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Banks, a 36-year-old Georgia resident, was a CFLer for 11 seasons, including 2004-05 Ottawa Renegades.

Allen was a Toronto Argonaut between 1972 and 1975. He died in October in South Carolina at age 67.

Robyn Wishart, a B.C. lawyer who represents the class-action participants, said three other former CFLers had joined the legal action, but hadn’t yet granted permission to publicize their names.

The class-action claim was filed in late May with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of all retired players and their estates, including the identified plaintiffs, who between 1952 and the current day participated in CFL practices and games.

Named defendants include former CFL commissioner Mark Cohon, the league, its nine current member clubs as well as Ottawa Renegades Football Club Inc., head injury specialist Dr. Charles Tator and the Krembil Neuroscience Centre in Toronto.

It seeks $200 million in damages for the former players and family members and, according to class-action documents, claimed the defendants “knew or ought to have known that multiple sub-concussive and concussive blows to the head lead to long-term brain injury, including but not limited to: memory loss, dementia, depression, and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (‘CTE’) and its related symptoms.”

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

The Boston University CTE Center describes CTE as “a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head. CTE has been known to affect boxers since the 1920s. However, recent reports have been published of neuropathologically confirmed CTE in retired professional football players and other athletes who have a history of repetitive brain trauma.”