NFL’s settlement with former players a small price to pay for resolving a major legal issue

Today, it was announced that the NFL and the former players suing the league for compensation and treatment of possible concussion related disorders. The league has agreed to spend $765 million, and the settlement would cover all former players, about 18,000 total, but the settlement is still subject to approval by a federal judge.

The details from the deal are as follows, via NFL.com:

"The settlement would cover all 18,000 former NFL players and totals $765 million, the vast majority of which would go to compensate athletes with certain neurological ailments. It would also set aside $75 million for medical exams and $10 million for medical research.

"Individual payouts would be capped at $5 million for men with Alzheimer's disease; $4 million for those diagnosed after their deaths with a brain condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy; and $3 million for players with dementia, said lead plaintiffs' lawyer Christopher Seeger."

Frankly, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars, the NFL got a great deal.

Let me explain, this lingering lawsuit could have turned out much worse for the league. It was difficult to estimate how expensive the lawsuit could have become, and for less than the amount DirecTV pays the league for the rights to its NFL Sunday Ticket package, the NFL can write this case off as a potential deal breaker.

As it stands, the only way the NFL could collapse would be under the weight of similar lawsuits levied against the league, likely by former players. Some have even predicted that the NFL as we know it won’t be around twenty short years from now.

Now, with this lawsuit seemingly in the NFL’s rearview mirror, and just in time for the 2013 regular season, the league can focus on actual football.

About Shane Clemons

Shane Clemons came from humble beginnings creating his own Jaguars blog before moving on to SBNation as a featured writer for the Jaguars. He then moved to Bloguin where he briefly covered the AFC South before taking over Bloguin's Jaguars blog. Since the inception of This Given Sunday, Shane has served as an editor for the site, doing his best not to mess up a good thing.

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