Lawyers for both NFL retirees and the league itself on Wednesday said that more than 3,000 former players "signed up in the first three days of registration" for a $1B concussion settlement "fashioned to end one of the most protracted and publicly debated fights in the history of the football league," according to Jeremy Roebuck of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. The news "came at an unusual hearing for the typically broadcast-averse federal court system." Speaking from a stage at the National Constitution Center and addressing hundreds of players watching on live stream, U.S. District Judge Anita Brody "urged former players to register before the Aug. 7 deadline." Attorneys said that the first settlement checks "could be issued by early this summer," Roebuck notes no cap was "placed on the amount the league may have to pay over the next 65 years, but auditors estimate it could reach" $1B or more. This week, the NFL is expected to move the first $65M for injury payments "into a trust fund with an additional" $120M to "follow within six months." The settlement "does not require the NFL to address allegations that have dogged it for years that top executives knew the risks of long-term complications and repeated concussions and hid them from players" (PHILLY.com, 2/9).
