Updated at 3:36 p.m. Jan 23, 2013
The family of Junior Seau has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the NFL in the wake of federal scientists finding a brain disease tied to his pro football career, according to The Associated Press and other media reports.
The suit was filed at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in downtown San Diego Superior Court, says court spokeswoman Karen Dalton, and would not be posted online until Thursday.
The suit faults the league for its “acts or omissions” that hid the dangers of repetitive blows to the head, the AP said.
Brian McCarthy, spokesman for the National Football League, told NFL.com: “Our attorneys will review (the lawsuit) and respond to the claims appropriately through the court.”
An examination of Oceanside resident’s brain by federal health officials determined that he suffered from a debilitating brain condition common to people who have suffered repetitive head injuries.
The examination by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke found the football star suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE has been found previously in autopsies of people who have suffered repetitive head injuries, including athletes who played contact sports, people who suffered multiple concussions and military veterans exposed to blast injuries.
The suit contends that Seau took his own life because of brain injuries suffered over the course of his 20-year NFL career. The NFL hid the dangers of repetitive blows to the head and deliberately ignored and concealed evidence of the risks associated with traumatic brain injuries, the lawsuit alleges.
“For many decades, evidence has link repetitive mild traumatic brain injury to long-term neurological problems,” the complaint reads. “The NFL was aware of the evidence and risks associated with repetitive traumatic brain injuries for many decades, but deliberately ignored and actively concealed the information from the players, including the late Junior Seau.”
Because the league establishes rules regarding player safety, it “has unilaterally shouldered for itself a duty to provide players with rules and information that protect players as much as possible from short-term and long-term health risks,” the lawsuit alleges.
Players and their families looked to the league for guidance on safety issues, according to the complaint.
The listed plaintiffs are Gina Seau, Seau’s ex-wife; their children Tyler, Sydney, Jake and Hunter, and Bette Hoffman, trustee of his estate.
The family released a statement that said, “We were saddened to learn that Junior, a loving father and teammate, suffered from CTE. While Junior always expected to have aches and pains from his playing days, none of us ever fathomed that he would suffer a debilitating brain disease that would cause him
to leave us too soon.
“We know this lawsuit will not bring back Junior. But it will send a message that the NFL needs to care for its former players, acknowledge its decades of deception on the issue of head injuries and player safety, and make the game safer for future generations.”
The lawsuit also alleges that helmets manufactured by Riddell Inc. and its Van Nuys-based parent company, Easton-Bell Sports, had design defects and that the company failed to warn customers of the risk of injuries.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Seaus are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
“We know this lawsuit will not bring back Junior,” the family said in a statement quoted by AP. “But it will send a message that the NFL needs to care for its former players, acknowledge its decades of deception on the issue of head injuries and player safety, and make the game safer for future generations.”
The AP says its review in November “found that more than 3,800 players have sued the NFL over head injuries in at least 175 cases as the concussion issue has gained attention in recent years. More than 100 of the concussion lawsuits have been brought together before U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia.”
—City News Service contributed to this report.
The only place this can pass muster is the Ninth Circuit. Oh damn. O.J. and the baby killer got off, didn't they? Maybe they can get a Samoan jury.
This family that is pathetic, money hungry and sue happy idiots and will not receive a penny. If the courts judged in favor of them, then that would be the end of contact sports. Maybe Jr's family should of been more concerned about his mental status and realized that he might of been Bipolar or some other type of Mental Illness. If his family was so concerned about him, then they shouldn't of left him alone after he tried to drive off a cliff. Jr's Family should be ASHAMED of themselves, Jr was not this type of person, he was caring and very generous to charities and children.
I get bothered when I hear about the high school students who get injured or killed playing football. Then we have the college athletes who also get injured. But somehow injuries are acceptable when he comes to the NFL players? I would feel better if the NFL would have research done for this and develop better equipment. But I believe as long as they are making money and they have lots of people willing to risk the injuries, the NFL will not invest. As I stated earlier lets put the money discussion aside.
he coaches kids' hockey and is pushing his son to be a pro hockey player... i had an uncle that played pro football, so we are a 'football family'...my sister always pushed her son to play....until she saw him the day after the games ... to see her own son barely able to walk ... it changed her outlook... ...but it didn't change her son's outlook on the sport ... nor his father's who also played college ball....they accept the physical damage as part of the game....
when my uncle played pro ball they didn't have much protective wear....my uncle's body was mangled, but his head was fine because those guys knew better than to bash their heads together.... ...and the players were also half the size ... we're seeing an explosion of cte in seau's generation because it's the steroid generation... the helmets cushion the blows....but cte is about rattling the brain... the protective ware creates false sense of security....but it's still massive amounts of power slamming into each other as hard as they can...
people on the west coast are not very aware of cte... hopefully this will help other guys and their families cope with life after sports...
Not too long ago, "bull in the ring" was a practice ritual for football players of all ages. One of my middle aged patients has permanent brain damage and flashbacks and nightmares still from football in highschool. Thankfully the coaches do screens prior to each season for signs of brain injury and send kids for medical/neurological evaluations if they may have an a concussion.and there is more education on head injury now. But its not enough. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I still see high school kids with a decline in cognition and mood lability , with no drug abuse, and no family history of bipolar disorder or ADHD, but have a history of multiple concussions from sports injuries including football, hockey, skateboarding, snowboarding and wrestling. Kids feel invincible .. I had to purchase a snowboarding helmet online for one of my patients because he didnt want to listen to his mom and was determined to snowboard without a helmet because they were too dorky looking. We found one online that was acceptable to him. I reminded him about the brain damage he already has sustained, and gave him the image of a soft melon in a china bowl. If you drop it what happens? The bowl ( your skull) breaks and the melon ( your brain ) goes splat.. or atleast is very bruised.) He got it. He wore the helmet on his snowboarding trip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-VWbBF94PQ Who should they sue?
My answer is, typical for a psychiatrist... " Its a huge double bind." (meaning damn if you do.. damn if you dont..) I know many kids who get so much out of school sports, in terms of physical fitness, self esteem, the value of cooperation as a team, self discipline, time managment . I know kids whose grades improve during football season because of encouragement from their coaches , and whose grades decline off season. My wish is that just like in medicine we have the credo "First, do no harm," I wish that safety would always come first with school sports, instead of the philosophy of injuries come with the game.
Back in Da day football players didn't even wear helmets???60 years later
where were these 2 people and what did thay see??????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFAE-ZIntVI
It seems as if your attorney should have looked into that. Huh?.....oh you say all the lawyers you talked to said something about a ten foot pole....hmmmmm. BTW how's the volunteer octogenarian lawyer doing on your appeal?
Got it right Junior should of been held for 72 hours ,When the cop lit me up for the 3rd time in the parking lot of the 24 hour ,,, I told him "why don't you just shot Me " and he told me "sounds like you need 72 hours" I told him i want your superviser out here now and he left, If that would of be george and same thing happened ,72 hours ,court dates ,and I would of been called by the D.A. as a witness in the event that almost killed me .
How could anyone possibly make you look like a monkey?