In 2018 the NFL, NHL concussion fights continued to play out in courts across the nation. It is likely that 2019 will be more of the same. An unofficial part of the playbook for some professional sports teams is that players have been seeking workers compensation damages to cover their long-term injuries from rough and tumble sports.

The National Hockey League in November announced a tentative $18.9 million settlement with 318 retired players who sued the league, accusing it of failing to protect them from head injuries or warning them of the risks involved with playing.

The settlement includes up to $75,000 for medical treatment and a potential cash payment of about $23,000 a player. It also includes the promise of a “Common Good Fund” to help other players with head injuries.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in August dismissed a retired NHL player’s lawsuit against Chubb Ltd. and two NHL teams over a technicality: lack of jurisdiction.

Last year, Mike Peluso, a former “enforcer” for the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues in the 1990s, sued the teams and Chubb, which wrote the workers compensation policy that covered Mr. Peluso. He alleged that the defendants had failed to disclose medical information related to workers comp claims for head trauma and brain disease. He also claimed that he had been inadequately warned of his risk of further brain injury and of his fitness to continue playing hockey after suffering a concussion and later suffering a grand mal seizure.

All this followed the dismissal of a wrongful death lawsuit in May brought against the NHL for the death of player Derek Boogaard.

Boogaard was a professional hockey player in the NHL. The suit claimed team doctors repeatedly prescribed him pain pills relating to various injuries and procedures and he became addicted to those pills by 2009. He was placed into the league’s substance abuse and behavioral health program and checked into a California rehabilitation facility for in-patient treatment of his opioid and sleeping-pill addictions. He accidentally overdosed and died at age 28, according to court documents.

As for the National Football League, a California appellate judge ruled a former Indianapolis Colts player and California resident Larry Triplett,cannot file a workers compensation claim in the state because there’s no proof he signed his contract while in California and that he only played two games there over a six-year career.

As can be seen, the professional athletes have had mixed litigation results in 2018. Yet stakeholders say that there yet could still be a tidal wave of individual lawsuits from players seeking care for head injuries they claim arose from the league’s long-time promotion of violence.