ABC News reported today that a group of retired NFL players had filed a lawsuit on Tuesday stating that the league, which was thirsty for profits, provided illegally risky narcotics and other painkillers to numb their injuries so they could participate in games, leading to other medical complications on down the pike.
The league is said to have obtained and administered drugs to players illegally and without prescriptions and without any warning to them for the potential of them having side effects from them, according to allegations in the lawsuit. The players allege that they were never told of any broken legs, ankles, etc., and were fed pills in order to mask their pain. One player has stated that instead of surgery, he was given anti-inflammatories and skipped practices in order for him to play in money-making games. Other players have said that after years of free pills from the NFL, they retired from the league and they were addicted to painkillers.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and a copy was shared with the Associated Press ahead of the filing.
This lawsuit comes on the heels of a landmark case accusing the league of concealing known risks from players’ concussions; and the case for $765 million which was settled last year with the NFL. Players didn’t receive punitive damages and there was no blame assessed.
Names of eight players were named in the drug lawsuit, including three members of the NFL champion 1985 Chicago Bears: Hall of Fame defensive end Richard Dent, offensive lineman Keith Van Horne, and quarterback Jim McMahon. Lawyers seek class-action status, and are saying that in the filing that more than 500 other former players have signed on to the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, McMahon stated he had suffered a broken neck and ankle during his career but rather than sitting out of the game, he took medications and was pushed back on to the field. According to the lawsuit, team doctors and trainers had never told him about the injuries.
The lawsuit says, “McMahon became addicted to painkillers and at one point he was taking more than 100 Percocet pills per month, even in the offseason. The lawsuit also alleges team-employed doctors and trainers illegally administered the drugs, because they didn’t get prescriptions, keep records or explain side effects.
The lawsuit also states that Van Horne played for an entire season on a broken leg and he was not told about the injury for five years, “during which time he was constantly fed a diet of pills to deal with his pain.”
Among the eight named plaintiffs, six were also plaintiffs in concussion-related litigation, including McMahon and Van Horne.
This latest lawsuit is seeking an injunction to create an NFL-funded testing and monitoring program which will aid to prevent addiction and injuries and disabilities that are related to painkillers; and it’s also seeking unspecified financial damages.
Steven Silverman, attorney for the players’ said, “The NFL knew of the debilitating effects of the drugs on all of its players and callously ignored the players’ long-term health in it obsession to return the player to play.” Silverman’s Baltimore firm, Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin and White, is also representing former National Hockey League players in a concussion-related lawsuit.
Jeremy Newberry, former offensive lineman, has described the line up in the San Francisco 49ers’ locker room with other players to receive powerful anti-inflammatory injections in their buttocks. The lawsuits says that Newberry retired in 2009 and he is now suffering from renal failure, high blood pressure and violent headaches because of all the drugs he took during his time playing.
The lawsuit seeks class-action status for any former players who have received narcotic painkillers, anti-inflammatories, local anesthetics, sleeping aids or other drugs without prescription, an independent diagnosis, or a warning of/about side effects or the dangers for mixing with other drugs.
Plaintiff J.D. Hill, who played for seven years in the 1970s, said in a statement, “I was provided uppers, downers, painkillers, and whatever else, while in the NFL; and saying, I became addicted and I turned to the streets after my career and became homeless. Never took a drug in my life, and I became a junkie in the NFL.”
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article based upon an Associated Press article and reported by ABC News.
Source:
Associated Press and reported by ABC News