Bears Legend Gale Sayers Drops NFL Concussion Lawsuit, Says He Didn’t File It

Former Chicago Bears great Gale Sayers has dropped a lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL). The lawsuit had claimed that the league was negligent in the treatment of his multiple head injuries.

Speaking to the Chicago Tribune on Saturday Sayers said he did not consent to the lawsuit filed in his name and asked that it be dropped by the US District Court in Chicago. According to Sayers, “I had about one half of a concussion in all of the years that I played.”

Sayers’ wife, Ardie, says attorney John F. Winters called them to say the lawsuit was “a big misunderstanding” and that it would be dropped immediately.

Winters told the publication that Sayers decided to drop the lawsuit after filing the request on Tuesday. Sayers said he talked to Winters on behalf of former Bears safety Shaun Gayle. According to the attorney Gayle had nothing to do with the original decision to sue the league.

Sayers explains: “I didn’t sign anything. … I talked to the attorney, but there wasn’t nothing to it.”

In the meantime Sayers is already named in a lawsuit filed against the league last year. That lawsuit was recently consolidated into a master case that ended with a $765 million settlement.

Gale Sayers played in the NFL for seven seasons and retired early after suffering through multiple knee injuries. Sayers is one of only three NFL players to score six touchdowns in a single game. In 1977 a 34-year-old Sayers became the youngest player ever inducted into the NFL Hall Of Fame.

In the meantime the NFL continues to fight against allegations that it was negligent in dealing with player concussions over the years.

Do you think Gale Sayers and other NFL players deserve compensation for their previous head injuries?