Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher had some highly controversial comments during a recent podcast appearance. While featuring on Bussin With the Boys, Urlacher fired off an utterly insane take about CTE and wildly accused players of falsely claiming to have the brain disease just to “get on the f***ing lawsuit.”
During a guest appearance on the podcast hosted by NFL player Will Compton, Urlacher unleashed his abhorrent take, in which he accused players of claiming to have CTE in order to get their names added to “the lawsuit,” via Mediaite.
“There are some guys I played with who claimed — I don’t know, here’s the problem now with all the guys with the CTE, if they do have it, I feel for them, but there’s guys who say they have it just so they can be in the fucking lawsuit,” Urlacher replied.
“They want that money from the NFL and I get it, man. You know, everyone wants to get their due, but there’s really guys that have it, that deserve to be taken care of. And there’s the guys that don’t have it who want to be — who want to have it just so they can get part of that lawsuit and that just drives me crazy,” he concluded.
It's important to point out that no such active lawsuit even exists, as it was settled years ago. The NFL and ex-players agreed on a $765 million settlement back in 2013 regarding concussion-related brain injuries.
Furthermore, it cannot be confirmed whether a player has CTE until they are dead after their brain has been analyzed. That is because CTE can only be diagnosed through analysis of brain tissue.
Urlacher's comments are effectively opposed to players seeking compensation from the NFL for having potentially suffered brain injuries. As Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk points out, that would have absolutely no impact on Urlacher, making his stance on the matter all the more confusing.