The NFL and their 4,500 litigants in the landmark concussion case were able to finally come to a settlement of $765 million.
ESPN and Outside The Lines is reporting that the those players actually decided to settle, after the mediator told players’ attorneys that the bulk of their case was in “real danger of being dismissed.”
Reports are now surfacing that before the retired players decided on the nice settlement from the NFL, they initially wanted $2 billion in compensation.
Shortly after the July meeting with Brody, Christopher A. Seeger, a litigation attorney who represented the players, and Brad S. Karp, a partner with one of the NFL’s outside law firms, met to discuss a potential settlement. The two men had held preliminary discussions as early as the previous August, but negotiations did not become serious until after the July meeting. Those negotiations, which involved former U.S. District Judge Layn Phillips, the court-appointed mediator, included dozens of sometimes-heated meetings and phone conversations and continued as late as 2 a.m. the day the settlement was announced.
Once in mediation, the players demanded slightly more than $2 billion to settle the case, the source said. The NFL indicated that it was unwilling to offer more than a token settlement and said it was prepared to try the case.
One attorney who represents dozens of players but was not directly involved in the negotiations said he was told that the NFL had initially offered “peanuts” and that the proposed compensation was commensurate with a “dog-bite” case. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined to comment Saturday.