Hernandez lawyers pull CTE suit against NFL, will refile

Lawyers for former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez say they are moving their lawsuit against the NFL from federal to state court because they can make more claims there.

The attorneys sued the league last month after Hernandez was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. 

They accused the NFL of hiding the true dangers of football. They sought damages on behalf of Hernandez’s 4-year-old daughter for the loss of her father’s companionship.

The federal case was dismissed on Friday. Attorney George Leontire told The Associated Press it will be refiled on Monday in Suffolk County Superior Court.

But while the case was dismissed by the plaintiff’s, they did so ‘without prejudice’ meaning they can refile if desired.

A lawyer from the family told The Associated Press that they were hoping to refile the case in Suffolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts. The move would offer a better venue for the case because more claims can be filed. 

The attorneys sued the league last month after Hernandez was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy

The federal case was dismissed on Friday. Attorney George Leontire told The Associated Press it will be refiled on Monday in Suffolk County Superior Court so they could add more claims on the athlete’s behalf

Hernandez killed himself this spring in the prison cell where he was serving a life sentence for murder. An examination of his brain showed that he had severe CTE, which has been shown to cause depression, violent mood swings and other cognitive problems in football players and others who have been subjected to repetitive head trauma.

The NFL has successfully stalled any progress by a number of former athletes looking to sue the league for CTE. 

One argument that they’ve been able to use is that the relationship between both players and the league are governed by the collective bargaining agreement. Meaning an arbitrator would be needed to settle any disputes and not a judge. 

This is Hernandez’s brain scan: It shows the classic features of CTE. There is severe deposition of tau protein in the frontal lobes of the brain (top row). The bottom row shows microscopic deposition of tau protein in nerve cells around small blood vessels, a unique feature of CTE

Another hurdle players face is having to prove that the direct hits to the head led to issues off the field during their time in the NFL. 

For a lot of players who played in high school and college this creates a problem of proof.

And additionally for Hernandez, who had played for several years before playing with the Patriots, it could also be argued that he knew of the risk already.