Football Lawsuits Against Leagues, Teams and Schools
Will amateur football players sue their leagues? The recent Congressional hearings about the issue of concussions in the NFL were interesting. To me, I think there is an inevitable wave of litigation which is sure to follow as this issue continues to be mainstreamed.
The bottom line is that it’s becoming a virtual certainty in the medical community that football can result in brain injuries, even to athletes who play in college and never experience the intensity of an NFL collision. Logically this seems to mean that the injuries are also present in high school and youth league players, right?
So when will we see the first high-profile civil lawsuit against a high school, amateur governing association or youth league? There are several legal causes of action that could be brought by or on behalf of a player who suffers injury, ranging from simple negligence to more complex “failure to warn” torts.
Short of the player’s death or debilitating incapacitation, the largest obstacle to such a lawsuit is proving damages. Take the hypothetical lawsuit by a player who suffers the standard post-concussion syndrome after playing a couple of years of high school varsity football. While he would claim that his illness prevented him from going to college to earn a degree, limited his earning potential and caused permanent disability, the defense would aggressively argue that the lost wages or lost opportunities may have never been there in the first place, and are merely speculative. In my opinion, however, such lawsuits would have a strong chance of success if the plaintiff unfortunately suffered the “right” series of damages.
For more information on lawsuits in football and other sports, contact sports lawyer Jason B. Wolf of Koch & Trushin, P.A.
