I think it's great for both parties. It helps the players that have been hurt. It doesn't do any financial damage to the NFL. And, most importantly, it gives the active and future players something to think about.

Honestly, it's the players responsibility to know what smashing their bodies into another 250-300 lb man repetitively for years is going to do in the long run. It's pretty obvious, it doesn't require a doctor to know it's bad for you, just some common sense. The NFL would have lost had they gone to court, so it's a good move for them.

The NFL got a great deal. People were speculating that the overall settlement would be more along the lines of 5 billion. Also the way it's structured they pay a portion in the first three years then a smaller amount over the next 17 or so. There's a great article on Grantland that breaks it all down.

Went to the game last night and one guy was taken to hospital with most probably a concussion so great move for players and good move for the league.

I get that the players voluntarily take the risk - hell, I would do the same for the potential reward - but I've always sided with the players on this. The league makes billions on these guys, so it's surprised me in the past when they haven't acknowledged some obligation, especially towards some of the real old school players from 70s and prior who are messed up and didn't make nearly as much money. I read the brain science and I know I should turn the channel and keep my sons away from the sport, but I'll be watching Saturday. No one said men had any sense.

This is total bullshit. As many said, EVERYONE knows you are intentionally doing this that can and will cause your body great harm. Whether the balance between what the league makes and what players make is unfair is totally irrelevant. No one forced them to play and if they have a problem with the pay, then strike over THAT issue. Having sympathy for injured players is fine. I do too. But the league isn't responsible at all. Even "underpaid" football players make tons of money and not having enough for retirement and injuries is another issue all together. In that case, it would be great if the league made an effort to educate players and recommend trustworthy money managers. However, even not doing that has nothing to do with the league taking any sort of culpability. It's a handout, plain and simple... Many of you would be so against welfare, but this is the same thing... Except going to rich people.

A lot of people are saying that the players knew what they were getting themselves into (i.e. it's a violent sport and they signed up for it). But it's not that simple. NFL players, especially back in the day were not allowed to make an informed decision.

They were not told that concussions could be a life altering/life threatening ordeal later on in their lives. Even worse, it's quite possible that the NFL knew this was the case and still did not properly inform their players of the complications.

Yeh, guys are making millions right now. And yeh, everyone signs up knowing that it's a dangerous sport. But that's wasn't the case 30,40,50 years ago when guys had a second job in the off season. Even 5-10 years ago no body took concussions seriously on any level of football.

Compare it to an asbestos issues. Yeh, you may have signed up to work as a carpenter, knowing that you might step on a nail. But you may not have signed up had you knew 40% of you colleagues would get cancer.

How can anyone say this is good for the players?

$765 million sure is a lot of money, but I'm astonished the NFL got away with a lump sum payment. I thought for sure the NFLPA would push HARD for a deal structured in some sort of revenue sharing scheme.

At least it's better than nothing I suppose. Certainly won't be the last payment either.

I genuinely believe that most of these former players had no idea that concussions could permanently ruin their lives for 30, 40 years down the line. And if they'd known that, they wouldn't have agreed to play for peanuts. I mean, the new concussion research is showing that even if you've never actually had a concussion, you're still fucked from extended exposure to minor hits (ie, basically what offensive linemen go through every play). It's much, much worse than anyone imagined. Grantland has some good stuff on it, as does Malcolm Gladwell. There's a Frontline documentary coming out soon as well that ESPN had done work on, but pulled out at the last minute (most likely from NFL pressure). Looking forward to it.

So I think the players got fucked on this, but it's going to be the first of many, MANY legal battles. I have no sympathy whatsoever for the NFL (they've became very, very rich on what increasingly appears to be a blood sport), but the worst, by far, is college football. These 18, 19, 20 year olds are putting themselves at risk for permanent brain damage. And they're denied any and all opportunities whatsoever to get compensation for it, even threatened with withdrawn scholarships, while the NCAA makes billions.

Say Marquise Lee (USC star, best receiver in college football, guaranteed first round pick) gets his head caved in by some DB as he's going over the middle during Week 3, comes back from injury too quick, gets fucked up again (see: Jahvid Best), and his college career is just shot, so he can't go to the pros. Dude is screwed. And he's never gonna a see a nickel of any of the money USC made off of all highlight reels, recruiting tapes, whatever. Say he gets Parkinsons at age 40. Who's covering his medical expenses? Not the NCAA! It's bullshit. And yes, I'm a pretty rabid fan of a college football, spend every Saturday glued to my TV, etc. So I'm feeding into the system. But that doesn't make it right.

I don't know about the 50's but in the last ~20-30 years even if everyone was open about the health risks, I still feel a vast majority of athletes would have played anyway.

Hindsight is 20/20. For all the bankers out there, how would you react if 20 years down the road scientists discovered a correlation (or maybe even causation) between working 100 hours per week and some irreversible disease?

Sure no one thinks working 100 hours a week is healthy, but people do it anyway since currently no one takes the matter seriously. It's probably taken as seriously as health was in the 1970s. But it makes a difference if colleagues, employees, and companies are actively discussing the matter compared to everyone keeping the issue all to themselves.

The point is that it's not about whether people believe something is damaging or not through implicit means. It's about whether or not it's in the public discourse and active conversation. Yes, the former is not illegal by any means, but it's morally questionable to not actively discuss these life-threatening issues. And when we're talking about people's lives, it's the right thing to talk about potentially life-threatening consequences.

It's one thing to bet mom and dad's bank account without telling them cause it's just money. It's another thing to stake something of theirs that money can't buy (their reputations, their jobs, etc) without their knowledge. They're almost the same, but the latter is just a little more questionable (in my opinion) since it's not something you can just buy back.

I'd like to add that going to a public high school with 9-10 D1 signees in my senior class (cut that actual number in half for all those that can't fulfill their obligation of NCAA GPA/SAT; scarily low requrements by the way) I guarantee you that safety, specifically that from potential life-threatening trauma such as concussions, was downplayed to the point of making fun of a player if he complained about it. My HS won the state championship a few years after I left, and I know that the next generation of players were being fed the same rhetoric about how complaining about head trauma made you "soft."

Tl;dr those of us on this board are better able to evaluate the risks associated with football than many of those that play the game. If you think the settlement is reasonable, I'm not arguing. I'm suggesting that you should come at this from the perspective of a boy who grew up in a single-parent home where your only hope of making it to college for the first time in your family was getting a football scholarship.