News Summary: Ex-players prep for concussion fight

CONCUSSIONS IN COURT: With perhaps billions of dollars at stake, a hearing Tuesday over concussion litigation filed against the NFL promises to be a brawl between legal heavyweights.

TRAUMA: About 4,200 former players have sued the league. Some suffer from dementia, depression, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological problems. Others simply want their health monitored.

ARGUMENTS: Players accuse the NFL of promoting violence and concealing known cognitive risks from blows to the head. They hope to keep the litigation in federal court so they can use the discovery process to access NFL files — and see what the league knew when. The NFL, with $9.2 billion in annual revenues, argues that the complaints belong in arbitration under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. The league insists it has always followed the best available science and made player safety a top priority.