Former NFL Players File Lawsuit Against the League For Denying Benefits

Ten former NFL players sued Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s disability plan and its board members on Thursday, accusing them of systematically denying benefits to the players by lying about and misinterpreting the results of their medical examinations and the plan’s guidelines.

According to AP News, the class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, where the NFL Player Retirement Plan has its office, said that purportedly neutral doctors hired by the plan to evaluate the players’ injuries were rewarded with more cases if they denied more claims, all in an effort “to limit the payment of benefits to the very Players whom the Plan was designed to help.”

At the same time the six board members — three representing the NFL and three representing the players’ union — claimed that they reviewed medical records to assess cases but often did not, according to the lawsuit.

“I’m trying to look out for all the other guys that have gone through this and gotten the short end of the stick with these evaluations,” Eric Smith , a defensive back for the Jets for seven seasons and one of the 10 players who filed the suit, said to AP News. 

The lawsuit seeks to have all players who have been denied benefits reassessed and made whole, and for penalties to be assessed against the disability plan and its board members for breaching their fiduciary responsibility to the players and the plan. The players also want the board members to be removed and the plan’s rules to be more strictly enforced.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a regular season that was in some ways was defined by shocking injuries to players. Damar Hamlin, a Buffalo Bills defensive back, went into cardiac arrest during a game and was on a breathing tube for several days. Miami Dolphins quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa suffered two concussions and absorbed a third head hit early in the season, which prompted the league and players’ union to revise their protocols for evaluating concussions.

The high-profile injuries prompted a re-examination within the league and widely among fans of the brutality of the game as well as the measures designed to minimize injuries.

The lawsuit filed by the 10 former players, including running back Willis McGahee and the 11-year cornerback Mike McKenzie, highlighted the resources available to retired players who have for decades complained that they have been unfairly denied collectively bargained benefits.

Some players who have had their total and permanent disability claims approved have sued the plan because they believed they were shorted out of thousands of dollars a month. According to another court filing cited in the suit, only 30 out of thousands of former players received the highest benefits worth $265,000 per year. The lowest tier of the plan awards $65,000 per year.