Dozens of retired black NFL players will now be eligible for payouts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the league’s multibillion-dollar concussion settlement, reversing previous decisions made given because cognitive tests use race-based measures to determine whether players have dementia.
The decision, which was included in a status report filed by the settlement administrator on Thursday, comes two years after two former players tournament event to end the use of race as a criterion for assessing player claims, a process known as “race norm”.
The mediation admin found that 646 players who had been tested for dementia but were not eligible for cash were able to automatically re-score their tests without using race as a criterion.
Of those, 61 were found to have moderate or severe dementia and could receive damages of $500,000 or more. The payouts vary based on a player’s age and the number of years he has been in the league.
Another 246 former players were found to have mild dementia and will be further tested to monitor their condition. Thousands of other players have already qualified for the exam which will not use race as a factor; These players may be eligible for payouts in the coming months and years.
The result is the latest chapter in a landmark concussion settlement that resulted in about $1 billion in compensation paid to players with a range of cognitive and neurological illnesses, including dementia. For years, former players and their families have accused the federation of making it difficult, if not impossible, to receive payments from the settlement, and they have claimed that the attorney general The petition representing all players in the class action settlement is not doing enough to fight for them.
In August 2020, two retired Black players, Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport, challenged the seven-year-old settlement and accused the union of “apparent and intentional” discrimination against Black players black using benchmarks based on race to determine their eligibility for dementia-based payments, which can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The league denied that it was trying to exclude Black players but agreed to exclude race as a criterion. Christopher Seeger, an attorney representing all players, apologized for allowing the use of race to evaluate dementia claims.
In October, the league and lawyers for the players has agreed to discontinue use of the player’s race when attempting to determine the extent of his cognitive decline.
David Langfitt, who has represented hundreds of former NFL players in the settlement, said the former players and their families owe Henry, Davenport and their attorneys “a debt of gratitude for going ahead and correcting something that is clearly wrong.”
“The best way to think about the results so far is that they are a first step, a payment for a problem that is now fixed,” Langfitt added. Going forward, we expect a continued positive impact on the claims process, because African-American players will be treated the same as the white players they played with. .”
In a statement on Friday, Seeger said he is focused on the payback process “to provide more retired players and their families with essential benefits, increased access to information and ensure more fairness and transparency in the future.”
The NFL did not return a request for comment.
