The First Jury Verdict Against the NCAA for Latent Brain Disease

On October 23, 2025, a jury in Orangeburg County, South Carolina returned an $18 million verdict against the NCAA — the first time in history a jury has held the NCAA liable for latent CTE and brain disease in a former college football player. The jury deliberated for less than two hours.

$10,000,000 awarded to Robert Geathers

$8,000,000 awarded to his wife, Debra Geathers

Court of Common Pleas, Orangeburg County, South Carolina — October 23, 2025

Who Robert Geathers Is, and What This Case Was About

Robert Geathers played college football at South Carolina State University. Like thousands of former players, he absorbed years of repetitive head impacts — the kind that accumulate across practices, scrimmages, and games, long before a player ever reaches a concussion threshold that anyone tracks or treats. By the time his neurological symptoms emerged, the NCAA had forgotten about him.

This is not a case about one catastrophic hit. It is a case about recurrent, undiagnosed concussions in football practices and games. It is also about the knowledge of the NCAA that its players are systematically harmed from this exposure. Since 1933, the NCAA has known that recurrent concussions in football lead to neurological disease from trauma. The jury heard the evidence and returned their verdict in less than two hours.

Who Tried the Case

David Langfitt brought the Geathers case in Orangeburg County, South Carolina. He tried the case to a jury with John Kassel and Bakari Sellers of Columbia, South Carolina. Jessica Brown and Margaret Bellamy participated in the trial.

The firm used extensive discovery against the NCAA, which included an archive of video deposition testimony from NCAA executives in which they acknowledged the NCAA's duty to protect the health and safety of college football players. The evidence was built case by case, deposition by deposition, over years of litigation.

Why The Verdict Is Significant

• First jury verdict in American legal history holding the NCAA liable for latent brain disease caused by recurrent undiagnosed concussive injury in a former college football player.
• The verdict establishes that the NCAA has a legal duty to protect the health and safety of college football players.
• The verdict establishes that the NCAA breached that duty by failing to execute the duty properly and by enhancing the risk of brain damage to college football players in the process.
• The verdict establishes that a former football player is rarely diagnosed with concussions during his playing career because the NCAA never informed its membership about what a concussion is and how recurrent concussions can lead to latent brain damage.
• The Orangeburg County jury and Judge Frank R. Addy rejected the NCAA's core defense: that players assumed the risk of latent brain disease. 
• The $18 million verdict shows that juries will value these cases at a level that reflects the severity and permanence of the harm.
• The jury verdict can be found here. Judge Frank Addy denied all of the NCAA's post-trial motions. You can find Judge Addy's opinion here.
• Judge Frank Addy found in his post-trial opinion:
  
  "The NCAA was created to prevent the very harm which ultimately occured to Mr. Geathers. Defendant was aware of these preventable dangers for decades, and on 47 occasions the defendant neglected to undertake appropriate action to reasonable mitigate or eliminate these preventable injuries."
  
  
• Additional cases are scheduled for trial within the next 18 months.

The Legal Foundation For the Verdict

The Geathers verdict did not happen in isolation. The groundwork was laid, in part, by pre-trial rulings in which Judge Frank Addy properly recognized that a brain autopsy is not required to prove in a court of law that a former college player has brain disease caused by recurrent unrecognized concussive injury.

The groundwork was also laid, in part, Schmitz v. NCAA, decided by the Ohio Supreme Court on October 31, 2018. In that case, we obtained a ruling that a former player's knowledge of in-career head injuries was not sufficient, by itself, to start the statute of limitations clock for latent CTE. That opinion opened the courthouse door for players whose symptoms emerged years — sometimes decades — after their last game.

What This Verdict Means

If a former college football player is experiencing memory loss, mood changes, cognitive decline, or other neurological symptoms, the Geathers verdict shows that courts should hear your case. An autopsy is not required. A professional career in the NFL is not required. The jury in this case held the NCAA accountable.

The statute of limitations for these claims is complex. It varies from state to state. The sooner a former player or his family contacts us, the more likely we can preserve a claim.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Geathers Verdict