not provided a date by which the league must answer the 88-page document." The league has argued that the issue "does not belong in federal court, and that there are mechanisms for dealing with such issues" in the CBA (L.A. TIMES, 6/8). In N.Y., Bart Hubbuch notes the new suit "follows the same track as all of its predecessors, accusing the NFL of a deliberate, decades-long plan to deny and cover up links between concussions suffered on the field and permanent brain injuries." The NFL had the "same reaction to the new suit that it has had throughout the steady drip of cases brought by smaller groups of players, denying it conducted any cover-up." The consolidated suit had been "expected for months by the league and legal observers, who said that bringing the cases together as one large class-action complaint was typical in such situations" (N.Y. POST, 6/8). ESPN's Chris Mortensen noted, “What the players and their lawyers certainly hope to accomplish is to come up with a ‘smoking gun’ which proves their point that the NFL was hiding or misleading players in terms of the severity of those concussions” ("NFL Live," ESPN, 6/7). ABC’s Chris Cuomo said the “concern is recent suicides of some of the sport’s biggest stars … may be related to head trauma suffered during their playing years” (“World News,” ABC, 6/7). In Chicago, Dan Pompei noted the lawsuit that former NFLer Dave Duerson's family filed against the NFL "is not part" of the master complaint. Duerson family attorney Bill Gibbs of Corby & Demetrio said he believes the case involving Duerson is "vastly different" from any other case against the NFL (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 6/7).
FAULK WEIGHS IN: In St. Louis, Bryan Burwell notes Pro Football HOFer Marshall Faulk "perfectly represents the contradictory dilemma facing his sport as his NFL community wrestles with the complex repercussions of its violent nature." Faulk said, "It's pretty simple for me. Player safety is 'Go play golf. Go play basketball where they call fouls for slapping you on the hand.' ... But it's football. I hope guys get to play longer and there aren't as many injuries as there were in the past. But I'm sorry, it is a contact sport. And I will feel cheated to a certain extent (if too many changes are made) because I want to watch the contact sport that I grew up loving and watching, but I know that's no longer possible." Burwell writes, "The football community really is in a strange place, because even as the former players filed a lawsuit that could result in astronomical costs to the NFL, attorneys for players say no one is trying to destroy pro football" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 6/8).
MEDIA MONITOR: Thursday's edition of ABC’s “World News” led the broadcast with a 2:58 report on the concussion lawsuit. CBS’ “Evening News” reported on the lawsuit 20:26 into the broadcast, with a 0:22 report. NBC’s “Nightly News” did not report on the lawsuit. The 11:00pm ET edition of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” did not report on the lawsuit, with most of the coverage devoted to Heat-Celtics Game Six. The 1:00am ET edition of “SportsCenter” aired a 0:32 report at 22:51 into the broadcast. Friday's edition of NBC’s “Today” aired a 0:27 report at 4:14 into the broadcast in their news brief segment. CBS’ “CBS This Morning” aired a 1:16 live report from CBS Sports’ James Brown on the lawsuit at 35:28 into the broadcast. ABC’s “GMA” did not report on the concussion lawsuit (THE DAILY).
