Estates of 18 Ex-NFL Players Turned Away by Appeals Court

The estates of 18 former NFL players failed to convince the Third Circuit that they were entitled to funds under the NFL Concussion Settlement Agreement.

A death with CTE diagnosis can only be made after review of a player’s brain tissue once he has died, Judge Arianna J. Freeman said Thursday in an unpublished opinion. But the estates’ expert never looked at the deceased players’ brains, she said.

To prove their death with CTE claims, the estates presented statements from a board-certified neuropathologist, Dr. Ronald Hamilton, Freeman said. The undated letters were almost identical, she said.

Each letter stated the ...