NFL Agrees Concussion Settlement

The National Football League and former players who say it hid the dangers of concussion have reached a $765m (£490m) settlement, a judge says.

The NFL would pay the sum to fund concussion-related compensation, medical exams and research.

Federal Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia announced the deal after months of court-ordered mediation.

More than 4,500 former players had sued the league, alleging it concealed the risks of long-term brain damage.

The class action accused the NFL of hiding research that had shown the harmful effects of concussions, while glorifying and promoting violent play.

Many former players with neurological conditions believe their problems stem from knocks to the head.

Helmet-to-helmet impacts are common in American football as strong, heavy and fast-moving players collide on the field of play.

Studies have linked repeated concussions with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease with symptoms including memory loss and mood swings.

As part of the settlement, the NFL will neither admit liability nor that the players' injuries were caused by football and will likely not have to disclose internal files that could show what it knew about concussion-linked brain problems and when.

"This agreement lets us help those who need it most and continue our work to make the game safer for current and future players," NFL Executive Vice-President Jeffrey Pash said in statement.

"We thought it was critical to get more help to players and families who deserve it rather than spend many years and millions of dollars on litigation."

The deal is still subject to Judge Brody's approval, as well as that of the retired players who brought the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs in the case include at least 10 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the family of linebacker Junior Seau, who took his own life last year, and former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling, who filed the first lawsuit in 2011 but later killed himself.

The settlement comes immediately before the start of the new season for the league.

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Ray Easterling 1949 - 2012

The death of former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling has been ruled a suicide, Richmond police captain Yvonne Crowder told FoxSports.com on Saturday.

Crowder told the website that Easterling died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Richmond, Va. Easterling's wife, Mary Ann, announced the news on Thursday, but declined to release the cause of his death.

"Based on our investigation, we are ruling it a suicide," Crowder told FoxSports.com on Saturday.

Crowder told the website that Mary Ann Easterling called police at 6:14 a.m. Thursday morning upon discovering her husband's body. When police arrived at the home, Ray Easterling was dead and there was a handgun nearby, the police chief told FoxSports.com.

Easterling, who helped lead the team's vaunted defense in the 1970s, was part of a group of seven former players who sued the NFL in Philadelphia in August, claiming the league failed to properly treat players for concussion and tried to conceal for decades any links between football and brain injuries. It was the first potential class-action lawsuit that was filed.

Easterling played for the Falcons from 1972 to 1979, helping lead the team's "Gritz Blitz" defense in 1977 that set the NFL record for fewest points allowed in a season. After his football career, he went on to start a successful financial services company in Richmond.

"He was a wonderful husband and father," Mary Ann Easterling said Thursday. "In everything he did, he was a charger. He went full tilt."

After his playing days, Easterling started to suffer the consequences of the years of bruising hits, his wife said. He suffered from depression and insomnia, and as his dementia progressed, he lost the ability to focus, organise his thoughts and relate to people, she said.

"It's been a progression over the last 20 years," she said. "It's very sad to see."

The NFL has said any allegation the league intentionally sought to mislead players is without merit.

Mary Ann Easterling said Thursday she will fight to continue the lawsuit despite her husband's death, and will urge the league to establish a fund for players like her husband who suffered traumatic brain injuries from their playing days.

"Half the time the player puts themselves back in the game, and they don't know what kind of impact it has," she said. "Somehow this has got to be stopped. It's destroying people's lives."

Former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson also committed suicide a year ago, shooting himself in the chest after having made arrangements to donate his brain to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University's School of Medicine. A researcher determined Duerson suffered from a "moderately advanced" case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The study indicated the damage to Duerson's brain affected his judgment, inhibition, impulse control, mood and memory.

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