Court upholds NFL’s $1bn concussion settlement

A federal appeals court last night upheld the National Football League’s estimated $1 billion (€884 million) concussion settlement with retired players, calling the agreement imperfect but fair.

A small group of players had objected to the deal, which was approved in April 2015 by US District Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia, because it did not cover potential victims of a degenerative brain disease that scientists have linked to repeated blows to the head.

“It is the nature of a settlement that some will be dissatisfied with the ultimate result,” Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro wrote for a three-judge panel of the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. “But they risk making the perfect the enemy of the good.”