{"id":1756,"date":"2015-07-10T13:23:05","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T18:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2015-11-15T08:45:56","modified_gmt":"2015-11-15T14:45:56","slug":"stablers-death-is-a-stark-reminder-about-the-settlements-deficiencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/?p=1756","title":{"rendered":"Stabler\u2019s Death is a Stark Reminder About the Settlement\u2019s Deficiencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, news broke\u2014then retracted<\/a>, then confirmed\u2014that Ken Stabler passed away at the age of 69 following a battle with colon cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stabler was among the thousands of players who filed a concussion lawsuit against the NFL. In his 2012 lawsuit, Stabler alleged that he \u201csuffered repeated and chronic head impacts during his career\u2026and\u2026has experienced cognitive and other difficulties including, but not limited to, headaches, dizziness, depression, fatigue, sleep problems, irritability, and numbness\/tingling in neck\/cervical spine.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, symptoms consistent with CTE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That is perhaps one reason why his family announced<\/a> that they intend to donate Stabler\u2019s brain and spinal cord to Boston University\u2019s Center for CTE\u2014to determine definitively whether Stabler suffered from CTE.<\/p>\n

The family also hopes to advance the science relating to degenerative brain disease in athletes.<\/p>\n

This is a courageous move by Stabler\u2019s family, and hopefully other families will follow Stabler\u2019s lead. Because, unfortunately, the NFL Concussion Settlement does not incentivize families for going through the process of having their loved one\u2019s brain donated to science.<\/p>\n

Nope; instead, families who later learn that their loved one was diagnosed with the \u201cindustrial disease of football\u201d will be left without recourse since the NFL Concussion Settlement bargained away those rights.<\/p>\n

If it is determined that Stabler had CTE, his family will receive nothing under the settlement. Stabler\u2019s death will likely be a sad and constant reminder of the deficiencies of the NFL Concussion Settlement: no future CTE claims will ever be paid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unless a former player\u2019s death fell within a discrete window between January 1, 2006 to April 22, 2015 and subsequently received a CTE diagnosis, the settlement forecloses any compensation for future CTE claims.<\/p>\n

So, for example, while Dave Duerson\u2019s family will rightfully receive compensation for \u201cDeath with CTE\u201d under the settlement, Stabler, who was exposed to similar brain trauma, will receive nothing for suffering years of \u201crepeated and chronic impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same unfair result\u2014assuming they receive a post-mortem diagnosis of CTE\u2014will strike the families of Charlie Sanders<\/a>, Damion Cook<\/a>, Adrian Robinson<\/a>, John David Crow<\/a>, and many more to come.<\/p>\n

Although Stabler\u2019s family won\u2019t be compensated, perhaps his brain donation will provide a significant contribution to the ongoing, and essential, study of CTE.<\/p>\n

Rest in peace, Mr. Stabler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, news broke\u2014then retracted, then confirmed\u2014that Ken Stabler passed away at the age of 69 following a battle with colon cancer. Stabler was among the thousands of players who filed a concussion lawsuit against the NFL. In his 2012 lawsuit, Stabler alleged that he \u201csuffered repeated and chronic head impacts during his career\u2026and\u2026has experienced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[471,165,16,469,473,472,4,468,470,234],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1792,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions\/1792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nflconcussionlitigation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}