Junior Seau's brain had CTE---the tipping point

[beanfield]

Originally Posted by 350Z33

How can they prove his injury occurred during the NFL? Maybe it happened in college, high school, or earlier when the the brain is still developing. I think that's the route the NFL will take when it will have to defend itself and to be honest, it's a pretty legitimate question.

True,it is a legitimate question, but it doesen't matter. In this day and time Juries will go after deep pockets or Insurance companys. Common sense be Damned....

[beanfield]

Originally Posted by Gatorrick22

These shysters are going to turn the NFL into flag football.... after they rape them for all the money they can siphon. They're parasitic leaches.

This^^^^

[FriendlyGator]

Lawsuits are responsible for many of the safety features we take for granted, particularly on motor vehicles: seatbelts, airbags, dual stage airbags, tempered glass, crumple zones, anti-rollover features, fuel pumps that shut off following a significant impact, and more. There are lots of other products which are much safer due to lawsuits.

If the NFL won't change, and we don't want to legislate changes, then lawsuits are a great route to force improvements. Ultimately, they need to explore getting rid of the hard shell helmets which are essentially like weapons. They create more risk. Thought ought to look at alternatives such as bike/skateboard style foam helmets which must be replaced after a hard hit. There was a time when players used leather helmets and knew they should try to keep from banging heads. They avoided it most of the time. The problem was when they didn't avoid it there was extremely low protection--and you had enough catastrophic injuries that cried out for change. We need to go back closer to the older days, where players really try to avoid head contact, but have a helmet designed purely for safety.

Another similar sports problem is boxing gloves. When you put 14 ounce boxing gloves on a fighter, the risk of serious brain injury goes up. It is like putting roll of quarters in your fist with added weight. And the gloves decrease superficial injury (the cuts and bleeding) from bare fists so that fights go on longer and you have more and more repetitive micro-trauma to the brain due to the gloves. How do you fix it? No gloves or at least very, very lightweight gloves. The cage fighting popular these days with bare fists might seem more violent, but it is actually safer for the fighters when compared to the use of 12 or 14 ounce gloves.

[FriendlyGator]

By the way I will say a common theme is that the vast majority of people hate personal injury lawsuits... ...unless they are the victim. I am stunned at the number of anti-lawsuit friends I have who openly complain about lawsuit abuse to me, only to ask me at some later point to handle their own potential injury case. Much of the time their own claim which they think is legitimate is completely bogus, a claim which no attorney would touch and for which no reasonable jury would award money.

A lawsuit against the NFL for head injuries would not only be justified, but is needed.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by FriendlyGator

By the way I will say a common theme is that the vast majority of people hate personal injury lawsuits... ...unless they are the victim. I am stunned at the number of anti-lawsuit friends I have who openly complain about lawsuit abuse to me, only to ask me at some later point to handle their own potential injury case. Much of the time their own claim which they think is legitimate is completely bogus, a claim which no attorney would touch and for which no reasonable jury would award money.

A lawsuit against the NFL for head injuries would not only be justified, but is needed.

And I myself am stunned by the number of people who favor lawsuits ... until one is filed against them.

Obviously, I'm being sarcastic. But I do favor exercising personal responsibility and common sense as opposed to ram-rodding through change at expense to others.

Whatever became of asking ?

[GatorAvatar]

Yeah, but did he play college and high school football?

[regator]

I am also amazed that these lawsuits also are always against the people with money.

They always result, if won, in making the plaintiff and attorney wealthy.

[gatorfansrule]

Originally Posted by regator

I am also amazed that these lawsuits also are always against the people with money.

They always result, if won, in making the plaintiff and attorney wealthy.

Maybe because there is no point is suing someone with no money for monetary damages? Maybe?

[regator]

Why not. If there is an injustice in the world then it should be about principle not just money.

Sue the parents, high school coaches, and anyone else you think caused the kids to play.

Are you saying unless the defendant has money there is no wrong done?

[g8r925]

Originally Posted by rivergator

I don't think people knew the likelihood of permanent brain damage was nearly as high as it apparently is. You were worried about your knees.

I can see that, and I can speak to the fact of worrying about knee injuries, I had two of them in hs, which in return took away any chance to play in college. But they the damage was done by repeated blows to the head, not concussions. By reading the report there seems to be a difference in suffering a concussion which is caused by a blow to the head, and repeated blows to the head in general, and not having much clarification after that. My mom told me and my grandparents told me, along with my coaches and former player, made it clear that you could be severely injured, just like a guy on our team in Immokalee that was paralyzed from the neck down, played right by me on the Dline. It's point blank dangerous, and violent, and some will turn form it, and some wont, but I just can't see how they can pin it on the NFL for all the head trauma that has been happening ever since pop warner for some of these players, like myself included have been playing since I was 8yrs old.

Its going to be a sticky situation in any event. And some will take advantage of the situation in the end. I just don't know how you get the time frame down to prove when the damage was done.

[gatorfansrule]

Originally Posted by regator

Why not. If there is an injustice in the world then it should be about principle not just money.

Sue the parents, high school coaches, and anyone else you think caused the kids to play.

Are you saying unless the defendant has money there is no wrong done?

If the defendant doesn't have any money it's going to cost you money to sue them. What's the point?

[petro]

Hard shell helmets are the worst invention in the history of football. Go to the Pro hOF in Canton and really study the evolution of the football uniform. I've posted this before. In this age of chemistry, how in the h#!! are they not playing with soft helmets which absorb blows instead of delivering them. It would FORCE players to play with their bodies instead of their rock hard helmet outer-ware. aka ExoSkeleton. It's like wearing a weapon on your head.

The answer to this dilemma is technology. I've said it 100 times. You never heard about this brain rattling stuff when they had leather helmets. One dinger and you quit that head leading crap. Put a soft helmet on everyone and they will all start thinking about their own scalp before launching helmet to helmet. With all the polymers and kevlar weaves and poly this and that padding, you could solve this problem. I am bookmarking this post for patent purposes. Again.

If I weren't such a lazy chemist football fan, I would go out in the garage and..........................

[NitroSmoke]

Petro,
I actually read about a new motorcycle helmet that employs quite a bit of what you are talking about. Let me see if i can find it.

Edit -

Found it.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/...oad-next-year/

[petro]

Originally Posted by NitroSmoke

Petro,
I actually read about a new motorcycle helmet that employs quite a bit of what you are talking about. Let me see if i can find it.

Edit -

Found it.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/...oad-next-year/

That's the type of thinking I'm talking about. Not precisely what I was thinking about for the football helmet of the future, but definitely starting to go down the technological path I was thinking about. There are so many option instead of the hard shell brain rattling battering ram.

[corpgator]

Wouldn't a 1.5 inch thick foam helmet completely protect a player's brain and keep him from injuring others?

[GatorLaw]

Originally Posted by 350Z33

How can they prove his injury occurred during the NFL? Maybe it happened in college, high school, or earlier when the the brain is still developing. I think that's the route the NFL will take when it will have to defend itself and to be honest, it's a pretty legitimate question.

In some cases I think it's a very legitimate question. A guy plays football in Pop Warner, junior high, high school, college, and say 5-10 years in the NFL. Why is it the NFL that caused the brain damage? But I'm not so sure about that argument in Seau's case, didn't he play like 20 years in the NFL?

[FriendlyGator]

Originally Posted by petro

Hard shell helmets are the worst invention in the history of football. Go to the Pro hOF in Canton and really study the evolution of the football uniform. I've posted this before. In this age of chemistry, how in the h#!! are they not playing with soft helmets which absorb blows instead of delivering them. It would FORCE players to play with their bodies instead of their rock hard helmet outer-ware. aka ExoSkeleton. It's like wearing a weapon on your head.

The answer to this dilemma is technology. I've said it 100 times. You never heard about this brain rattling stuff when they had leather helmets. One dinger and you quit that head leading crap. Put a soft helmet on everyone and they will all start thinking about their own scalp before launching helmet to helmet. With all the polymers and kevlar weaves and poly this and that padding, you could solve this problem. I am bookmarking this post for patent purposes. Again.

If I weren't such a lazy chemist football fan, I would go out in the garage and..........................

It is a shame the decision makers in the NFL won't take action in this regard. They are the ones who have the money to make the change and set the example for everyone else. The change would quickly filter down to college, high school, and pop warner. The helmets don't even need to be super high tech, although they can be for maximum protection as you get to higher and higher levels of football.

[FriendlyGator]

Originally Posted by regator

Why not. If there is an injustice in the world then it should be about principle not just money.

Sue the parents, high school coaches, and anyone else you think caused the kids to play.

Are you saying unless the defendant has money there is no wrong done?

Our civil justice system has flaws. One is that there is no remedy against folks who don't have the money to pay the damages. So wrongdoing often goes unpunished and without a remedy. The costs to society are enormous. I see it on a daily basis. Unfortunately, instead of wanting to improve the flaws, popular opinion is that we go in the other direction and dismantle the protections we do have against wrongdoing and negligent conduct. I'd rather see us improve the system rather than tear it down.

Should we all just sit here and do nothing about head injuries in football--which are far reaching when you consider all the youth involved in football--or do something to improve safety? Now that we know the long-term damage from hits in football, we should do something about it.

[corpgator]

People don't sue people who don't have money because they have to pay their own court costs when the poor person can't.