Former South Carolina State football player Robert Geathers and his wife are owed $18 million after a jury ruled the NCAA negligent in failing to warn him of the long-term effects of concussions, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
Geathers, 68, is set to receive $10 million after a civil trial that ended late last week in Orangeburg, S.C. His wife, Debra, was awarded $8 million for loss of consortium. The trial lasted just four days, including jury selection, and the jury deliberated for only 1 hour, 50 minutes before delivering its verdict on Thursday, according to The State newspaper in Columbia.<\/p>\n
An NCAA spokesperson told the AP that the association disagreed with the verdict. It has 30 days to appeal.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, which Geathers filed in April 2019, he is permanently disabled and suffers \u201csubstantial symptoms of neuro-cognitive injuries, including symptoms of traumatic encephalopathy\u201d (CTE). CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously. The complaint asserts that Geathers\u2019 ailments were caused by \u201cthe repetitive sub-concussive and concussive head impacts \u2026 while playing NCAA football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geathers\u2019 attorneys argued that his symptoms did not appear until decades later. They claimed the NCAA knew about concussion risks associated with football and their long-term effects as early as 1933, yet failed to accurately disclose that information until well after Geathers\u2019 career ended. He played at the school from 1977 to 1980 as a defensive end.<\/p>\n
The impact goes beyond Geathers\u2019 case, a member of his legal team told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a depth of information that the NCAA had that they withheld from players and universities, particularly during that time period,\u201d Bakari Sellers, an attorney who represented Geathers, said. \u201cThese communities, these institutions are beloved. The jury was able to see that it wasn\u2019t our client\u2019s fault, it wasn\u2019t the institution\u2019s fault, but the NCAA, by withholding this information, heightened the risk of playing football.\u201d<\/p>\n
CBS Sports, citing the Times and Democrat newspaper in Orangeburg, reported that the jury ruled the NCAA \u201cunreasonably increased the risk of harm of head impacts to Robert Geathers over and above the risks inherent to playing football.\u201d<\/p>\n
NCAA spokesperson Greg Johnson told the AP that the association is \u201cprepared to pursue our rights on post-trial motions and on appeal, if necessary.\u201d He also said South Carolina State held standards in line with the knowledge available on head injuries during Geathers\u2019 playing days and that college football did not cause his long-term health issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NCAA has prevailed in every other jury trial around the country on these issues,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
John J. Perlstein, a wrongful death and personal injury attorney based in Los Angeles, echoed the sentiment. The evidence that the NCAA had prior knowledge and intentionally hid it from schools is a difficult premise to prove, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence, or lack thereof, of the NCAA withholding information about someone hitting a head, I don\u2019t think it exists,\u201d Perlstein said in a phone interview with The Athletic. \u201cThen you have all kinds of affirmative defenses. There\u2019s a reason they won all the other lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the lawsuits don\u2019t always go through a trial.<\/p>\n
In 2019, a judge approved a settlement in a similar case brought against the NCAA. That case, Arrington vs. NCAA<\/a>, was initially brought by former Eastern Illinois football player Adrian Arrington and later expanded into a class-action lawsuit. The settlement established a $70 million fund to monitor current and former college athletes for brain trauma over a 50-year period. Arrington opposed the settlement<\/a> because it did not include the payment of damages.<\/p>\n During the Geathers trial, NCAA attorney Andy Fletcher argued that the player faces numerous health conditions outside of football that could have potentially contributed to his symptoms. But Sellers told The Athletic that MRI scans have shown potential correlations between the position Geathers played along the defensive line and the injuries that now plague him.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Geathers has severe dementia,\u201d Sellers said. \u201cWe were able to prove, based upon the MRI, that his frontal lobe \u2014 where, as a defensive lineman, you take all those hits \u2014 was damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Perlstein told The Athletic that football carries an assumed risk when one participates, and he expects the NCAA to buoy that point.<\/p>\n \u201cYou also have that underlying assumption of the risk doctrine,\u201d Perlstein said. \u201cPeople know that if you\u2019re going to ram your head into things you could get hurt. It just seems like a very difficult case.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless, Sellers believes players\u2019 mental health after football is an issue that extends beyond this case. He said this can be a landmark case for the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that the NCAA has a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re going to have to take a similar step to the National Football League to resolve these claims on behalf of hundreds, if not thousands, of players.\u201d<\/p>\n