SHORTED

Debilitated Players: NFL Is Stalling Settlement Payments

“This is not a settlement. This is about paying sick men as little as possible.”

Families of debilitated former players have said the National Football League is unfairly stalling on brain-injury settlement payments, The New York Times reported. The league agreed in 2015 to a $1 billion settlement, which covers most former players for the next 65 years. But player representatives say the league is actually rejecting valid claims and using roadblocks to make the process more difficult. According to the Times, of the 1,400 claims filed so far, only 140 have been approved. The former players who have already filed claims are seeking as much as $5 million each to help treat serious neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, that have been tied to years of hits to the head. “Players will be shorted what they earned,” Andrew Stewart, a retired defensive lineman with Parkinson’s, told the Times. “This is not a settlement. This is about paying sick men as little as possible.”