Dear Judge Brody:

Racism and American sports, indeed American life, have always gone hand in hand. The NFL is one of the most powerful organizations in America, and racism has always existed here too.  The attached link to the petition (including now almost 50,000 signatures and growing daily) speaks directly to an egregious and reprehensible agreement, made approximately 18 months after the NFL Concussion Settlement, in secret, and designed to deny Black and brown players equal access to compensation for brain trauma.  https://www.change.org/NFL-RACISM

The secret addition to the Concussion Settlement recommended that Black players be “race-normed”. In essence, this new addendum recommended that the assessment team scale Black players as starting with “less cognitive function” than white players so they would have to have more significant trauma than their white counterparts in order to be considered for compensation.  This decision based on racist assumptions has a real economic benefit to NFL owners: because 70 percent of players are Black and brown, this "race-norming" strategy will save the NFL owners a lot of money.  Allowing any scaling based on a long debunked theory of Black players starting with less cognitive ability than white players, is racist and heinous.  No struggle has been so pervasive and so integrated into every fabric of American life as has racism.

Mr. Chris Seeger, attorney at Seeger Weiss, LLP, represented this as a “good decision” for the players, and should be removed as class counsel and replaced with a firm/attorney that truly represents the interests of players, not just the deep pockets of the NFL. Those of us signing this petition urge you to immediately put an end to this practice, to force the NFL to evaluate players equally, to compensate those hurt by this racist decision, and to ensure that this never impacts another player.      

We also ask that you make this and the national petition a public document, on the record, and place all on the docket.