THE NCAA’S CONCUSSION PROBLEM
Former football players mostly just want access to treatment, saying NCAA hid dangers for decades
Fred Pettus threatened to kill his son. Twice. In October last year, Pettus came home from what he said was a stressful day that included having to change a flat tire for his daughter, and when he walked into his Chesapeake, Va., bedroom, he found his wife laying in bed watching a movie with their son, and he exploded.
The scene registered with Pettus as highly inappropriate. He lost it. In his words, he “snapped,” though Pettus did not assault anyone or destroy any property. He was overwhelmed with the most extreme anger he’s ever felt, that led him to twice threaten his son’s life. That was his low point.
“I was just so angry that my body was reacting to the stress of the situation,” he said. “The fear of being outside of yourself is something I never experienced before and it was scary. You’re not in control. That was the first time and hopefully the last time I ever experience that intensity of anger.”
It is not normal to go nuclear at the sight of your 21-year-old child laying in bed with your wife, therefore the October incident raised concerns. Pettus, 49, attributes what happened that night, the ensuing restraining order filed against him, and other medical issues he’s dealing with, to the concussions he suffered playing football at the University of Richmond 30 years ago.
“I’m more than a decade removed from when these injuries occurred,” Pettus said, “and this is where they start to rear their head.”
Pettus is one of hundreds of former players suing the NCAA and several major conferences for damages they say will help
them to put their crumbling lives back together. They argue the NCAA has known about the dangers of head injuries in football for decades, but has done little to protect athletes, which is painfully ironic since the NCAA was created to do just that. lll In 2014, the NCAA settled a class-action concussion lawsuit with former players for $75 million. Once approved — Judge John Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has put it on hold five times, including earlier this month because not all players have been made aware of the lawsuit — not a single penny of that money will actually go to the guys living with brain damage.