Ex-Dolphin QB Marino One of Players Suing NFL Over Concussions

By | June 3, 2014

Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino is among 15 former players suing the National Football League over claims it hid the risk of concussions sustained during the game.

Claims by more than 5,000 ex-NFL players that the league hid the link between traumatic head impacts and long-term brain injuries have been consolidated in federal court in Philadelphia. A judge in January refused to approve a $914 million settlement in those cases, saying not all players would be paid.

Marino and the other former players allege the NFL, knowing about the increased risk of head injuries, allowed players to use their helmeted heads to block, tackle and ram their opponents. Until 2011, the league denied any connection between concussions and long-term chronic brain injury, according to the complaint, also filed in Philadelphia.

“The NFL has actively concealed and/or aggressively disputed any causal connection between concussions in NFL football and brain injury or illness,” Marino and the other former players said in their May 28 complaint.

The former players seek unspecified damages and medical monitoring.

Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL, declined to comment on the complaint.

Marino, a Hall of Fame player who was an analyst on CBS’s NFL Today until this year, didn’t claim any specific damages.

The case is Bishop v. National Football League, 14- cv-03002, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

Topics Lawsuits

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