In a short new documentary film by Vice, former NFL player Marcellus Wiley goes into detail about his experience using what he sees as a dangerous amount of painkillers during his time in the league.
“No one’s in the NFL saving us from ourselves. They know we want to play. They know our spirits. That’s the way it should be,” he says. “But if [the NFL’s] job is to protect, if [the NFL’s] job is to make sure this person is going to survive this experience and thrive in his next experience, well, then do your damn job.”
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The main point of this order is that the league has addressed these serious concerns in a serious way — by imposing duties on the clubs via collective bargaining and placing a long line of health-and-safety duties on the team owners themselves. These benefits may not have been perfect but they have been uniform across all clubs and not left to the vagaries of state common law. They are backed up by the enforcement power of the union itself and the players’ right to enforce these benefits.
A number of the former players are currently trying to revive the lawsuit.
