NCAA Concussion & CTE Lawsuits

We obtained the first jury verdict in American history against the NCAA for latent brain disease (CTE) in a former college football player. The jury in Geathers v. NCAA awarded $18 million after deliberating for less than two hours.

If you played college football and are now living with memory loss, mood changes, cognitive decline, or a diagnosis of dementia, ALS, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's — or if you lost a family to one of these conditions — we want to hear from you. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is the same thing as dementia pugilistica and has been known in the medical literature since the 1920s. It has been diagnosed in the living since that time.

If a loved one has died with a post-mortem diagnosis of CTE, please contact us.

What an NCAA Concussion Lawsuit Actually Is

The NCAA has governed college football for more than a century. During that time, its own medical and scientific advisors knew that repeated head impacts and concussions — including the routine subconcussive hits that happen on every play — cause progressive, latent brain disease. The NCAA did not share that evidence with players. It did not require schools to implement meaningful concussion protocols. It did not warn players that the game they were playing could destroy their neurological health decades later.

An NCAA brain injury lawsuit is a civil negligence action that holds the NCAA accountable for that failure. It is not a class action. It is not a settlement claim. It is an individual lawsuit filed on behalf of a specific former player — or a wrongful death claim filed by that player's family — seeking compensation for the harm the NCAA's conduct caused.

The legal theory rests on a straightforward proposition: the NCAA had a duty to protect the athletes under its supervision, it knew the risks, it concealed them, and players paid the price with their health and their lives.

Not every former college football player qualifies, and we do not accept every case. We accept roughly one in ten inquiries — because the cases we take, we take seriously and fund fully.

You may have a viable claim if:

• You played college football at an NCAA-member institution at any level (Division I, II, or III).
• You are now experiencing neurological symptoms — memory loss, cognitive decline, mood or personality changes, depression, aggression, or a formal diagnosis of CTE, dementia, ALS, Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's.
• A family member who played college football has been diagnosed with one of these conditions or has died from a football-related neurological disease and has a confirmed post-mortem diagnosis on autopsy.
• You are a surviving spouse or adult child of a former NCAA football player and you believe the NCAA's failure to protect him contributed to his decline or death.

The statute of limitations in NCAA brain injury cases is not what most people assume. Because CTE and related diseases are latent — meaning they develop and manifest years or decades after the player's last game — the law in most jurisdictions measures the limitations period from the time the player knew or should have known the connection between his football career and his neurological condition.

What the NCAA Knew and When They Knew It

The NCAA's negligence is not a theory. It is documented in the words of the NCAA's own executives, captured on video in depositions taken across multiple state-court matters. It is also documented in thousands of pages of NCAA internal documents.

Our firm has spent years building an archive of that evidence. The NCAA has acknowledged on the record that the organization had a responsibility to protect players from repeat head injury. They have acknowledged awareness of the medical literature. They have acknowledged the absence of meaningful safety standards for decades.

That evidence does not disappear between cases. It travels with us into every courtroom.

More Trials on the Docket

The Geathers verdict was not the end. It was the opening.

We have additional NCAA cases scheduled for trial over the next 18 months, with realistic exposure and potential punitive damages in several of them. Each case adds to the evidentiary record, each verdict adds to the legal pressure, and each trial advances the accountability these players and their families are owed.