Jim McMahon is one of seven former players suing the NFL over health problems that they say are the result of concussions and other brain injuries they suffered on the field.
McMahon, the Bears’ quarterback in their Super Bowl-winning 1985 season, joins a group of players saying that the NFL was negligent and that players have suffered from headaches, dizziness and dementia because of injuries suffered on the field.
“The purpose of this lawsuit is to obtain proper funding to address these horrible long-term issues and to compel the NFL to establish a medical monitoring system to reduce the risk that current and future players will end up with the same kind of chronic mental and physical problems,” the plaintiffs said in a joint statement.
McMahon revealed last year that he is suffering from memory loss. He said that when he was playing, teams didn’t care if players suffered concussions.
“Back then, it was just tape an aspirin to your helmet and you go back in,” McMahon said.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Associated Press that the league will vigorously contest the claims.
The other former players involved in the suit are Ray Easterling, Wayne Radloff, Gerry Feehery, Joe Thomas, Mike Furrey and Steve Kiner. In July, a separate group of dozens of former NFL players announced that they were filing their own lawsuit against the NFL over concussions.
