On Tuesday, five former Kansas City Chiefs players sued the team for damages after suffering concussions. The five men – Alexander Cooper, Leonard Griffin, Christopher Martin, Joseph Phillips and Kevin Porter – played on the team during the 1980s and 1990s, and have since come down with symptoms of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a condition connected to concussions.
The NFL has faced similar concussion-related lawsuits in the past, but this is the first filed only against an NFL team. The lawsuit states that the Chiefs did not inform its players of the strong possibility of head injury. “[The] Defendant has known or should have known for many years that post-concussion syndrome and cognitive impairment occurs in football players,” the suit says. During the time period addressed in the suit, there was also no collective bargaining agreement in the NFL.
Over $15,000 in damages are being sought on the counts of negligence, negligent misrepresentation and fraudulent concealment.
