Univ. of Pittsburgh, NCAA, Conferences Face Former Football Players’ Concussion Injury Class Actions

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Two former University of Pittsburgh football players have filed separate proposed class actions against the school, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the American Athletic Conference (AAC), the Big East Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) over the entities’ apparent failure to take reasonable action to protect athletes from long-term brain damage linked to repeated head injuries. 

The 31-page lawsuits, filed earlier this month in Pennsylvania federal court, allege the NCAA, its conferences and the University of Pittsburgh also fraudulently concealed the risks associated with repeated head trauma from football players, and that college sports’ governing body has “exploited, and continues to exploit, the ignorance and lack of finances of the student-athletes that agree to play college football.” 

Historically, the NCAA and participating universities have “conspired” for the sake of financial gain to the detriment of student-athletes, whose attempts at being compensated for their performance and the use of their likeness and image have regularly failed, the complaints say. Per the suits, the NCAA and participating schools and conferences have a financial incentive to prohibit student-athletes from being paid for their efforts, and the plaintiffs say the defendants have had the same incentive in “ignor[ing] the health risks associated with playing college football.”

“Defendants concealed the devastating impact playing college football has on the Players, including the increased risk of brain injuries, memory loss, dementia, depression, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (‘CTE’), Parkinson’s disease, anxiety and other related symptoms,” the similarly worded cases allege. “Most of the brain injuries occur years after Players stopped playing college football and will continue to be felt as a result of permanent neurological damage from concussive and sub-concussive injuries.” 

The NCAA knew for nearly 40 years about the debilitating long-term dangers of concussions, concussion-related injuries and sub-concussive injuries linked with playing football yet “actively concealed” the information to protect the profits derived from college football, the lawsuits claim. The plaintiffs say they and proposed class members will suffer the neurological effects of football-related head injuries for the rest of their lives. 

The cases relay that the defendants had a collective obligation to oversee the health and wellness of each student-athlete yet chose to withhold the “superior knowledge” of neurological injuries, including the long-term aftereffects, to which football players have been susceptible. 

“Despite Defendants’ awareness of the impact of concussions and sub-concussive hits, Defendants failed to take decisive action to address this epidemic,” the cases read. “Instead, they actively concealed this information from the student-athletes who relied on the institution to oversee their own safety.”

The lawsuits are among the latest in a long line of proposed class action litigation aimed at the NCAA and its member conferences and universities over their apparent knowledge and concealment of the risks associated with repeated head trauma from student-athletes, particularly college football players.

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