Malcolm Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

All that being said, the number of former players lining up to sue the NFL is spiraling out of control.

For the record I’m not one of the masses that will argue that “the players knew they were taking a risk”. That has nothing to do with how the NFL handles head trauma these days. It also ignores the fact that the risk of concussion related problems has been well known for years now.

However when this many former players are piling on it can also be speculated that there are other factors at play.

 Ken Stabler is the latest former player to jump into the concussion lawsuit extravaganza. He and 73 others are suing the NFL for the league’s hesitancy to address the problems related to head trauma.

Some view the litany of lawsuits as a cash grab and nothing more. That can’t be the case across the board. Some of the members of all these suits have legitimate beefs that must be dealt with. However, given Stabler’s current debt to the IRS there is an added element of doubt.

Not saying that Stabler’s motivation to sue is derived from his economic circumstances alone. It’s not like legal litigation is an easy way to make quick cash.

The basic problem is that there is already the belief that former players are terrible at handling the money they’ve made. Now along comes the opportunity to squeeze more cash from the NFL and you’ve got a long list of players falling in line to get theirs.

Of course a lot of the public perception of the players favors the NFL’s case. So there is also an element of propaganda to this whole situation.

Overall, it’s just a hot mess. Stabler might not be in this for anything more than exposing the truth. But his situation with the IRS does create some doubt. And as the NFL’s high powered lawyers must already know, where there’s doubt there’s an excuse to have a lawsuit or 30 dismissed.