the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 29, 2021
Black former football players have filed a lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) because the league is discriminating against black players in the NFL concussion lawsuit settlement.
Years ago, thousands of former NFL players filed a lawsuit against the league because of all the head injuries and repeated concussions they suffered while playing football. For years, the NFL denied and tried to cover up the fact that head injuries and concussions were causing great harm to the players. But finally, the NFL was forced to settle the lawsuit and agreed to pay the former players some money.
Now, over 20,000 former NFL players have applied for this settlement. So far, almost 75% of the players, both black and white, were denied any money. But black players were denied at an even higher rate. In some cases, a black player and a white player would test at the same cognitive level and the white player would get money and the black player would be denied.
Why? Because following the NFL guidelines, the doctors were supposed to assume that the former black players started out with a lower cognitive ability. So if a former white player and a former black player were at the same cognitive level today, the doctor was supposed to assume that white player suffered a bigger decline than the black player!
This racist garbage reflects the NFL’s desperate attempt to establish a block against further liability. After all, black players make up about 70% of the NFL players today.
The league just signed a new TV contract that will pay the NFL owners 105 billion dollars. And that is on top of the money the owners make on marketing and ticket sales. The amount of money paid to the former players in this lawsuit amounts to much less than one percent of all this money.
All the NFL players, black and white, through their years of work and training and sacrificing their bodies, have produced huge profits for the NFL owners.
Head injuries caused many former players to suffer mental impairment, early onset of dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). These diseases led to many former players dying or committing suicide at a young age.
And now this parting insult. The outrage at the NFL’s attempt to use blatant racist tactics should extend beyond the league to the general population.