Know how former players accuse NFL of race norming, a practice that revolves around racial bias and how the league distributes concussion settlement money
The NFL has been accused against practicing racism by the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder, representatives of former NFL players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport. The two players had filed a lawsuit, with the subject being Henry and Davenport’s contention that the league’s landmark, $1 billion concussion settlement dispenses less to “Black Players” because of a practice called ‘’race norming”.
NFL Race Norming Definition And Lawsuit
After the lawsuit was filed, a federal court casually ordered mediation to settle the dispute. The “mediation” that was called for by the judge would apparently hinder the inclusion of representatives for the “Black Athletes”, instead only involve the league and the courts doing away with the practice in a hush hush manner.
So what actually is race norming in the NFL explained
This practice dates back around 40 years ago, when aptitude scores, which were a part of federal jobs’ applications, were regulated as per the race and ethnicity of the person taking the test. It was quite clear that these tests were indeed racially biased.
Though “race norming” was to actually fight racial discrimination in aptitude tests, here it is, still prevalent. And the sad part is that though it’s a civil rights violation against white people and needs to correct racism, it is instead being used as a tool to exploit and codify black people.
What decision has been taken recently about “race norming”?
The NFL and representatives of thousands of retired NFL players have settled the “race norming” dispute. They have reached an agreement to dismantle race-based adjustments in dementia testing in a $1 billion settlement of concussion claims, as per a proposed deal filed Wednesday in federal court.
Since a vast majority of the NFL players- 70% of active players and 60% of retired players are Black, the modifications following the settlement are going to be extremely important, and quite costly to the NFL. The proposal still needs to be approved by a judge after months of closed-door negotiations between the NFL, class counsel for the retired players and lawyers of the former players who filed the suit, Najeh Davenport and Kevin Henry.
It is unfortunate to know that as a result of the practice of “race norming” has prevented a number of Black players suffering from dementia to win awards that average $500,000 or more. However, a number of retired black players will have the opportunity to have their tests rescored or in certain cases, seek a new round of cognitive testing.