NS.. ex-NFL players sue league... It's starting to make sense now

I'm not naming any names but I'm friends with a former player who was injured. He was given some very bad information from the team doctors which, in any other industry, would have qualified as malpractice. (thisinformation led to him being injured again more severely) This terrible information cost him millions of dollars since his contract was cancelled and he was traded and was forced to re-sign at league minimum. He was unable to sue because the nfl has an employment contract that players must sign which impedes them from suing another employee of the nfl. He was shafted pretty badly and it's unfortunate that the doctor, the team, and the nfl can't be held accountable for what happened to him. That's my $.02

Exactly right. I am friends with former NFL players, as well as current ones.

They've also stated that they are basically "owned" by the NFL, and can only use the team doctors. They can request approval of a specialist (i.e., Dr. Andrews, et al), but they can't go out on their own for a second opinion, or they'd be released, traded, etc.

I've also been told by a former player, that there were times that he didn't remember finishing the game after a hard hit. He basically said when games were close, and if you were able to walk and appeared physically capable, they sent you back out on the field.

There's much more detail to this. If I wasn't personally informed by these players, I'd certainly think like the OP states.