Aggregated News
The NFL insists that its concussion settlement program does not require the clinicians who evaluate former players for payouts to make race a factor in their determinations. Several of those clinicians, however, appear to disagree, and some of them fear that the league’s recommended protocols discriminate against Black players.
In August, a group of neuropsychologists who measure cognitive decline in former NFL players seeking financial compensation through the league’s landmark settlement program took to their professional listservs to discuss some recent industry news. Two Black former players — defensive end Kevin Henry and running back Najeh Davenport — had filed a lawsuit against the NFL, accusing the league of “explicitly and deliberately” discriminating against Black players filing dementia-related claims.
The NFL has repeatedly dismissed the lawsuit as “entirely misguided,” claiming that the use of any so-called demographic corrections to interpret test results is left entirely up to “the sound discretion of the independent clinicians administering the tests in any particular case.”
But the former players are alleging that such corrections are, in effect, mandatory. And according to emails sent...