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Boo Williams wakes up each morning not knowing how the pain will hit. Williams, who played tight end for the Saints from 2001-05, needs surgery, medicine and doctors, but struggles to afford any of it. The 44-year-old, who lives in Picayune, Mississippi, was recently awarded $5,000 a month by the NFL’s disability benefit plan, but says the plan and the league have repeatedly mishandled his claims and should have paid him $500,000 or more over the past 14 years.
The federal judge presiding over the NFL’s $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims on Thursday invited lawyers for Black players who call the settlement racially biased to join court-led mediation over the issue. The practice assumes Black players start with lower cognitive skills and makes it harder for them to show injury and get awards from the settlement fund. The judge's order comes a day after the NFL issued a public pledge to abandon the practice and formally review the scores of retired players who believe the race-based scoring adjustments deprived them of settlements that average $500,000 or more.
The NFL on Wednesday pledged to halt its decades-old use of "race-norming" — a practice that assumes Black players have a lower baseline level of cognition — in its near-billion-dollar concussion settlement, AP reports.Why it matters: The use of "race-norming" meant that Black players had to show a larger cognitive decline to qualify for the settlement. The NFL said Wednesday that it will also review previous scores for potential race bias.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets.
Thousands of retired Black NFL players fight back against racial bias in brain injury payouts yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.