PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 With perhaps billions of dollars at stake, a hearing Tuesday over concussion litigation filed against the NFL promises to be a contest between legal lions.<\/p>\n
About 4,200 former players have sued the league. Some suffer from dementia, depression, Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other neurological problems. Others simply want their health monitored.<\/p>\n
And a small number, including Ray Easterling and 12-time Pro Bowler Junior Seau, committed suicide after long downward spirals.<\/p>\n
The players\u2019 lawyers accuse the NFL of promoting violence in the game and concealing known cognitive risks from concussions and other blows to the head. They hope to keep the litigation in federal court so they can use the discovery process to access NFL files \u2014 and see what the league knew when.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NFL failed to live up to its responsibility: it negligently heightened players\u2019 exposure to repeated head trauma and fraudulently concealed the chronic brain injuries that resulted,\u201d the players\u2019 lawyers wrote in their latest brief, filed in January.<\/p>\n
The NFL, with $9.2 billion in annual revenues, argues that the complaints belong in arbitration under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. The league insists it has always followed the best available science and made player safety a top priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rule in our league is simple: Medical decisions override everything else,\u201d NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a speech last month at the University of North Carolina.<\/p>\n
The NFL will be represented Tuesday by Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush who has fought gay marriage, gun-control measures and President Barack Obama\u2019s state health care mandates before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n