Jahvid Best is suing the NFL, helmet maker Riddell and Easton-Bell Sports over concussion.
Best was a first round pick in 2010 and is now out of football after suffering a series of concussions.
The civil lawsuit can only seek monetary damages and at this point, Best's attorney, Bret Schnitzer, said he did not have a specific monetary damage being sought.
"The purpose behind the lawsuit, there's a number of requests of release in the lawsuit," Schnitzer said. "One of them is to set up a medical fund for Mr. Best in order to deal with future medical conditions out of this concussion syndrome.
"As I am sure you are probably aware through various media and the 'Frontline' program and so on, the brain injuries with concussion syndrome does not necessarily manifest itself completely immediately, as you can see from the other cases. Sometimes it is 10, 20 years where the brain injury process takes to develop and it's not necessarily going to show itself in a 24-, 25-year-old football player to the extent that it might 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
"So one of the goals of the litigation is to protect Mr. Best down the road in terms of his medical condition and problems that he may have in the future."
The Detroit Lions are not listed in the suit.