NFL Concussion Crisis: Settlement, Race-Norming, and $95M Fraud

The NFL concussion settlement is an uncapped class-action fund that pays retired professional football players, or their families, for six serious brain-related diagnoses linked to repeated head trauma. It took effect on January 7, 2017, is projected to run for 65 years, and has paid more than $1.6 billion across roughly 2,100 claims as of June 2026.¹ The program is now contending with a $95 million fraud scheme involving Parkinson’s claims, and it was overhauled in 2021 to remove a race-based scoring practice that had suppressed payouts to Black players.

How the Settlement Came About

Beginning in 2011, more than 4,500 former NFL players sued the league, alleging it had concealed the long-term dangers of head injuries. The cases were consolidated into a multidistrict class action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, captioned In re: National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation, No. 2:12-md-02323, before Judge Anita B. Brody.²

In August 2013, the NFL agreed to a $765 million settlement that was explicitly not an admission of guilt. Judge Brody rejected the deal in January 2014, concerned that the amount would be insufficient to cover roughly 18,000 retirees over the proposed 65-year life of the agreement. The NFL responded by removing the cap on total compensatory damages, creating the uncapped fund that exists today.²³⁴

On April 18, 2016, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the settlement in a 69-page opinion, writing that objectors “risk making the perfect the enemy of the good” and that the deal would “provide nearly $1 billion in value to the class of retired players.”⁵

Who Qualifies as a Class Member

The settlement class covers all retired NFL players who retired or were no longer under contract before July 7, 2014. That includes players from the AFL, the World League of American Football, NFL Europe, and NFL Europa. Representatives of deceased or incapacitated players may file claims, as may spouses, parents, and dependent children. Vested status in the NFL Retirement Plan is not required.⁶

Players still under contract on or after July 7, 2014, fall outside the class. A claimant does not have to prove that any injury was caused by playing NFL football; the diagnosis itself is the trigger for an award.

The Six Qualifying Diagnoses and Award Amounts

Monetary awards are available for six specific diagnoses, with the following maximum payouts:

ALS: up to $5 million
Death with CTE diagnosed postmortem: up to $4 million
Parkinson’s disease: up to $3.5 million
Alzheimer’s disease: up to $3.5 million
Level 2 neurocognitive impairment (moderate dementia): up to $3 million
Level 1.5 neurocognitive impairment (early dementia): up to $1.5 million

CTE is covered only for players who died before the settlement’s effective date and were diagnosed postmortem. Because CTE can currently be diagnosed only after death, living players do not qualify under that category and must instead meet the criteria for one of the other five diagnoses.

Those maximum figures are the ceiling, not what most claimants receive. The full amount is reserved for players diagnosed before age 45 who played at least five eligible seasons. Awards drop sharply from there. The reduction for seasons played ranges from 10 percent at 4.5 seasons down to 97.5 percent at zero eligible seasons, and age at diagnosis cuts the award further. A separate 75 percent reduction applies if the player suffered a stroke or a severe non-football-related brain injury before the qualifying diagnosis.⁶

The practical effect is that an older retiree with a short career and a late-life dementia diagnosis will collect a fraction of the headline number, while a younger former player with a long career and an early ALS or Parkinson’s diagnosis sits closer to the maximum.

What the Fund Has Paid Out

By June 2026, the settlement had paid out more than $1.6 billion across approximately 2,100 claims.¹ Because the fund is uncapped and the program runs for 65 years from its 2017 effective date, that number will continue to grow as more class members age into qualifying diagnoses.

The Race-Norming Controversy

For years, the settlement program used “race-norming” in its cognitive testing. The practice assumed that Black players began with lower baseline cognitive function, which meant that a Black claimant had to demonstrate greater measured impairment than a white claimant to qualify for the same award.

Former players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport filed a civil rights lawsuit challenging the practice, alleging they had been denied awards despite meeting criteria that would have qualified them had they been evaluated as white.⁷

In June 2021, the NFL pledged to end the practice. On October 21, 2021, the league and attorneys for former players reached a formal agreement, overseen by Magistrate Judge David Strawbridge, that eliminated race-based norms entirely and required that all previously affected claims be automatically rescored using a new, race-neutral method. The agreement stated that “no Race Norms or Race Demographic Estimates — whether Black or White — shall be used in the Settlement Program going forward.”⁸ Sources told reporters at the time that the changes could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional payouts to affected players and their families.

The $95 Million Parkinson’s Fraud Scheme

In June 2026, the settlement program faced its most serious integrity crisis to date. Court-appointed special masters David A. Hoffman and Jo-Ann M. Verrier filed a 51-page report in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia describing an organized fraud scheme that exploited the Parkinson’s disease claims process.⁹

According to the report, five law firms recruited retired players and steered them to physicians who were not approved by the settlement program. Those doctors performed brief, often templated evaluations, frequently without reviewing the players’ medical histories or holding relevant board certifications in movement disorders. They diagnosed the players with Parkinson’s and prescribed levodopa, a symptom-suppressing medication. When the players later appeared before program-approved physicians, the existing prescription and the outside medical records made it difficult for those doctors to contradict the diagnoses.¹

The Five Firms Barred from the Program

Douglas Grossinger, Attorney at Law
Feder Law, LLC
Pro Athlete Law Firm, P.A.
Syme Law, PLLC
Reppert Oates & Vytell, LLC

The firms were collectively involved in 98 Parkinson’s disease claims. Of those, 57 were approved and paid before the scheme was uncovered, totaling more than $95 million in payouts. The firms collected approximately $20 million in attorney’s fees. Another 37 claims were still pending at the time of the report; all have been denied, though affected players may seek new evaluations from program-approved physicians.¹⁰

The Alleged Ringleader

The special masters identified Philadelphia-based attorney Douglas Grossinger as the scheme’s ringleader. Grossinger submitted 15 claims directly and allegedly farmed out additional cases to other firms through co-counsel arrangements designed to obscure his involvement. He reportedly asked that no records of his activities, including text messages, be put in writing, and allegedly proposed paying a terminated attorney $75,000 to keep the scheme from being disclosed.⁹

The Bart Oates Allegations

Reppert Oates & Vytell ran what the report described as a “separate but similar scheme,” leveraging the status of partner Bart Oates, a three-time Super Bowl champion who played for the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers and earned his law degree while still in the NFL. Informants told the special masters that Oates cold-called retired players, promising Parkinson’s diagnoses if they switched representation to his firm. The firm also allegedly omitted medical reports from physicians who had concluded that the players did not actually have Parkinson’s disease.¹⁰

What Happens Next

None of the five firms responded to press inquiries about the report. All have pledged to appeal, arguing that the special masters’ review was biased against former players.¹¹ The special masters noted that the firms’ refusal to cooperate during the underlying audit was an “aggravating factor” and that because the firms’ conduct made it “impossible to tell good claims from bad,” the total amount of fraud “may end up being materially higher” than $95 million.⁹ The report is not a criminal complaint, but the special masters have authority to refer their findings to federal authorities.¹²

Going forward, special master Hoffman endorsed the use of the “Gelb Criteria” as the diagnostic standard for Parkinson’s claims. Those criteria emphasize traditional motor symptoms such as resting tremors and stiffness. Some attorneys have argued that newer tests incorporating non-motor symptoms like loss of smell should be accepted, but the special masters favored the more restrictive traditional criteria to maintain program integrity.¹³

What the Settlement Does Not Cover

A few boundaries are worth knowing. Current players and anyone still under contract on or after July 7, 2014, are outside the class. CTE awards are limited to players who died before the settlement’s effective date and received a postmortem diagnosis; a living player who suspects CTE must qualify under one of the other diagnoses. And while the settlement resolved past liability, it is separate from the NFL’s on-field concussion protocols, equipment rules, and state youth-sports concussion laws, none of which affect who collects from the fund.

How to File or Check on a Claim

Qualifying diagnoses must come from physicians approved by the settlement program. That requirement is central to how the fraud scheme was identified and why the special masters have urged tighter scrutiny of outside evaluations. Class members, or the representatives of deceased or incapacitated players, work through the program’s claims process rather than filing a new lawsuit against the league. If a claim was previously denied under the race-norming scoring system, it should have been rescored automatically under the 2021 agreement; players who believe their claim was affected and not re-evaluated can raise the issue through the program.⁸ Players whose Parkinson’s claims were tied to the five banned firms have been directed to seek fresh evaluations from program-approved physicians.¹⁰

1
The Washington Post. NFL Concussion Settlement Parkinsons
2
Journal of Ethics, American Medical Association. Concussion-Related Litigation Against the National Football League
3
NFL. Federal Judge Anita Brody OKs NFL Concussion Settlement
4
Justia. In Re: National Football League Players Concussion Injury Litigation
5
The New York Times. NFL Concussion Lawsuit
6
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. NFL Concussion Settlement Exhibit
7
ESPN. NFL Halt Race-Norming, Review Black Claims in Concussion Settlement
8
ABC News. NFL Players Reach Agreement to End Race-Norming in Concussion Settlement
9
The New York Times / The Athletic. NFL Concussion Settlement Fraud Parkinsons Disease
10
NBC San Diego. Law Firms Cheated Filing Claims NFL Concussion Settlement Fund
11
The Legal Intelligencer. Law Firms Pledge to Appeal Ban From NFL Settlement Fund
12
ESPN. Five Law Firms Accused of Defrauding NFL Concussion Fund
13
Sportico. Retired NFL Players Parkinsons Claims