The NFL has faced ongoing controversy for years regarding the potential link between chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and football-related injuries, with no resolution in sight.
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Although the league settled a lawsuit filed by over 4,500 former players who claimed the NFL downplayed the risks of brain trauma, the family of Ed Lothamer, a former defensive tackle who played eight seasons for the Kansas City Chiefs, argues that the league treats players with CTE as "throwaways" and is "just waiting for everyone to die."
In a sobering new profile with The Kansas City Star, Ryan Lothamer-Welch, daughter of the deceased Chiefs player, went into detail regarding feeling "shunned" by the NFL due to her father's struggle with CTE.
Despite the settled lawsuit, Lothamer-Welch feels that the NFL is doing little for players diagnosed with CTE.
"I felt like they treated a lot of the guys that built that league on their backs like they were throwaways ..." Lothamer-Welch said. "It's just human nature. I mean, people care about what's happening today. They're not so interested in what happened yesterday or what's going to happen 10 years down the road."
It is worth noting for context that the $765 million settlement by the NFL, which was intended to help cover treatment for players with CTE, dementia, or other brain-related illnesses after suffering on-field concussions, has been heavily criticized and accused of "routinely [failing] to deliver money and medical care to former players suffering from dementia and CTE."
According to an investigation by The Washington Post, the NFL has allegedly failed to follow through on its responsibility to provide payouts, exploiting medical loopholes to avoid covering these expenses.
After reviewing 15,000 pages of documents from more than 100 former players, the Post said players regularly saw "their claims denied by the administrative law firm that oversees the settlement.
Reportedly, medical personnel who worked for the NFL "simply overruled physicians who actually evaluated players" and would reclassify dementia symptoms on non-football-related causes. Over a dozen players "failed to qualify for settlement money or medical care and then died, only to have CTE confirmed via autopsy."
A recent survey by JAMA Neurology found that one-third of former professional football players suspect they suffer from CTE); the study is one of the most extensive to explore former NFL players' perceptions of their cognitive health.
Ed Lothamer passed away in 2022, at the age of 80. Following his death, his family donated his brain to the UNITE Brain Bank, where researchers confirmed a diagnosis of stage 4 CTE, the most severe form of the condition. He had been drafted by the Chiefs in 1964 and was part of a defense renowned for its future Pro Football Hall of Famers. Despite numerous injuries, he played in 88 games and started 35 as the Chiefs appeared in two of the first four Super Bowls.
"We were told he had some type of "dementia," with some forward-thinking doctors alluding to possible CTE and he had gotten a number of opinions over the years about his volatile and diminishing condition..." Lothamer-Welch wrote in a personal story at the Concussion Legacy Foundation. "My father made $42,000 during his final season in the NFL, which we now realize was the price he exchanged for his brain."
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Although Lothamer was a plaintiff in the settlement and had been formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2016, his case is among many that the NFL has managed to sidestep, offering neither a payout nor any acknowledgment.
To the Lothamer family, this appears to be part of a deliberate strategy by the league, even as they continue to hope that an attorney might help them secure compensation and, perhaps, some form of validation from the NFL. Instead, they've felt increasingly discouraged by the legal process.
"They are just waiting for everybody to die," Elisabeth Lothamer, the widow of the former Chiefs player said. "I mean, it's just what they're doing."
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