The Latest NFL Lawsuit Centers on This Exhumed Brain

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http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/01/nfl-brain-injury-lawsuit/



Kansas City Chiefs' Jovan Belcher in 2011.

The Latest NFL Lawsuit Centers on This Exhumed Brain
By Greg Miller
01.21.14
6:30 AM

Could brain tissue from the exhumed body of an NFL linebacker who died more than a year ago help his family win a legal case – and presumably a pile of money — from his former team? That’s one of the questions raised by a recent lawsuit filed by the mother of a former player, a case that may be a sign of what’s to come.

Last year the National Football League agreed to pay out $765 million to settle a lawsuit filed by more than 4,500 former players alleging that the league hid what it knew about the dangers of concussions. Given the cost of long-term care for dementia and other problems some players are facing, some observers thought the league got off easy. Last week, a federal judge agreed, deciding not to approve the proposed settlement because it might not be enough to cover all of the retirees’ claims.

It’s not surprising then that some players and their families are deciding to opt out of the group settlement and seek compensation from the league on their own. One of the first cases to come to light since the settlement is a wrongful death lawsuit filed on New Year’s Eve by Cheryl Shepherd, the mother of former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.

The suit alleges that Belcher experienced “repetitive brain trauma” from multiple blows to the head in the course of his four-year NFL career and contends that those blows, along with the team’s alleged failure to provide adequate medical care, contributed to Belcher’s death by suicide in December 2012. (Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend at their home before shooting himself in the head in the parking lot of the Chiefs’ stadium).