Dozens of Black N.F.L. players have been retired. players will now be eligible for payouts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the league’s billion-dollar concussion settlement, reversing previous decisions made because of cognitive tests that used race-based measures to determine whether the players had dementia.
The decision, included in a status report filed by the settlement administrator that was entered into the court docket Thursday, came two years after two former players sued the league to end the use of race as a criterion in evaluating the players’ claims, a process known as “race-norming.”
The settlement administrator discovered that 646 players who were tested for dementia and did not qualify for cash payouts could have the tests automatically rescored, without having to use race as a criterion.
61 of those who were tested for dementia had moderate or severe symptoms. They could receive payouts up to $500,000 or more. The payouts vary based on a player’s age and the number of years he was in the league.
Another 246 ex-players were diagnosed with mild dementia. They will be subject to additional testing to assess their condition. There are thousands of other players who have been accepted for examinations that don’t consider race. These players could receive payouts over the next few years.
These results are the latest chapter of the landmark concussion settlement, which has resulted to approximately $1 billion in claims being paid out to players with a variety of cognitive and neurological disorders, including dementia. Former players and their families have been claiming that the league made it difficult for them to receive the payouts. They also claimed that the plaintiffs attorney who represented all players in the class-action settlement was not doing enough work to advocate for them.
In August 2020, two retired Black players, Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport, challenged the seven-year-old settlement and accused the league of “explicitly and deliberately” discriminating against Black players by using separate race-based benchmarks to determine their eligibility for dementia-based payouts, which can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Although the league denied that it was trying exclude Black players, they agreed to remove race as a criterion. Christopher Seeger (the attorney representing the entire class) apologized for allowing race into the process of evaluating dementia claims.
In October, the league and attorneys for the players agreed to stop using a player’s race when trying to determine his level of cognitive decline.
David Langfitt has represented hundreds former N.F.L. players. players in the settlement, said former players and their families owe Henry, Davenport and their lawyers “a debt of gratitude for coming forward and correcting something that was clearly wrong.”
“The best way to think of the results so far is that they are a first step, a down payment on a problem that is now corrected,” Langfitt added. “Moving forward, we expect an ongoing positive impact on the claims process, because African American players will be treated the same as the white players with whom they played.”
In a statement Friday, Seeger said he was focused on the rescoring process “to provide more retired players and their families with critical benefits, increase their access to information, and ensure greater equity and transparency going forward.”
The N.F.L. The N.F.L.
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