The investigation shows that at least $2 million was paid out to disabled players for their brain injuries, while the NFL’s medical experts continued to deny any link between long-term brain damage and the game as played in NFL. The investigation found at least three recipients, including 1999 disability claim of Hall of Fame center Mike Webster. Webster suffered dementia, amnesia, and depression after retirement. And as early as 1999, the NFL retirement board had determined that repeated blows to the head had made Webster totally and permanently disabled.
However, the NFL has distanced itself by holding that the disability payments awarded by the NFL Retirement Board is a result of a collective bargaining system involving members of the board, NFL, and of NFLPA, and not an exclusive decision of NFL.
Early this year, about 4000 former NFL players have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging that NFL “propagated its own industry-funded and falsified research to support its position.”
In response, NFL has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and has denied concealing any information about the risks of chronic brain injury. It has also claimed that it has continued updating its policies in step with the developments in concussion research.