With the opening of the regular 2018 NFL season upon us, there is a scandal surrounding the NFL that is far more egregious than whether protesting players kneel during the national anthem.

I am referring to the NFL's systematic failure to live up to the terms of their January 2017 settlement with brain-injured players in the NFL Concussion Class Action Lawsuit. The NFL's liability is estimated to be between $1.5 and $2 billion.

In fact, the NFL is probably happy to have players kneel during our national anthem because it distracts from their duplicitous strategy: to have retired players die off or give up on trying to collect on the promises the NFL made when they settled the lawsuit against the multi-billion-dollar league.

That 80 percent of the injured players are Black and 82 percent of their claims remain unpaid are facts the NFL does not want you to know.

"Promises made. Promises kept," is not a popular phrase in the NFL.

For many years, the NFL used tobacco industry tactics to deny any link between football and degenerative brain diseases, even going so far as to create phony medical panels and publish fake scientific papers to mislead players and the public.

So when the deal was struck between the NFL and the class of retired players, it was touted as a watershed event.

Suffering retired players with debilitating diseases such as ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and varying levels of dementia believed they would finally be compensated. And the families of those who had already died of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, too, believed they would finally have justice.

Headlines sang the praises of the NFL. The NFL PR juggernaut was in overdrive lauding the settlement. Well, I am here to tell you folks, it was all FAKE NEWS!

This case was crooked from the outset and players are living and dying without treatment because of this corruption.

 Corrupt Co-Lead Class Counsel?

Co-lead class counsel Chris Seeger's cozy relationship with the NFL has left many wondering whose side he is on.