Sports Agent and Sports Lawyer Blog

We have blogged previously about the safety of sports equipment (such as mouthguards and baseball bats (here and here). Now it is time to take note of a lawsuit underway in Canada regarding the safety of hockey helmets.

The parents of a youth hockey player are suing helmet maker Bauer Hockey Corp, alleging that the helmet did not adequately protect the player against injuries. The article describes Darren More’s injury in this way after crashing into the boards following a hip check:

He was in a coma for six weeks, and remained in hospital four a total of four months. Darren’s injuries included a subdural hematoma, brain swelling and hypoxia.

Darren was unable to graduate high school and cannot seem to function in the manner that he did before the injury.

It is interesting that the plaintiffs have also sued the Canadian Standards Association, which certifies helmets for use. Whether Darren was injured because his helmet was faultily constructed helmet or by a freak accident, here is hoping that this lawsuit resolves the issue and compensates the family if the helmet maker or standards board was derelict in its duties. While Darren's situation is nothing short of tragic, if it leads to changes in the way helmets are designed, it would be a positive legacy for the future

Here’s a strange sports lawsuit that is sure to gain attention as the story picks up steam. A high school softball player in New York City is suing the city, her school and her coach, claiming that she injured her ankle because the coach failed to teach her how to slide.

Fifteen-year-old Alina Cerda, a freshman third baseman, alleges that she broke her ankle last season during softball practice. The basis of the lawsuit seems to be an allegation of negligent supervision:

Alina's lawyer, Clay Evall, says Brown wasn't supervising the sliding drill but had some of the team's veteran players teaching the new girls how to do it.

"He wasn't instructing them whatsoever," Evall said. "He told her to watch the older girls do it."

I can understand the plaintiff's misery here but I have to wonder about the extent of her damages. I realize she is in pain and she missed her entire freshman season and still has not fully recovered. But it’s December and she has several months until next season. Also, the school district's health insurance plan covered her medical costs, right? It’s doubtful that she is claiming damages from lost future earnings, as softball players do not have any earning prospects. I guess she may be claiming a lost chance at a college scholarship but that seems like a stretch. Without any damages to speak of, it seems unlikely to me that she will prevail even if the coach was found to have been negligent in his supervision.

Here is a roundup of recent developments regarding concussions in football.

First, La Salle University settled a concussion brain injury lawsuit for $7.5 million with former football player Preston Pelvretes, who was allegedly injured in a 2005 game. As usual with these types of lawsuits, the in-game concussion was apparently the second concussion that Pelvretes suffered in a month. Everyone knows that concussions have a cumulative impact on the brain, making it critical for coaches and trainers to do the right thing when the player suffers the first concussion.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Only in the past one to two years has there been the kind of attention placed on this matter necessary to force schools, colleges and the NFL to actually adhere to the well-promulgated and common-sense standards of the medical profession,” Shanin Specter, a lawyer for the Plevretes family, told The Associated Press.

Continue reading "Sports Law and Concussion Roundup" »

Here is a story which is important for sports lawyers to monitor in light of the recent Louisville Slugger baseball bat verdict. A Massachusetts youth baseball league has decided to return to using metal bats after an eight-year run of using only wood bats.

The father of the child who was severely injured by a ball hit off a metal bat was shocked and angered by the move:

“[Aluminum] bats hit the ball harder, so those kids are in greater peril,’’ said Richard Hughto, an environmental consultant from Wellesley. “They’re deciding to put some kids in danger so some kids can get more hits . . . [With aluminum bats,] players will hit the ball more often and the good hitters will hit it that much harder’’ toward the pitcher’s mound, which is 46 feet from home plate as opposed to 60.5 feet from home in professional baseball.

The safety of baseball equipment is an issue which Sports Agent Lawyer Blog will continue to monitor, as it heavily impacts the field of sports law.

We have blogged about it before, and we’ll blog about it again. The NFL concussion problem is not going away.

Leonard Shapiro, a retired sports writer who is in the NFL Hall of Fame, recently put together a chilling story about a retired player who is taking medication to stave off Alzheimer’s. Shapiro’s article does a stellar job of encapsulating the entire NFL debate about concussions when he summarizes the NFL’s response to a study released earlier this fall about concussions. The study revealed that former football players have increased dementia and memory problems. Surely, this caused the NFL to mobilize its vast resources and spring into action, right? Not quite:

Strangely, the NFL's initial response was that the study was scientifically flawed, and that further work needed to be done before a definitive link between on-field hits and dementia can be made.

In many instances, the right thing can be accomplished by utilizing safer equipment. Shapiro’s article references a special helmet, the Xenith X1, which is designed to soften and moderate blows to the head. The helmet is pictured at right.

I hope you understand the reason we continue to blog about this subject. An agent is a fiduciary who is charged with looking out for the best interests of his client. To be sure, football players are grown men who are responsible for their actions and choices, but sports lawyers and sports agents need to get involved to help pressure the league to do the right thing. If nothing else, agents and lawyers should at least make their pro athlete clients aware of the options such as the new and reportedly safer equipment options.

Earlier we blogged about concussions in the NFL and the lasting damage they can cause football players. We just wanted to point out an outstanding, if painful, article about former 49ers lineman George Visger, who is afflicted with hydrocepahlus, or "water on the brain." He even has a shunt in his brain as a result of one too many hits to the brain.

Here is a chilling excerpt from the article:

Here’s the score. Visger’s head got knocked around so much playing football, scar tissue formed over the ducts in the brain that supply fluid to the spine. When the fluid builds up enough pressure, it crushes Visger’s brain from the inside out, against the hard, bony skull. If the pressure is not alleviated, his brain will hemorrhage, he’ll go into a coma and die. That’s what the shunt surgically installed in his brain is for, to relieve the pressure. If the shunt should clog—which it has done often in the past, thus the multiple brain surgeries—the pressure builds up inside his skull, causing an intense headache and nausea. If the pressure doesn’t subside, then Visger is supposed to jam the needle in the side of his head and drain off the excess fluid.

I am not suggesting that football players from the old days need to start suing leagues because of the damage previously suffered. At some point, however, the NFL needs to wake up and institute major reform. How anyone can ignore the mounting evidence and argue that football at high levels is not potentially life-threatening is beyond me. This is a topic that Sports Agent and Sports Lawyer Blog won't stop covering until the league makes substantial changes in its policies.