Former NFLers appealing the league's $1B plan to address concussion-linked injuries "asked a court on Thursday to reject the settlement because it excludes what they call the signature brain disease of football," according to Maryclaire Dale of the AP. Critics "insist that any deal include future payments" for CTE, the brain decay found in dozens of former players after their deaths. The settlement "would resolve thousands of lawsuits and cover more than 20,000 NFL retirees for the next 65 years." The three-judge panel is "expected to rule early next year" (AP, 11/19). In N.Y., Ken Belson notes the effort to compensate for the possibility that NFLers "will develop brain disease from repeated head hits was met with open skepticism from federal appellate judges Thursday as they weighed whether to reverse a lower-court ruling excluding the claims." Those awards apply "only to players found with CTE before the settlement was approved on April 22," while all other players with the brain disease "would not be compensated." The appellant lawyers said that the settlement "does not account for potential tests that could diagnose CTE in living patients, something experts estimated could come in five to 10 years." Judge Thomas Hardiman said, “So now the settlement is going to be watered down by every field-goal kicker who is depressed.” Judge Thomas Ambro added that it was "uncertain when, or if, an accurate test for CTE in living patients could be developed." He said, “It takes a long time to get the science" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/20).
