When it was announced that the NCAA was looking at paying upwards of $70 million out in a concussion settlement, many wondered if the amount would be sufficient, as evidenced by a federal judge denying the initial proposal; citing issues with the amount of money. Well, you can add prominent concussion expert Dr. Robert Cantu to the list of detractors.
In a recent interview conducted with CBS.com, Dr. Cantu explains why he believes the proposed NCAA deal as well as the NFL’s soon-to-be approved $765 million concussion settlement wouldn’t be enough to fully treat the former players that require it:
“I think it’s very unfortunate,” Cantu said in an interview conducted with CBSSports.com this week while he was in Alabama speaking about concussions. “Unfortunately, where it’s left is these individuals are going to be able to be given the diagnosis and then they’ve got to sue either in a class or individually, and they either have to go after a given school, or if they want to include the NCAA they can. I think a lot of individual schools will get sued.”
Dr. Cantu, who serves as a court’s expert for the players on the collegiate side of the case; believes the snags in getting the NCAA settlement passed lie in insurance issues that the NFL didn’t have to deal with when negotiating it’s settlement.
“The (NFL) owners came up with $785 million bucks and they didn’t even go to an insurance company. We’re dealing with billionaires,” Cantu said. “The NCAA has to deal with insurance companies and probably that kind of money — although they came up with $70 million, which is pretty good — isn’t there for compensation.”
The NCAA’s problems will continue to grow and become more serious until they take action. There seems to be a real hesitation to use the massive amounts of money generated by college football, to help the players that are left needing it long after they leave school.
It seems to me NCAA president Mark Emmert will end up with two choices: Either start attacking these issues plaguing college sports with realism, or deal with the pressure that is sure to mount with the release of news like this.
[h/t CBS]
