In Philadelphia, a mass case taken up against the National Football League (NFL) has sparked a mass discussion. A huge number of retired Black professional football players, alongside their families and supporters, have demanded an end to what is known as “race-norming”. The use of “race-norming” to determine eligibility for player payouts in the $1bn settlement fund for NFL brain injury claims has become a major controversy within the discussion.
Experts believe that the use of “race-norming” is a discriminatory practice. Indeed, Ken Jenkins, a former Washington running back, delivered some 50,000 petitions alongside his wife, Amy Lewis. These petitions demand the fair and equal treatment of black professionals. The petitions were handed to U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia. Brody is the official overseeing the settlement case. Former players who have suffered from dementia and/or other diagnoses are eligible for a payout from the $1bn fund.
However, the NFL uses a scoring system on dementia testing that assumes black athletes start with lower cognitive skills than others. Therefore, they need to reach a lower score than white counterparts to obtain their ability to gain funding and support. The practice had been used for years unnoticed until it was first spotted in 2018.
Jenkins said about the discovery that “It’s the same old nonsense for Black folks, to have to deal with some insidious, convoluted deals that are being made.”
Though Jenkins, an insurance executive after retirement, does not experience any cognitive issues, he knows various NFL friends and colleagues who do.
Brody previously threw out a civil rights lawsuit that claimed the practice was discriminatory. However, she asked a magistrate to begin compiling reports on the problem, with no completion date provided.
Combating for an end to race-norming
Chris Seegar, Class Counsel, is now fighting to bring an end to the concept of “race-norming” and intends to any investigate any awards which were impacted this adjustment in the past. Seegar, through a spokesman, said: “We are investigating whether any claims have been impacted by a physician’s decision to apply such an adjustment. If we discover an adjustment has been inappropriately applied, I will fight for the rights of Black players to have those claims rescored,”
With a majority of the 20,000 NFL retirees being black, only one quarter of those who have sought awards for dementia have been provide with qualification under current testing. Lawyers have asked for extra details on how the $800m in payments made so far is broken down along racial lines, with no information provided as of yet.
While “race-norming” has been used in other fields in the medical industry, the NFL has been accused of using a simplistic and restrictive system that, others argue, is discriminatory towards black players.
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