NCAA ordered to pay $18M to former football player and wife in concussion lawsuit

The NCAA will pay a former college football player and his wife $18 million for failing to warn the player about the long-term effects of concussions, a court has ruled.

ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The NCAA owes a former college football player and his wife $18 million, a South Carolina jury decided while finding college sports’ major governing body negligent in failing to warn the player about the long-term effects of concussions.

Following a civil trial that wrapped up late last week, Orangeburg County jurors awarded $10 million to 68-year-old Robert Geathers, who played at South Carolina State University from 1977 to 1980 as a defensive end. His wife, Debra, was awarded $8 million, according to a court document.

A physician diagnosed Robert Geathers with dementia several years ago, The Times and Democrat newspaper in Orangeburg reported. Now he has trouble with day-to-day tasks such as dressing himself and helping making meals.

Other physicians who testified at the trial said Geathers displays symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found in former football players who received repeated blows to their heads while playing. CTE can be diagnosed only posthumously.

The couple’s attorneys argued to jurors that blows Geathers took during practices and games for the historically Black school in Orangeburg caused trauma that didn’t show up until decades later, the newspaper reported.