NFL Player's Lawsuit Against NFL
Daily Sun heading (May 21): "Former players claim in lawsuit that NFL used risky painkillers"
They claim to have developed serious complications as they got older because of powerful painkillers and other drugs that kept them playing despite their injuries.
They claim they were given these drugs without prescriptions and without warning of possible side effects - pills for broken bones that they didn't know about, and pills instead of surgery.
The lawsuit claims the players developed the following: Ailments involving heart, lung, nerve damage; kidney failure; and chronic injuries to muscles, ligaments and bones.
The knee-jerk reaction (by radio talk-show hosts) is to blame the players by saying, "they knew what they were doing - it was their decision - no one put a gun to their head."
But I say: Their knowledge of possible long term health consequences could not have been on the same level as the team doctors and trainers. If the players should have known better, then the doctors, trainers and NFL should have known better too. Under pressure to keep playing, the players made wrong decisions and the NFL made a decission to let it happen.
A responsible doctor, in my opinion, would have said: "If you want this powerful painkiller, you will forfit your right to play until such time as your injury is healed. Sign here stating you will not play. No signiture, no painkiller."
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