There were times in his five-year NFL career when running back Nuu Faaola said he would look up from the bench at the scoreboard and be puzzled by what he glimpsed.

"It (would be) the third or fourth quarter (of the game) and I’d ask one of my teammates, ‘What happened to the first and second quarters?’ "

Faaola said he didn’t know much about concussions then. But, at age 48, he does now.

"Right now I have trouble with my memory here and there," Faaola said. He said his wife tells him sometimes "I jerk a lot in my sleep, like I’m playing or jumping around."

Which is why the former University of Hawaii and Farrington High star said he is among the more than 2,000 ex-players — including at least 12 with Hawaii ties — who are listed as plaintiffs in the concussion mega-lawsuit against the NFL that was announced on Thursday.

"The bottom line for me is that there are a bunch of times when I’m waking up that there are things you don’t recall here and there," Faaola said. "And I know it was caused by playing ball."

The lawsuit alleges the NFL knew of studies that tied football-related head trauma to brain injuries and illnesses and hid the information. An NFL statement denied the allegation.

Faaola was part of what then-New York Jets head coach Joe Walton liked to call his "tough team" unit in the late 1980s. Faaola would go in on short-yardage situations and, with the defense stacked against the run, try to pound his way to a first down.

Though he wasn’t an every-down player, the tenacity with which Faaola played made No. 30 popular with fans for the punishment he withstood — and meted out — as a hard-churning running back and special teams performer.

Faaola, who now lives outside Seattle, where he is a personal trainer, said, "I didn’t know anything about concussions (then). Have I been knocked out many times? Yes. Have I been blacked out many times? Yes.

"They would come around and give you the test (asking): ‘How many fingers?’ Or, follow my fingers. Then I’d be ready to go back in (to the game).

"You don’t think about those kind of things because you think about the team, you think about playing, you think loving the game. That’s just me, my opinion and my mentality. I mean, I thought I was invincible. Just like every other player out there."

That was part of the problem. For decades players considered concussions a part of the game. If they understood them at all.

"People ask, ‘how many concussions did you have?’" said Rich Miano, a former Kaiser High and UH star who was a teammate of Faaola’s during an 11-year NFL career and is party to the suit. "How do I know? We didn’t call them concussions. We called them ‘bell ringers, dingers …’ We didn’t get taken out of games for concussions. We didn’t get evaluated for concussions. We didn’t want to lose our jobs.

"I never had baseline testing to know whether I have short-term memory loss or long-term memory loss. Some of that might be due to 700 tackles or maybe it might be due to approaching 50 years of age."

When talk of the lawsuit came up, Miano said, "my wife said immediately, ‘I don’t want you to get involved. We’ve never sued anybody in our life.’ I said, ‘honey,’ — and I thought about it for two or three days first — ‘this isn’t about suing people. This is about education and prevention.’

"To me, football is the greatest game in the world. This is about taking care of the older veterans, the guys in their 60s and 70s who need knee and hip replacements and neurological (help). And it is about educating the next generation."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.