from Ken Dryden at the New York Times,

$18.9 million. $1 billion.

After years of legal wrangling, the N.H.L. and hundreds of its retired players announced a settlement to the players’ concussion lawsuit last Monday. $18.9 million. In 2013, after years of similar wrangling, the N.F.L. and its players announced their settlement. $1 billion. There are other details, some of them significant, but this is the one that stands out.

Lawsuits are about power. The power of legal argument. The power of money. The power of time. The power of circumstance.

Those who have power know when they’ve got it, and they know, especially, when the other guy doesn’t. The game was over earlier this year when Judge Susan Nelson denied the players’ bid for class-action status. N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman knew it. The players’ lawyers knew it. The rest was a rush to settlement.

The result was a blowout.

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