Yesterday the NFL and lawyers for retired NFL players reached an agreement to end “race norming” in testing in the 2016 $1 billion settlement over concussion claims.
The agreement was filed Wednesday in federal court.
Race norming assumes Black athletes start at a lower cognitive functioning level than white athletes. So in tests used by the NFL to determine cognitive impairment and/or damage, Black players had a harder time showing any deficit from concussions.
That meant that Black players who were suffering from adverse health conditions due to concussions were prevented from financial awards, which averaged $500,000 or more, through the settlement for treatment.
It’s a practice that added to Black pain felt by players and their families.
In this new agreement, according to The New York Times, Black retirees will have the opportunity to have their tests rescored or, in some cases, have a new round of cognitive testing done.
The proposal must be approved by a judge, but at least the two parties have agreed to remove the biased testing.
“We look forward to the court’s prompt approval of the agreement, which provides for a race-neutral evaluation process that will ensure diagnostic accuracy and fairness in the concussion settlement,” said NFL lawyer Brad Karp in a statement.
The inclusion of race norming went unnoticed until 2018, two years after the 2016 landmark settlement was reached.
That’s when attorney Cyril V. Smith, who represented former players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport, stepped in.
In August of 2020, Smith filed a class-action lawsuit against the NFL on behalf of his clients who were not only suffering but whose claims were rejected after race normed tests.
The original tests for both Henry and Davenport showed serious cognitive impairment. The NFL denied the claim and made them take a second test, which was race normed, and that showed less damage.
As a result, both of their claims were denied.
This past March, the judge presiding over the case rejected the lawsuit and ordered them to resolve the issue through mediation.
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