Or at least an alleged one.
By way of disclaimer: I don’t offer this in my usual spirit of pumping up baseball at the expense of the NFL. This is way too serious a matter for that. And I hope like hell that the allegations here aren’t true. But if they are — if even part of them are — this would be a major, major story. One that could be far more serious for the NFL than the concussion thing:
A new class action has been filed against the NFL alleging that the league illegally used prescription pain-killers to mask injuries and to allow players to keep playing. The named plaintiffs include Bears Hall of Fame defensive end Richard Dent and former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon.
The allegations include claims that teams would conceal the diagnosis of injuries from players, pump them up with drugs and send them back on the field. Injuries like actual broken bones. McMahon claims that his teams doing them led him into a severe prescription drug addiction. Mike Florio has context about the legal hurdles the players have before them and talks about the complexities of it all here. Given Mike’s legal background, if this story is of interest to you, be sure to follow at PFT.
In any event, if these allegations are borne out, it makes Biogenesis, BALCO and any other drug scandal we’ve seen in sports look like child’s play. I mean, it’s one thing when some rogue athletes willingly take some things they shouldn’t in an effort to get healthy again following an injury. It’s another thing altogether for the league itself to be involved in a pattern of behavior in which players are given drugs for the specific purpose of getting injured bodies back on the field before they have a chance to get healthy. Against their will and without their knowledge if the allegations here are true.
Here’s hoping that, unlike with any of the other drug scandals in sports, this one is treated with the amount of gravity it is actually owed.
