The National Football League has settled with six insurance companies after being sued over expenses stemming from the league’s $1 billion dollar concussion settlement.
SportsBusiness Daily’s Daniel Kaplan noted that dozens of insurers are still pursuing legal action against the NFL.
While further settlements could be costly, the NFL has a “strong incentive” to settle with insurance companies, per The Bleacher Report. Should the NFL go to trial, they must divulge information about what they knew, and how long they knew about what was going on – about players’ concussion risks, short and long term.
“The last thing the league wants is for media, fans, and potentially meddling politicians to see memos, documents and transcripts demonstrating (possible) the lengths to which the league went to fend off a potential existential threat before 2009, when the league had no choice but to deal with the problem,” Mike Florio wrote for Pro Football Talk.
Approximately 30 insurance companies are considering taking legal action against the NFL concussion settlement payouts, per The Bleacher Report. Insurers state that the league didn’t properly educate the players on the long-term consequences of concussions and in certain situations they even helped to cover them up.