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Will Brain Injury Lawsuits Doom or Save the NFL?

Several of the plaintiffs' lawyers who won multibillion-dollar settlements for asbestos and tobacco victims are trying to stick it to the National Football League. But they haven't come to bury football. They've come to make brain damage a cost of doing business.
Will Brain Injury Lawsuits Doom or Save the NFL?
Photograph by Ben Solomon/The New York Times/Redux/REA
Paul M. Barrett

When Gene Locks led Princeton against Columbia on Oct. 5, 1957, it took the Tigers quarterback only a few plays to discover “that the middle of the Columbia line was paper thin,” according to the Daily Princetonian. In the Tigers’ single-wing offense, Locks served as a blocker, leaving “gaping holes” in Columbia’s defense on the way to a 47-6 wipeout.