From bad calls to socio-political issues, the NFL has faced its share of problems. But one of the most egregious issues it encountered is race normed testing included in its massive 2016 concussion settlement.
And that’s an issue the league created itself and tried to conceal.
Race norming assumes that Black people start at a lower cognitive functioning level than white people. So when players have to demonstrate the effects of concussions, it’s harder for Black players to show a deficit because they begin from a lower starting point.
This part of the settlement wasn’t noticed until two years after it was signed. That’s when attorney Cyril V. Smith, who represented former players Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport, stepped in. In 2020 he filed a class-action lawsuit to have race norming removed from the process, and that’s how the public learned about the NFL’s employment of the biased system.
In October of 2021, the NFL agreed to stop using race norming, but it couldn’t be removed from the settlement until a judge approved it.
On Friday, federal court judge Anita Brody did just that.
In the new agreement, eligible players will have their test scores recomputed without race norming. Some retirees will actually receive a new evaluation.
This is the same judge Brody who, in 2021, ruled against the lawsuit filed by Henry and Davenport (both of whom are Black) and instructed them to resolve the issue through mediation.
Both of those players showed serious cognitive impairment in their initial tests. But the NFL denied their claims and made them retake race normed tests. The biased tests revealed less damage, so their claims were denied once again.
In the new agreement, the settlement explicitly states “No race norms or race demographic estimates — whether Black or white — shall be used in the settlement program going forward.”
That’s great, but we still don’t know the number of Black players adversely affected by previous race normed tests as the NFL refuses to disclose them.
But now that the practice of race norming is eliminated, Black players will hopefully receive financial awards for the treatment they need and deserve.
It’s a positive act, but never forget that the NFL made Black retirees work much harder, and wait much longer, for the rewards and help they rightfully deserved.
