On Wednesday, a federal district court judge gave final approval on a nearly-$1 billion settlement of a lawsuit regarding the NFL’s handling of concussions, but the family of former Chicago Bears star Dave Duerson will be appealing the ruling.
According to family attorney Thomas Demetrio, the Duerson family will file an appeal “sooner rather than later” of the settlement, which is set to pay families and former players an average of $190,000 for treatment of dementia and other diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The main point of contention for the Duerson family is the fact that families included in the settlement will be excluded from future financial compensation if players are diagnosed with CTE, which can only be diagnosed after death.
Duerson committed suicide in 2011, but before he died he sent his family a message saying that he wanted his brain to be used for research into CTE. Neurologists at Boston University later concluded that Duerson did suffer from the disease, which is caused by repeated concussions.
