By Tom Ley | Deadspin
The NFL’s $1 billion class-action settlement with retired players suffering from the effects of brain trauma has yet to make life much easier for those awarded damages. A bureaucratic morass has made it nearly impossible for the ex-players and their families to navigate the settlement, and even the ones who have made it through are running into trouble.
USA Today reports that a number of plaintiffs have had excessive liens put on their awards and are now in line to receive little or no money at all. One ex-player even had a six-figure settlement turn into a debt:
Sarah Goldston, the 90-year-old widow of Ralph Goldston – who was one of the first black players on the Philadelphia Eagles in 1952 before Alzheimer’s set in during his retirement – learned this month that their family had been awarded $160,000 from the settlement. But that preliminary award dwindled to negative $740 after deductions and “holdbacks,” including thousands the court has kept in case the family owes money for Ralph’s medical bills.
