As reported by the NY Times, retired National Football League players Najeh Davenport and Kevin Henry have filed legal actions against the NFL for allegedly discriminating against black players who filed dementia-related claims dating back to 2013. Davenport and Henry asked the court to stop the NFL from evaluating players using race-based benchmarks, and to re-examine black players with “race neutral” testing.
Counsel for the two players said “in effect, the settlement, as it has been administered, has a white door and a black door. Although the neurocognitive tests behind each door are the same, the raw scores for black and white former players are interpreted differently when they are converted to scores that are used to determine whether a player is eligible for a payment.”
The claims relate to the larger nationwide multidistrict litigation continuing against the NFL over claims the football league should be held liable for the widespread and pervasive concussion-related injuries affecting multiple generations of professional football players. Lieff Cabraser partner Wendy R. Fleishman serves as court-appointed co-lead class counsel representing former players with claims against Riddell Sports Group Inc., and represents other former players in suits over concussion injuries against the league.
Click here to read the full article on the NY Times site.
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