5 takeaways from our report on the 1980 Eagles Super Bowl team and the NFL’s concussion problem

Guy Morriss didn’t shy away from collisions.

“You think about gettin’ a serious injury, sure,” the 6-foot-4 Texan once told Inquirer sports columnist Bill Lyon. “But you don’t worry about it.”

Morriss missed just one game in 11 seasons as the starting center for the Philadelphia Eagles, and was a core part of the Eagles’ 1980 team, the first in franchise history to reach a Super Bowl.

Like many NFL players from that era, Morriss endured constant blows to the head, but had little sense that such injuries could lead to serious health problems later in life. In a 1980 Lyon column — which carried the headline “Fast Snaps, Hard Hits” — Morriss recalled being struck in the head by an opposing player’s knee.

“It just caved in everything,” he said, “the helmet, the side of my face.”

A recent Inquirer investigation, The Final Penalty, examined the toll that concussions and sub-concussive hits took on Morriss and other members of the 1980 Eagles, and obstacles some of those players encountered when they tried to receive compensation from a program that the NFL established to pay retired players who are suffering from neurological illnesses.

Here’s what our reporting found.

The Inquirer spoke with a dozen of the 1980 Super Bowl team’s 22 starters, and with relatives of two who have died, and found that 12 of the 14 developed a range of cognitive issues after retirement — from memory loss and depression to personality changes and movement disorders.

Morriss was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.

Six years later, in September 2022, he died at age 71. Researchers at Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center later found that Morriss had stage IV CTE.

Former linebacker Frank LeMaster died in March 2023 at age 71, after experiencing a sharp decline in his health and memory.

Months later, those same Boston researchers found that LeMaster, too, had stage IV CTE.

Running back Wilbert Montgomery, 69, told The Inquirer that he suffered at least 20 concussions during his playing career.

In 2022, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. (Concussions increase the risk of developing the disease.)

“You get punished as you get older,” Montgomery said.

In 2011, more than 80 former players sued the NFL in California and Pennsylvania, accusing the league’s leaders of minimizing the risks of repeated brain injuries. The NFL denied those claims. The number of plaintiffs climbed into the thousands, and the cases were consolidated in Philadelphia federal court.

Three years later, the former players and the league settled the case.

The NFL admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to fund a program that would pay retired players between $25,000 and $5 million if they had neurocognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

The NFL settlement program reports it has paid out more than $1.3 billion.

Yet among the 20,572 former players who are eligible — those who retired before July 7, 2014 — just 4,057 have submitted claims. Only 1,802 players, or 44%, have actually been paid.

A Virginia-based law firm, BrownGreer PLC, was selected by the court to administer the concussion settlement program. (The NFL pays BrownGreer through the court, but the league doesn’t have the authority to fire the company.)

Among 2,444 ex-players who had submitted claims for moderate or severe cognitive decline as of June 3, only 36% have been paid, according to reports compiled by BrownGreer.

Former Eagles right tackle Jerry Sisemore is among the players whose compensation claims were successful. In 2019, he was diagnosed with a neurocognitive impairment, and received a $175,000 payment from the settlement program.

“It’s sad when you talk to your teammates, and you both end up crying,” said Sisemore, now 73. “You can’t remember the good things that you should remember. We kinda knew what we were getting into — but not really. We were so stupid.”

Under the settlement program, a player’s cognitive impairment can fall into three possible categories: level 1.0 for moderate decline; level 1.5 for early dementia; level 2.0 for severe cognitive decline.

Independent neurologists have criticized this classification system as being outside the norm of traditional neurological care.

And some critics have argued that neurological evaluations that players must complete before they can be paid under the settlement are inherently too difficult for a person who has a cognitive impairment.

Five members of the 1980 Eagles said that doctors have told them that they weren’t eligible for a settlement payment.

“I went through a number of doctors, down in the North Carolina area,” said former linebacker John Bunting, who estimated he suffered about 10 concussions during his career, and now struggles with memory loss. “Eventually, I was told I did not qualify for compensation as part of the settlement program.”

Brad S. Karp, the NFL’s lead outside attorney, wrote in an email to The Inquirer that the league “does not decide who receives an award or the amount or the timing of any award.”

Karp said that players whose settlement claims are denied can resubmit them for reevaluation, as many times as they would like, over the 65-year life of the settlement program.

The Eagles hired Dick Vermeil as head coach in 1976. The team was a laughingstock, buried under the weight of nine consecutive seasons without a winning record.

Through brutally intensive training camps and practices, and long nights of strategizing in his Veterans Stadium office, Vermeil gradually resurrected the franchise. He also built deep emotional connections with his players, a bond that endured well after their NFL careers had ended.

In recent years, Vermeil has devoted himself to helping former players who are battling neurocognitive illnesses and struggling to navigate the concussion settlement program.

Vermeil said he has reached out to NFL alumni officials for assistance but hasn’t received a response.

“I get upset that the wives and the players, within this environment, are being put through such an almost demeaning routine,” Vermeil told The Inquirer.

“It pisses me off. Yeah, it really does. I’m here, in a successful life, because of those guys. I didn’t play a snap, and I feel a real responsibility to represent them [to get] what they deserve.”