from Craig Custance of ESPN,

Shanahan points out that the league's focus on concussion prevention predates his joining the league offices.

"I can remember back as a player as early as 1997 doing baseline testing, and nobody was doing that then," he said. "They were starting to make players aware of concussion protocol and safety; they obviously saw ahead of it then."

That may be part of the reason there hasn't been a similar class-action suit filed against the NHL, at least not yet. Guaranteed contracts help the cause, too.

Stu Grimson racked up 2,113 penalty minutes in a 729-game NHL career that ended because he couldn't fight off the symptoms from the last blow to the head he received. He estimates that he suffered dozens of concussions as an NHL enforcer. He's also a lawyer, so if somebody was going to be contacted about a class-action lawsuit, it would be him. In his opinion, if one was coming he would have heard of it by now.

"This lawsuit levied at the NFL, we've been aware of this for some time," Grimson said on Wednesday. "I think our sport is one that has taken reasonable and in some cases aggressive measures to cut back on head trauma in the diagnosis, the treatments, the circumstances in which these injuries occur. I can't see where they've been negligent."

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