STARKVILLE — The movement combatting football’s long-lasting impact on its players first struck the NCAA in 2011, when it was sued in a case that ultimately led to a summer 2014 settlement of $70 million.
As Ben Richman sees it, that settlement was nothing more than one step in the right direction. That’s why he and the Edelson PC law firm around him are bringing the NCAA to court once more.
Richman is part of the lawyer group representing dozens of former college football players — former Mississippi State defensive back/kick returner Henry Davison among them — in a class action suit against the NCAA and others. Richman explained to The Dispatch how the suit, which emphasizes the impact of concussions, is operating and what it hopes to accomplish.
“Our concern with the settlement was it would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pursue any personal injury claims, which is really kind of the meat on the bone in terms of the claims being covered now,” Richman said. “Our big concern was a settlement of very, very serious claims for many, many people and there wasn’t enough relief going to them. That’s when we as a firm stepped in. We actually objected to that settlement early on, making similar arguments to what I’m telling you now.”
The primary accomplishment of the settlement from 2014 is a medical monitoring system, one which allows former players to go to certain locations where they can get medical attention, but Richman says full treatment at such facilities is not possible. There is also the issue of personal claims, which the suit hopes to address in its listed demand of $9,999,000.
The litigation is a big one that leaves almost no party untouched. The NCAA takes most of the public backlash, but every FBS football conference other than Conference USA is named in this suit, the Southeastern Conference included. Several conferences in the FCS are listed, as well.
Some schools are listed by name as defendants, some of the big ones being Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Stanford, Boston College, Brigham Young, Duke and Vanderbilt.
MSU, in declining comment on the lawsuit, said it is, “not a target of that litigation other than by virtue of our conference affiliation.” The Dispatch asked Davison if he sued MSU and Edelson PC partner David Mindell replied via email, “most public universities were not named in these cases because of sovereign immunity and other related issues. In others, some clients also did not want to sue their schools.”
Given the large number of complaints combined into the class action suit, Richman said Judge John Z. Lee of Chicago allowed the parties to select a few sample cases, which will be argued and used as precedent to apply to the other cases in the class action. He said one of the sample cases was against the SEC.
“What’s really interesting to note is that the NCAA did not move to dismiss all of the claims, so the cases will go forward in some form,” Richman said. “We’re looking forward to that.”
Even in those large numbers, Richman pointed out that not all making similar claims have joined this suit. He noted one case in Texas where a former Longhorn presented his case and the defendant, “didn’t feel good enough about its case to take it to a jury down there. I think that speaks volumes.”
A case now over two years in the making is drawing closer to its time in court. On Aug. 9, Judge Lee allowed a status hearing set for Wednesday to be postponed to Oct. 16. Richman says once that status meeting is cleared, the firm will move on to collecting depositions, among other things.
Eventually, they hope the players in this — or the ones playing now that will follow in their footsteps — will get the care they need.
“We have thousands upon thousands of players that are our clients and the injuries they’re suffering through, the amount of care they need and what their families need to care for them is staggering,” Richman said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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