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A former Utah defensive lineman is among as many as 50 former players filing class-action lawsuits contesting how the NCAA, major college football conferences or individual schools handled concussions, and he'll be seeking damages for lingering brain injuries and ailments.
Richard Seals, who played for the Utes between 1995 and 1999, was among first batch of six lawsuits was filed Tuesday and Chicago-based attorney Jay Edelson said the next wave will likely be filed within the next two weeks.
In the suit, Seals claimed to have suffered multiple concussions while a player for the Utes which led to diminished cognitive function, memory lapses and mood swings among other problematic symptoms. He alleged that the NCAA and the University of Utah were slow to adapt to science that warned of long-lasting symptoms of concussive and sub-concussive hits, and allowed him back in games in which he received concussions.
While the University of Utah is not listed as a defendant in the suit, Seals is suing the Western Athletic Conference and the NCAA, which he says were complicit.
The NCAA will receive a barrage of similar cases in the coming weeks from former players who are looking for monetary damages for head injuries they sustained in college.
"The reason that we're bringing so many of them instead of one giant one is because the NCAA successfully argued to the court that we shouldn't be allowed to bring just one big case," Edelson said Wednesday. "Because of that we have to file suit on a per-school basis."
The other initial lawsuits were filed by players who played for Georgia, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Oregon and Penn State. The former football players claim problems ranging from loss of memory and cognitive function to dementia.
Seals claimed that the school was either willfully blind to or deliberately hid knowledge of the risk of concussive hits, and said that Utah did not adopt an up-to-date concussions policy until 2010. He also alleged that the NCAA and WAC did not live up to their stated goals of protecting the wellbeing of student-athletes.
The lawsuits come as a settlement in another concussion case against the NCAA is awaiting approval by a federal judge.
Former Eastern Illinois football player Adrian Arrington in 2011 sued the NCAA over its handling of concussions and it resulted in a proposed settlement that provided no damages to be paid to players for injuries.
The proposal is still awaiting final approval from a federal judge in Illinois. It calls for the NCAA to create a $70 million fund for testing and monitoring former athletes for brain trauma and another $5 million for concussion research.
Arrington opposed the settlement, though other plaintiffs signed off, and Edelson has fought against it.
"These cases appear to be yet another attempt by Mr. Edelson to interfere with efforts to move forward a settlement in the Arrington case. The lawsuits reflect copycat activity and just because they keep repeating the same arguments does not make them true," said Donald Remy, NCAA chief legal officer.
In the Vanderbilt and Penn State cases, the schools are named directly named in the lawsuits. In the other cases, state laws protect the universities from being sued. The conferences named in the lawsuits are the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten, the Pac-12 and the Western Athletic Conference.