Marino suing the NFL over concussions....

[dabeastdabone]

I'm pretty much done with Dan, the guy made mad jack over the years and lived a Kings life due to football and he does this. I'm all for some financial support for the guy who played 10 years and made nothing while playing and nothing after, but Dan is just a leach with this.

 

[Gonzo]

Very true. Over 90% of the WORLDs lawyers are citizens of the good old USA.

That's very inaccurate, but of course we'll have the most per capita given how big of a role representation plays in our judicial system and considering how many people we put in prison for minor offenses.

 

[Phinatic99]

The NFL is making money hand over fist...I guess you can't blame the players for wanting more money. Not that I agree. I think he must be feeling the pinch from losing his CBS gig.

---------- Post added at 10:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 AM ----------

The NFL maximized their profits by sacrificing players' long term health.

WHAT HE SAID...

 

[roy_miami]

Also, I have Parkinsons symptoms at 38 years old. More than likely from head trauma playing football. Maybe I should sue Miramar High School.

I know you're being sarcastic but if your coach knew you had a concussion and knew the risks of putting you back in the game and did it anyway just to get the W then yes you could sue. If a coach does that now and the player dies he's looking at jail time and a lawsuit.

Young adults are programmed to take risks, its been scientifically proven and its one of the reasons we've evolved into what we are today. When I was younger the hardware warehouse I worked for had all kinds of rules about using forklifts as elevators to the top shelfs, none of us used the cage and harness because we were too manly to waste 5 minutes of the companies time (we were making minimum wage mind you). I was lifting a guy and knocked him off not being careful, he landed on his back and could have died but we just laughed. Now the supervisors were good and they would always scold us for taking unnecessary risks but it was only after a kid died a few months later that they demanded we follow the rules or be fired.

Players don't have the wisdom to understand the risks involved aren't worth the W or even millions of dollars so the owners, coaches and officials need to make the rules and enforce them to try to make the game as safe as possible. I'd say the culture needs to change but thats highly unlikely to happen. Sidney Crosby (one of the best hockey players in the NHL) took a lot of flack recently for taking extra time away from the game to make sure his concussions were properly healed, that type of behavior should be applauded but instead he gets ridiculed for "being a wuss."

In my mind concussions are on the same plane as performance enhancing drugs, there is little doubt that if drugs were legal probably 100% of players would be on them to some degree, even today many players go against the rules and put their bodies at risk. But you can't say the NFL is negligent when it comes to drugs and they should be just as vigilant when it comes to concussions, just like with drugs they should try to set the example that its OK to put the health of your body ahead of performing on the football field.

 

[Kdawg954]

There's a lot of confusion over this lawsuit. Marino isn't suing because he got a concussion. He's suing because the NFL policy at the time had doctors clearing people for play that should never have been back on the field so fast. The NFL had a financial incentive to minimize the danger of concussions because if players had mandatory periods of exclusion from play due to concussions, maximum team size would have to be expanded. The NFL maximized their profits by sacrificing players' long term health.

Welcome to the United States. Where you get 31.5 hours a week to avoid having to offer insurance to an employee, hell the biggest most powerful country in the world, yet a country that doesn't have a national healthcare program for all of it's residents unlike most powerful countries in the world. What the NFL did is a spotlight into what this country is all about.

This is small potatoes, look at the housing market. Real Estate skyrocketed, banks gave loans to people who they knew could not afford the houses they were getting into and when the housing market was "maximized" the big guns got their money and people's financial securities got sacrificed in the process when they couldn't afford the ballooning interest rates that accompanied these home purchases. Of course to distract people, we get a "stimulus refund" but the damage had been done long before.

When banks get punished, when the NFL gets punished . . . I am all for it. But this is just the realization of what this country is all about and big players like NFL owners and banks and many others have gotten away with stuff like this for years. Whether it's diminishing customer service (outsourcing or less people) or increased productivity with less workforce, the idea of maximizing profit with sacrifices at the bottom is the corporate makeup of all major companies.

Didn't mean to get so political, but the NFL is just being a business and these lawsuits only get attention because it effects the health of people we may of idolized growing up. Yet the average person is a form of a sacrificial lamb if you think about it and the amount of stress people have to deal with to make enough ends meat to pay their bills can be as detrimental to one's health.

At least as an NFL player, the compensation gained helps deal with this corporate bull**** that is going on.

 

[BlueFin]

At the beginning of last season they were talking about the concussion lawsuit on CBS and he stated that he knew the risks of getting involved in the NFL when it came to injuries and concussions. That was why he wasn't a part of the lawsut to begin with. I take issue with the fact that less than a year ago he was saying how this was known when he was playing and that all players knew the risks. If they are adding his name to the lawsuit to help get more money, then that is an issue as well. If I am the prosecuitor, I am showing his footage from a year ago when he was on CBS and showing that this is just a money grab and that he knew about the long term effects because he stated so in the past.

Here is an article with a youtube clip of him saying so as well: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24579491/dan-marino-on-concussions-in-2013-players-know-what-the-risks-are

Of course, this lawsuit all but ended any chance of him joining the Dolphins any time in the near future in a John Elway role or really any type of role for that matter. I can't see Ross hiring someone who is currently suing the NFL. I am sure the NFL higher-ups have already called Ross and probably told him that. It wouldn't look good at all for the NFL and right now Ross probably feels he needs to keep the NFL happy with all the other crap that we are going through right now.

Well there you go...hypocrisy rears its ugly head.

Dan must have gotten word a settlement is coming and didn't want to miss out.

Good find, I had forgotten his remarks on the subject.

May due to his head hits he forgot his previous stance?

That will definitately get played in court.

 

[artdnj]

Don't want him associated with the team in any decision making capacity just as a spokesperson for his hallof fame play and recognition. I have never gotten the feel that he has the drive to move up in any capacity within the front office.

Elway is a true businessman and carries himself as such, the comparison between Elway and Dan end on the field. Jlo seems to want to be around the Fins more than Dan so lets leave it at that.

 

[TheWalrus]

LOL at some of the posts in this thread.

"Everybody knows that mining is dangerous therefore it doesn't matter how shoddily the mine was built -- causing your leg to be crushed -- because you knew the risk going in."

 

[roy_miami]

Well there you go...hypocrisy rears its ugly head.

Dan must have gotten word a settlement is coming and didn't want to miss out.

Good find, I had forgotten his remarks on the subject.

May due to his head hits he forgot his previous stance?

That will definitately get played in court.

I don't know if that technically falls under the definition of hypocrisy, maybe some new information came to light over the past year. I'm pretty sure every single person posting in this thread is doing things that they know carries inherent risk, like driving for example, and if Toyota was knowingly putting unsafe brakes on your car you would sue them if it caused an accident. Whether you have good brakes or bad brakes you are knowingly taking a risk by driving so the knowing of a certain degree of risk doesn't absolve the manufacturer, or the league in this case, from negligence.

So if you sue Toyota for putting your life in danger above and beyond the accepted risks of driving are you now a hypocrite also?

 

[Striggs]

This is definitely a sign of the last days. I think the author of revelations missed this one.

 

[roy_miami]

People are worried the precious game they know and love will change too much. I bet when hard shell helmets were introduced some of the old hard core purists had the same worries over the pussification of the game, the irony is those hard shelled helmets probably made the game more dangerous for the players.

 

[BlueFin]

I don't know if that technically falls under the definition of hypocrisy, maybe some new information came to light over the past year. I'm pretty sure every single person posting in this thread is doing things that they know carries inherent risk, like driving for example, and if Toyota was knowingly putting unsafe brakes on your car you would sue them if it caused an accident. Whether you have good brakes or bad brakes you are knowingly taking a risk by driving so the knowing of a certain degree of risk doesn't absolve the manufacturer, or the league in this case, from negligence.

So if you sue Toyota for putting your life in danger above and beyond the accepted risks of driving are you now a hypocrite also?

As I stated earlier....legitmate wrongs should be pursued....Playing a physical game like football has obvious risks involved...it is not a secret.

I watched Daryl Stingley get paralyzed in the 70's....we ALL knew the risks involved in playing football....as Dan admitted a year ago.

 

[ojmcduffy]

Maybe just maybe marino is standing up for the little guy. He has more money than he could ever spend. the stars in this league are paid millions but what about the 7th round draft pick. Drew Brees makes a ton more than Marcus Thigpen yet both of them are at risk for the same concussions. Drew Brees has the money to pay for insurance and doctors just like marino, brady, Hell even Cam Newton, but where is say ammon binns going to get that money. How many doctors can Trusnek afford. How about our practice squad guys they arent paid millions is their health any less important than Mike Wallace?

 

[BlueFin]

This is small potatoes, look at the housing market. Real Estate skyrocketed, banks gave loans to people who they knew could not afford the houses they were getting into and when the housing market was "maximized" the big guns got their money and people's financial securities got sacrificed in the process when they couldn't afford the ballooning interest rates that accompanied these home purchases. Of course to distract people, we get a "stimulus refund" but the damage had been done long before.

When banks get punished, when the NFL gets punished . . . I am all for it. But this is just the realization of what this country is all about and big players like NFL owners and banks and many others have gotten away with stuff like this for years. Whether it's diminishing customer service (outsourcing or less people) or increased productivity with less workforce, the idea of maximizing profit with sacrifices at the bottom is the corporate makeup of all major companies.

Didn't mean to get so political, but the NFL is just being a business and these lawsuits only get attention because it effects the health of people we may of idolized growing up. Yet the average person is a form of a sacrificial lamb if you think about it and the amount of stress people have to deal with to make enough ends meat to pay their bills can be as detrimental to one's health.

At least as an NFL player, the compensation gained helps deal with this corporate bull**** that is going on.

Lets be accurate about history....the banking collapse was the result of the "Community Reinvestment Act 0f 1977" starting during Jimmy Carter....but really finally enforced under Bill Clinton.

The Federal Government using Fannie Mae strong armed banks to lower lending standards to enable unqualified buyers to get into homes, and penalized banks who refused to so.

This was the major cause of the banking collapse.

 

[mialuv13]

Man, a lot of these posts are mighty conclusory based on a huge amount of hearsay. Sure, if Dan Marino filed a separate case suing for monetary damages against the NFL rather than joining in on the class action against the NFL, the NFL can ask the court to take judicial notice of Marino's opinions on what he believed prior to filing his complaint (but even that is a long shot considering Fed. R. Evid. 200). But since Marino's case is being tacked on to the class action, Marino and 4,800 other plaintiffs just have to file a short-form complaint which contains standard language of brain-related injuries and exhibit symptoms that might have either been latent for years or present at time they were playing. He just becomes another face in the crowd and his case won't be scrutinized as carefully as if he brought his own suit (which he is most likely precluded from doing at this point anyway).

Focusing on the substantive issues of the law, the suit's main premise is that the NFL knew of the risks and concealed the information of "football-related brain injuries." Not that players necessarily assumed the risk. That is a given fact. Professional athletes impliedly consent to the inherent injuries of the sport.

However, even if they knew or should have known that concussions would lead to mental health disorders, this does not necessitate the conclusory facts that they consented to mental health issues, but rather that the NFL ACTIVELY CONCEALED AND MISREPRESENTED THE FACTUAL AND SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS that these injuries could lead to mental health issues. That is the key to all of this. The plaintiff's mental state (i.e. knowledge of the possible injuries) won't be as much in question as compared to the NFL's actions to actively misrepresent their own scientific and medical findings to preserve the state of the NFL brand.

If it is found that the NFL knew of these dangers associated with concussions and hid that from the players or did not actively make it apparent to the players then this all falls on the NFL in the eyes of the law.

I still respect Marino for filing suit. Unfortunately, this is a litigious society and we shouldn't pass judgment on someone following the actions of 4,800 other players. Is it sad that Marino has been brought to a point where he needs to do this for money or publicity? Sure. But, he isn't a terrible person that deserves less respect for it. Given the chance to scrounge a possible cool million or so in damages, I fervently believe most people would jump on that scenario.

As for Marino joining the organization...I'll pass. He's not John Elway. Elway was always known for his business acumen. Marino...not so much. I'd rather Marino mentor Tannehill than anything else.