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NCAAF A South Carolina man who played college football and later was diagnosed with dementia, was awarded $18 million by a jury. Perry Knotts / Getty Images Former South Carolina State football player Robert Geathers and his wife are owed $18 million after a jury ruled the NCAA negligent in failing to warn him of the long-term effects of concussions, according to media reports. Geathers, 68, is set to receive $10 million after a civil trial that ended late last week in Orangeburg, S. C. His wife, Debra, was awarded $8 million for loss of consortium. The trial lasted just four days, including jury selection, and the jury deliberated for only 1 hour, 50 minutes before delivering its verdict on Thursday, according to The State newspaper in Columbia. Advertisement An NCAA spokesperson told the AP that the association disagreed with the verdict. It has 30 days to appeal. According to the complaint, which Geathers filed in April 2019, he is permanently disabled and suffers “substantial symptoms of neuro-cognitive injuries, including symptoms of traumatic encephalopathy” (CTE). CTE can only be diagnosed posthumously. The complaint asserts that Geathers’ ailments were caused by “the repetitive sub-concussive and concussive head impacts … while playing NCAA football. ” Geathers’ attorneys argued that his symptoms did not appear until decades later. They claimed the NCAA knew about concussion risks associated with football and their long-term effects as early as 1933, yet failed to accurately disclose that information until well after Geathers’ career ended. He played at the school from 1977 to 1980 as a defensive end. The impact goes beyond Geathers’ case, a member of his legal team told The Athletic. “It was a depth of information that the NCAA had that they withheld from players and universities, particularly during that time period, ” Bakari Sellers, an attorney who represented Geathers, said. “These communities, these institutions are beloved. The jury was able to see that it wasn’t our client’s fault, it wasn’t the institution’s fault, but the NCAA, by withholding this information, heightened the risk of playing football. ” CBS Sports, citing the Times and Democrat newspaper in Orangeburg, reported that the jury ruled the NCAA “unreasonably increased the risk of harm of head impacts to Robert Geathers over and above the risks inherent to playing football. ” NCAA spokesperson Greg Johnson told the AP that the association is “prepared to pursue our rights on post-trial motions and on appeal, if necessary. ” He also said South Carolina State held standards in line with the knowledge available on head injuries during Geathers’ playing days and that college football did not cause his long-term health issues. Advertisement “The NCAA has prevailed in every other jury trial around the country on these issues, ” Johnson said. John J. Perlstein, a wrongful death and personal injury attorney based in Los Angeles, echoed the sentiment. The evidence that the NCAA had prior knowledge and intentionally hid it from schools is a difficult premise to prove, he said. “The evidence, or lack thereof, of the NCAA withholding information about someone hitting a head, I don’t think it exists, ” Perlstein said in a phone interview with The Athletic. “Then you have all kinds of affirmative defenses. There’s a reason they won all the other lawsuits. ” But the lawsuits don’t always go through a trial. In 2019, a judge approved a settlement in a similar case brought against the NCAA. That case, Arrington vs. NCAA, was initially brought by former Eastern Illinois football player Adrian Arrington and later expanded into a class-action lawsuit. The settlement established a $70 million fund to monitor current and former college athletes for brain trauma over a 50-year period. Arrington opposed the settlement because it did not include the payment of damages. During the Geathers trial, NCAA attorney Andy Fletcher argued that the player faces numerous health conditions outside of football that could have potentially contributed to his symptoms. But Sellers told The Athletic that MRI scans have shown potential correlations between the position Geathers played along the defensive line and the injuries that now plague him. “Mr. Geathers has severe dementia, ” Sellers said. “We were able to prove, based upon the MRI, that his frontal lobe — where, as a defensive lineman, you take all those hits — was damaged. ” Meanwhile, Perlstein told The Athletic that football carries an assumed risk when one participates, and he expects the NCAA to buoy that point. Advertisement “You also have that underlying assumption of the risk doctrine, ” Perlstein said. “People know that if you’re going to ram your head into things you could get hurt. It just seems like a very difficult case. ” Regardless, Sellers believes players’ mental health after football is an issue that extends beyond this case. He said this can be a landmark case for the issue. “I believe that the NCAA has a problem, ” he said. “And they’re going to have to take a similar step to the National Football League to resolve these claims on behalf of hundreds, if not thousands, of players. ” In 2015, the NFL reached a settlement with more than 5, 000 former players who accused the league of hiding from them the dangers of concussions. The settlement, estimated at $1 billion, provided payments of up to $5 million to players with severe neurological disorders. Geathers was a South Carolina State Hall of Famer who was selected in the third round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills. He was placed on injured reserve and never played a game. His three sons, however, all played in the NFL. Two of them — Robert Jr. and Kwame — spent time with the Cincinnati Bengals. Geathers’ brother, Jumpy, also played in the NFL, drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the second round of the 1984 NFL Draft. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Devon Henderson is a staff writer for The Athletic. He has covered the Summer Olympics, College Football Playoffs, and the Men's Final Four while at Arizona State University and was an intern at the Southern California News Group, where he covered the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Sparks, and LAFC. Follow Devon on Twitter @Henderson Devon_