Jamal Lewis, Dorsey Levens, Fulton Kuykendall and Ryan Stewart filed the lawsuit against the National Football League and NFL Properties LLC this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
The players maintain the NFL knew as early as the 1920s of the potential for concussions to harm its players.
``The NFL has done everything in its power to hide the issue and mislead players concerning the risks associated with concussions,'' the players maintain in the lawsuit.
NFL representatives did not immediately return phone calls Thursday from The Associated Press.
``While athletes in other professional sports who had suffered concussions were being effectively `shut down' for long periods of time or full seasons, NFL protocol was to return players who had suffered concussions to the very game in which the injury occurred,'' the lawsuit states.
The court documents say the league concealed the dangers from coaches, trainers, players and the public until June 2010, when it publicly acknowledged the health threats and warned players and teams.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/12/244508