NFL Concussion Settlement: MDL 2323 Status and Terms

The NFL concussion settlement is the class action resolution in In re: National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation, MDL No. 2323, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. It pays monetary awards for six qualifying diagnoses of brain disease and covers a 65-year claims period. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation’s October 1, 2026 report lists 329 actions pending of 352 filed. The settlement had paid $1,738,437,013 on 2,226 payable monetary awards as of October 26, 2026, according to the settlement website.

At a glance

• MDL No. 2323 was opened in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on January 31, 2012, and the settlement agreement is dated June 25, 2014 (court page; settlement agreement).
• The settlement agreement sets six Qualifying Diagnoses: Level 1.5 Neurocognitive Impairment, Level 2 Neurocognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and Death with CTE (Section 6.3).
• The first paragraph of the 2014 Long-Form Notice states that maximum monetary awards range from $1.5 million to $5 million depending on the diagnosis (Long-Form Notice).
• The Monetary Award Fund runs for 65 years from the Effective Date of January 7, 2017 (Section 6.10; Key Dates page).
• The claims administrator reports $1,738,437,013 in payable monetary awards on 2,226 claims as of October 26, 2026, with 20,564 class members registered (settlement website).
• On June 8, 2026 the Special Masters issued a Rule 27 decision after an audit that examined 98 Parkinson’s disease claims submitted through five law firms (July 2, 2026 notice).

What is the NFL concussion settlement?

The lawsuits allege that retired professional football players developed brain injuries from concussive and sub-concussive impacts during their careers, and that the National Football League and NFL Properties LLC failed to warn players about long-term brain injury risks or concealed the connection between concussions and chronic brain disease. The recitals of the settlement agreement record those allegations, and they also record that the NFL Parties denied liability and denied that they did anything wrong. Nothing in the settlement is an admission of liability.

The parties reached a settlement term sheet on August 29, 2013, after court-ordered mediation before retired Judge Layn Phillips, according to the agreement’s recitals. The complete agreement is dated June 25, 2014 and covers a settlement class of all Retired NFL Football Players plus representative claimants and derivative claimants, which are defined as spouses, dependent children, parents and others who can assert a claim through their relationship to a player or a deceased player.

Who can file a claim, and for what diagnoses?

A retired player must have earned at least one half of an Eligible Season, as that term is defined in the agreement, and must have registered in the settlement program. Eligible Season, in Section 2.1(kk) of the agreement, means a season in which the player was on a member club’s active list on the date of three or more regular season or postseason games, or was on the active list for one game and then spent at least two games on injured reserve or the inactive list because of a concussion or head injury.

The agreement defines a Qualifying Diagnosis as one of six conditions: Level 1.5 Neurocognitive Impairment, Level 2 Neurocognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS (commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease), or Death with CTE, meaning a diagnosis of chronic traumatic encephalopathy made after death. The agreement requires the diagnosis to be made under the injury definitions in Exhibit 1 and, after the Effective Date, by physicians approved for the purpose.

The agreement also states in Section 6.2 that a representative claimant of a deceased retired player is eligible only if the player died on or after January 1, 2006, or if a wrongful death or survival claim would not have been time-barred under the applicable state law on the dates the agreement specifies.

What does the settlement pay?

The settlement pays a Monetary Award from a grid attached to the agreement as Exhibit 3, adjusted by offsets tied to the player’s age at diagnosis and by other reductions the agreement lists. The 2014 Long-Form Notice states that maximum monetary awards range from $1.5 million to $5 million depending on the diagnosis, and that the awards are not capped by a fixed fund: the NFL Parties fund each monthly request for final and accrued awards for a period of 65 years under Section 23.3(b).

The Long-Form Notice also states that a player does not need to take part in the baseline assessment program to receive an award, but that an award may be reduced by 10 percent if the player does not take part. The notice adds that taking part in the assessment program helps ensure that a player later diagnosed receives the maximum award for which he qualifies.

Two separate funds sit alongside the awards. The Baseline Assessment Program Fund is capped at $75 million under Section 23.1(b), and the Education Fund is $10 million under Section 23.1(c). The claims administrator pays a monetary award only after the appeal, audit, lien and derivative claimant processes described in Section 9.3(a) of the agreement have run, and Section 9.3(b) says payment follows the funding that Section 23.3 requires.

How does the baseline assessment program work?

Section 5.2 of the agreement describes the baseline assessment examination as a standardized neuropsychological examination performed by a neuropsychologist certified in clinical neuropsychology, plus a basic neurological examination performed by a board-certified neurologist, both of them approved providers. Section 5.1 makes one examination available to each qualified retired player. Section 5.5 provides that the program runs for 10 years after it starts and that supplemental benefits for Level 1 Neurocognitive Impairment may extend for up to five more years.

The claims administrator’s Key Dates page lists the start of the program as June 6, 2017 and gives the exam deadlines that followed from it. Players born on or before June 6, 1974 had to complete the examination by June 6, 2019. Players born after that date have until June 7, 2027, or before they turn 45, whichever comes sooner. The Long-Form Notice had described the same two to ten year window in the period before final approval.

What is established vs. what is alleged

Established by the documents reviewed: that MDL No. 2323 was opened in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on January 31, 2012; that the settlement agreement is dated June 25, 2014; that it defines six Qualifying Diagnoses; that the Monetary Award Fund runs 65 years from the Effective Date of January 7, 2017; that the claims administrator reports $1,738,437,013 paid on 2,226 payable awards as of October 26, 2026; that the Special Masters issued a Rule 27 audit decision on June 8, 2026 concerning 98 Parkinson’s disease claims submitted through five law firms; and the action count in the Panel’s October 1, 2026 report.

Alleged, not decided: that playing professional football caused any individual player’s brain disease; that the NFL Parties failed to warn players or concealed the risks; and any specific player’s diagnosis, award amount or medical condition. The settlement resolves those claims without a finding on them, and the NFL Parties denied the allegations.

Not recorded in the documents reviewed: a figure for the total value of the settlement, a court order setting a dollar cap on awards, a count of claims denied after the 2026 audit decision, and the identity of any player whose claim was affected by it.

Where the litigation stands in 2026

The Panel’s October 1, 2026 report lists MDL No. 2323 with 329 actions pending of 352 filed, and names Judge Joshua D. Wolson as the transferee judge. The Panel’s docket summary for the same date gives the master docket number as 2:12-md-2323. A multidistrict proceeding consolidates pretrial proceedings; the settlement, not a trial, is how the claims are resolved. Our guide to how an MDL differs from a class action explains the difference.

The claims process is still active. The Key Dates page lists January 7, 2082 as the final date on which a claim arising from a new Qualifying Diagnosis by an approved physician can be accepted, which follows from the 65-year fund term in Section 6.10 and the January 7, 2017 Effective Date. The page also records a March 4, 2024 deadline to request an expanded baseline exam and a March 4, 2024 deadline for new claim submissions under a 2022 modification to the agreement.

The most recent notice on the settlement website concerns program integrity rather than the settlement terms. The notice dated July 2, 2026 states that the Special Masters issued a Rule 27 decision on June 8, 2026 after an audit of 98 Parkinson’s disease claims submitted or developed through five law firms, which the notice names. The decision requires pending claims implicated in the scheme to be denied, with permission to resubmit on new independent evaluations, requires disclosure of co-counsel relationships, and excludes diagnoses that rely on certain non-program physicians.

Key dates

• January 31, 2012: the Panel establishes MDL No. 2323 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (court page).
• January 6, 2014: Class Counsel moves for preliminary approval and conditional class certification; the court denies the motion without prejudice on January 14, 2014 (settlement agreement, recitals).
• June 25, 2014: date of the Class Action Settlement Agreement (settlement agreement).
• January 7, 2017: Effective Date of the settlement (Key Dates page).
• June 6, 2017: start of the Baseline Assessment Program (Key Dates page).
• August 7, 2017: registration deadline for the settlement program (Key Dates page).
• February 6, 2019: deadline for claim packages based on diagnoses made on or before February 6, 2017 (Key Dates page).
• March 4, 2024: deadline to request an expanded baseline exam or submit a new claim under the 2022 norming agreement modification (Key Dates page).
• June 8, 2026: Special Masters’ Rule 27 decision following the audit of 98 Parkinson’s disease claims (July 2, 2026 notice).
• October 26, 2026: date of the program statistics on the settlement website ($1,738,437,013 payable on 2,226 claims).
• January 7, 2082: final date for claims based on a new Qualifying Diagnosis (Key Dates page).

What this does not establish

The documents reviewed do not show that playing football caused any particular player’s condition, and the settlement does not rest on such a finding. They do not set out a single total settlement value, and the figure that circulated in 2014 press coverage is not a term of the agreement. They do not show how many of the audited Parkinson’s disease claims were denied under the June 2026 decision, or whether that decision has been implemented in full.

They also do not show the current size of the settlement class by diagnosis, the average award, or any individual player’s entitlement. The settlement website’s statistics measure registered class members, claims received, payable awards and examinations attended; they are not a measure of how many retired players have a qualifying condition.

Readers who receive a notice about a settlement benefit should check it against the court record and the official settlement website. Our guide to verifying settlement notices describes how to do that.

Frequently asked questions

What is the NFL concussion settlement?

The NFL concussion settlement is the class action settlement in In re: National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation, MDL No. 2323, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The agreement is dated June 25, 2014, and it pays monetary awards to retired NFL players who receive one of six specified diagnoses, from a fund that runs 65 years from the Effective Date of January 7, 2017.

How much is the NFL concussion settlement worth?

The settlement agreement does not state a total dollar value. It requires the NFL Parties to fund each monthly request for final and accrued monetary awards for 65 years under Section 23.3(b), and the 2014 Long-Form Notice states that maximum monetary awards range from $1.5 million to $5 million depending on the diagnosis. The claims administrator reported $1,738,437,013 in payable monetary awards on 2,226 claims as of October 26, 2026.

Which diagnoses qualify for an award under the NFL settlement?

Six diagnoses qualify under Section 6.3 of the settlement agreement: Level 1.5 Neurocognitive Impairment, Level 2 Neurocognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and Death with CTE. Each must be made by an approved physician under the injury definitions in Exhibit 1 of the agreement.

Is the NFL concussion settlement still open to claims?

Yes, for players who receive a new Qualifying Diagnosis. The claims administrator’s Key Dates page lists January 7, 2082 as the final date for claims accepted in the program, and the registration deadline for the original class was August 7, 2017. The program accepted claims based on diagnoses made on or before February 6, 2017 only until February 6, 2019.

What happened in the 2026 audit decision?

On June 8, 2026 the Special Masters issued a Rule 27 decision after the claims administrator audited 98 Parkinson’s disease claims submitted or developed through five law firms. The notice published July 2, 2026 states that the decision requires denial of pending claims implicated in the scheme, with permission to resubmit based on new independent evaluations, and bars diagnoses that rely on certain identified non-program physicians.

Sources

1. United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania: “Class Action Settlement Agreement as of June 25, 2014, In re: National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation, No. 2:12-md-02323 (E.D. Pa.)” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
2. United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania: “Long-Form Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement, In re: National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation (E.D. Pa.)” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
3. United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania: “MDL 2323 In Re: National Football League Players’ Concussion Injury Litigation (court page)” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
4. United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania: “MDL 2323 Documents” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
5. United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation: “MDL Statistics Report: Distribution of Pending MDL Dockets by Actions Pending (October 1, 2026)” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
6. United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation: “MDL Statistics Report: Distribution of Pending MDL Dockets by District (October 1, 2026)” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
7. United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation: “MDL Statistics Report: Docket Summary Listing by MDL Number (October 1, 2026)” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
8. NFL Concussion Settlement Claims Administrator: “Welcome to the Official NFL Concussion Settlement Website (program statistics as of October 26, 2026)” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
9. NFL Concussion Settlement Claims Administrator: “Key Dates, Official NFL Concussion Settlement website” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)
10. NFL Concussion Settlement Claims Administrator: “Program Statistics, Official NFL Concussion Settlement website” (link, accessed 2026-10-27)

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