Thread: Damaged Goods............Are Colleges Libel?

Bechta is a players agent and a former player himself and he poses a very good question here. At what point in a players career did the permanent damage begin? Should colleges who receive hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast their games with no outlay for player costs also be held responsible for the injuries players sustain while playing for them?

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Should the same be done in Pop Warner-H.S?
Or here's an idea; how about we update the Helmet; and not let it be a players/college/teams choice in the matter. If you want to play football you'll wear the helmet that protects your noggin the most. I say this b/c I read an article 1-2 years ago that said that there are better helmets then what are out there but the players won't wear them b/c it's not the norm; and right now it's there choice.

My thoughts are more in line with yours. If there is better protective gear available then it should be worn. I'm guessing that someday this will all come before the courts (what else) for an assignment of liability. No one knows at what point the permanent damage is done or if it's cummulative over a very long period of time. If that's true then every team a guy ever played on and every game may have contributed to it somewhat.

I just thought I'd throw it out there because the article was written by and agent and a former player rather than a sportswriter. Bechta is a pretty straight shooter but obviously his interest lie with protecting his clients, there careers, and their post NFL lives. I thought his recommendation to his guys about taking out some form of disability coverage until they were wealthy enough to forego it was a smart move. Not only will it offer them some security if they can be underwritten but it forces them disclose the nature and severity of any head trauma they have experienced before they turn pro.

I agree with both of you, though Ric, I will say that Pop Warner (correct me if I'm wrong, for I am not sure on this) is perhaps not so organized as high school, college, and of course, the NFL. I think this issue definitely needs to be looked at, and there needs to be a trickle down effect. At some point, someone at one of those levels is going to be liable for any one of a number of injuries sustained by the athletes. The question is the injuries' point of origin, and how best to address the culpability of what organization was involved.

Originally Posted by Riczaj01

Not just that; but you are in a dangerous sport; you should have shit tons of health insurance/coverage to begin with. My son(5yrs old, looks 6+) is expected to be 6'6" and 250+ lbs. I worry about him playing football for this reason. I doubt that head traumas are watched this closely at the early stages. If he does get to the point where he could play major college(not saying he will obviously) I want him to meet a guy a graduated h.s. with; he played in the nlf as a OL and his body is wrecked at 38yrs old. I my son to see what it's going to be like. It's also why I didn't think it was absurd when the Minny rb quit after his first or 2nd contract back about 10yrs ago. He got his money and got out before to much damage was done.

But this is another reason these guys are getting what they do; their careers are short, and their lives are shortened....it is what it is when your an athlete in a major violent sport..

Good points Ric and NFL careers are getting longer now that players are better conditioned and have access to superior medical care. Despite those factors the wear and tear a pro football player puts on himself over the 20 odd years some play has to be significant. I've met a few of the older Bears, Packers, and Broncos players in my day and almost all of them have serious physical problems.

One of them is Haven Moses, a great WR for the Broncos. Super guy, fantastic human being and a very humble guy but he can barely stand up straight anymore from taking so many shots to the ribs and spine. There'll never be another day in his life when he doesn't wake up or go to sleep at night in pain and discomfort. That's a WR so just think of the brain damage being done to the defensive players who tackled him head first or the RB's whose bodies go through the equivalent of an auto crash on nearly every play. I know these guys have chosen this life and they have to take risks with their bodies but if more is known about these risks it should be brought out into the light of day.

If the injuries can be reduced so will the liability for them be reduced. The thing that every defendant in a lawsuit wants to avoid is having it decided that they were in anyway negligent for letting whatever happen. That's when the potential damage awards get huge.

I tend to look at it like this: if a boy/man plays football, he knows the risks that are involved. However, that being said, those individuals should be responsible enough to take out insurance policies on themselves to pay for medical bills incurred as a result of the injuries sustained. Realistically, the NFL should provide this for retired players too since they paid the price to make the league what it is today, but what about players at the lower, non-professional levels? Is the Tennesseee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) or the NCAA responsible for players sustaining injuries? No, because those players are amateurs, and as such, their parents should provide the insurance policies necessary to dispense proper medical care to their student-athletes.

The whole point of this argument is that the burden of proof is on the NFL and the NFLPA to find the root causes of these injuries. If they can't pin it down, then the league is liable. I do not believe that the league should be responsible for paying for medical treatment for players' injuries that originated in their youth, but I also don't think believe that the NFL will ever be able to prove without a shadow of doubt in a court of law whether or not a player was injured at the high school or college levels and make it stick.

Colleges do pay the medical bills for their student athlete's but once these guys go pro the situation changes. Employers usually provide health care benefits to employees and also pay into workman's compensation. One of the reasons for this is that often employees in high risk professions can't get individual health insurance that will provide them with comprehensive coverage without exclusions. Only group plans do that in most cases.

You can't ask the employee to provide his own health care plan in those situtations or no one would ever want to be a window washer or an iron worker on sky scrapers. Or a railroad worker or a miner or anyone of a hundred or more dangerous occupations.

Originally Posted by soulman

Colleges do pay the medical bills for their student athlete's but once these guys go pro the situation changes. Employers usually provide health care benefits to employees and also pay into workman's compensation. One of the reasons for this is that often employees in high risk professions can't get individual health insurance that will provide them with comprehensive coverage without exclusions. Only group plans do that in most cases.

You can't ask the employee to provide his own health care plan in those situtations or no one would ever want to be a window washer or an iron worker on sky scrapers. Or a railroad worker or a miner or anyone of a hundred or more dangerous occupations.

Are you saying this in relation to the NCAA or the NFL? If it's the NFL, I couldn't agree more. If it's the NCAA, I disagree wholeheartedly. The NCAA is buoyed up by student athletes who have student insurance coverage or something the schools provide. The NCAA itself should not be liable for any health care costs attributed to its student athletes who go on to be professional athletes, i.e. - if I had a couple of concussions playing for Tennessee in college and I went to play in the NFL, it's not the NCAA's problem to simply pay for the recurring costs of medical expenses simply because the NFL doesn't want to foot the bill on something that had been going on for years. How would the NFL prove in a courtroom whether or not the injury even originated in college? These types of injuries often originate earlier than that, at the Pee Wee, Pop Warner, and High School levels. At those levels, most of the medical expenses are provided for by the parents of the kids who play(ed) football. The NFL can try, but what I'm saying is that the league is going to have a difficult time making ground on it.