A potentially groundbreaking wrongful death trial opened on Friday alleging the National Collegiate Athletic Association turned a blind eye to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the progressive brain injury linked to football-related concussions.

The trial involves the widow of former University of Southern California linebacker Matthew Gee, who died in 2018. On Friday, William Horton, who represents Gee’s widow, Alana Gee, told jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court that the NCAA had knowledge about concussion-related injuries in college football since the 1960s but failed to implement safety protocols or recommendations.