Art Monk vs. NFL

Its like Evel Knievel sueing Harley Davidson for his injuries.

Its all about money? Really?
It is called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is about awareness and creating funds for more research. Amazing that it is independent Research Universities like the Sports Legacy Institute at Boston University that is at the forefront of researching this condition. This is the same group that studied Dave Duerson's brain and will be studying Seau's.
I would be interested to see how much the $9-billion a year NFL spends to help research this disease?
All the while the citizen's of Minnesota are being forced to spend tax payer money to build the nfl a new stadium. Yeah you are right, the players are greedy.

OTL: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy - ESPN Video - ESPN (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5591963)

This video gets really interesting at the 01:19 mark.

Not so sure about that.

What we know today about concussions is far different than 20 years ago.


A concussion was deemed serious enough back then as now. Maybe the coming of the MRI, etc has helped diagnose how serious it is, etc, but a shot to the head was always deemed dangerous. If not, why the development of hard shelled helmets? This is just another payday for these guys on the heels of the Seau tragedy. Should all of those wounded/maimed veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan sue the US Army for them getting injured? They signed up for the military and common sense should have told them what was going to be expected of them in war. You can say the same thing with regards to firefighters and cops, and they get paid way less than NFL football players. Sorry, but you play you pay and it doesn't matter what sport you play in. Look at MLB catchers and knee problems. See any of them suing MLB? Or how about hockey players losing teeth, concussions, etc? You never hear about that because these guys took the dangers in consideration, but decided to live life and play the sport they love. This is just high profile ambulance chasing, and if it doesn't get nipped in the bud, all it is going to mean is fans will pay more out of their pocket somehow.

Slum Village - Get Dis Money - YouTube

A concussion was deemed serious enough back then as now. Maybe the coming of the MRI, etc has helped diagnose how serious it is, etc, but a shot to the head was always deemed dangerous. If not, why the development of hard shelled helmets? This is just another payday for these guys on the heels of the Seau tragedy. Should all of those wounded/maimed veterans of Iraq/Afghanistan sue the US Army for them getting injured? They signed up for the military and common sense should have told them what was going to be expected of them in war. You can say the same thing with regards to firefighters and cops, and they get paid way less than NFL football players. Sorry, but you play you pay and it doesn't matter what sport you play in. Look at MLB catchers and knee problems. See any of them suing MLB? Or how about hockey players losing teeth, concussions, etc? You never hear about that because these guys took the dangers in consideration, but decided to live life and play the sport they love. This is just high profile ambulance chasing, and if it doesn't get nipped in the bud, all it is going to mean is fans will pay more out of their pocket somehow.

Gotta disagree. Players are held out of games these days until they pass an independent test. There's much more awareness now vs 10 or 20 years ago. And there's a heck of a lot more research going on studying the long term effects as far as memory loss and early onset dementia.

And this class action started long before Seau's death.

These are grown men who made a choice to play football and could say no.I don't understand how you hold the league responsible ,anyone playing knows there is a chance they can get hurt at anytime.....or worse.
Most of these men have college degrees and surly were smart enough to know that concussions can cause brain injuries.The NFL changed what they did be it helmits or the way they test the players when the information changed
So if someone I knew dies from an illness and 20 years later they find a cure......can I sue becuase these Doctors should have learned about this illness sooner?

A little background

NFL concussion class action: Could the league withstand a lawsuit from players with brain injuries? - Slate Magazine (http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2011/02/the_nfls_next_big_headache.html)

I think one of the primary reasons former players are suing the league isn't because of what we know now about concussions, but because the league didn't go out its way to protect player safety like they are doing now, which has indirectly led to unnecessary hits. Some of these rule and safety changes have been made prior to the whole concussion storm that has hit football.

Just my opinion on this.

This is really starting to get old. Sorry but some of these players are just trying to get paid. Not saying this is the case with Monk but they all knew the risks.

Did they? Probably not. Would it have changed their decision? Probably not.



If I'm correct, people that smoked their whole lives won major lawsuits against the tobacco industry even though there wasn't any evidence at the time of lung cancer and smoking. (or that I know of)

Its all about money? Really?
It is called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is about awareness and creating funds for more research. Amazing that it is independent Research Universities like the Sports Legacy Institute at Boston University that is at the forefront of researching this condition. This is the same group that studied Dave Duerson's brain and will be studying Seau's.
I would be interested to see how much the $9-billion a year NFL spends to help research this disease?
All the while the citizen's of Minnesota are being forced to spend tax payer money to build the nfl a new stadium. Yeah you are right, the players are greedy.

OTL: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy - ESPN Video - ESPN (http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5591963)

This video gets really interesting at the 01:19 mark.

Ah dude, players know it is a dangerous, rough sport, when they decide to play the game, just like hockey players, or even race car drivers know they could get into a serious car accident. If the players are just trying to increase awareness or get the NFL to maybe spend more on protective equipment I am all for it, but to be honest, with these guys getting bigger and faster every decade, it is going to be very hard to really increase the protection they can get. The whole thing is tremendous blunt force. Maybe create a helmet with some sort of shock absorber mechanism, but even that might only alleviate the force some.