Atlanta, GA (April 16, 2012) – Sports law attorney Von A. DuBose, a partner with litigation boutique Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore has teamed up with veteran brain injury attorney Marc Davis to file a lawsuit on behalf of former players against the NFL for injuries suffered as a result of concussions sustained while playing in the NFL.  DuBose and Davis filed today a complaint against the National Football League in Fulton State Court in Atlanta, Georgia on behalf of retired players Myron Guyton, Lomas Brown, Willie Whitehead, Jessie Small and their spouses.  

The complaint is the first to detail how the NFL’s recent bounty-gate scandal relates to the ongoing concussion litigation.  DuBose and Davis also approached the litigation in a unique way, highlighting the time period immediately after the player completes his college career and before execution of their first NFL contract.  This is the time when NFL players are at their most vulnerable.  Information flow between player, team and league is critical, but largely one directional.  Starting with the NFL Scouting Combine, proceeding through the college pro days, official team visits and the NFL Draft, teams and the NFL examine every aspect of a player’s life – including on field skill, off-field character and health.  But these young men have not been provided with the most important information about how to recognize a concussion and protect themselves from the long lasting, debilitating effects of multiple concussions.  Without that information, not only were they deprived of an opportunity to protect themselves while playing professionally, but they were denied the more fundamental choice of whether they wanted to play in the NFL at all.   

This is only one piece of a pattern of conduct by which the NFL intentionally chose not to warn players of the long term risks of concussions and thus failed to protect players from the harm they have suffered as a result of traumatic brain injuries sustained while playing in the NFL.

Von DuBose has been at the crossroads of sports and the law for much of his career, representing professional athletes on everything from business litigation to contract negotiations as an NFLPA certified contract advisor.  And Marc Davis has successfully tried brain injury cases to juries for over thirty years.