The NFL Players’ Disabilities Plan and Board of Supervisors: Plaintiffs’ Litigation in a U.S. Football Players’ Liens
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in the District Court for the District of Maryland and was brought by players like McGahee and Alford.
The lawsuit alleges that when the plan and the board reviewed a players disability claim, they chose to only use the case summaries prepared by the plan’s law firm, the Groom Law Group, rather than the full medical records, which goes against federal law.
It alleged the board “members have engaged in repeated and substantial derelictions of their responsibilities, have repeatedly refused to pay contractually mandated benefits, and have statistically proven conflicts.”
In the period between March 31, and April 1, 4.5% of players were found to be totally and permanently disabled, and they were paid over two hundred thousand dollars.
Eric Smith, a former New York Jets player, suffered 13 documented traumatic brain injuries. He was denied line of duty (LOD) benefits in 2013 and his appeal was denied a year later, according to the lawsuit.
When Smith applied for permanent and neurocognitive disability in 2018, he was repeatedly denied by physicians – some paid over $1 million – despite his “head, neck, and lumbar spine impairments” and “marked decreased shoulder range of motion, rotator cuff weakness, and moderate to severe shoulder arthritis,” according to the lawsuit.
According to an official from the NFL, the disabled plan includes an uncapped financial committment to provide benefits for any retired player that meets eligibility requirements.
“These eligibility requirements and administrative procedures were developed after consultation with occupational, mental and physical health experts. The plan annually provides more than $330 million to deserving players and their families.
“This board reviews the activities of the office and operation of the benefit program, including every contested application for benefits to ensure that retired players who are entitled to disability benefits receive them as intended.”
A defined benefit plan is a government law and we have to do something to identify who qualifies for those benefits and who doesn’t and that’s done with union and management
There are facts done independently with doctors who determine whether or not the benefit and an individual qualifies for that program. So you don’t want people to benefit from it that don’t qualify for it, because it takes away from people who do qualify for it.
“You don’t want people to benefit from it if they don’t qualify for it.” You’re likely to have people who believe they qualify for it, even though the doctors and the joint board disagree. That’s a way the system works, but I would tell you the benefits in the NFL are off the charts.”
The people who are part of the lawsuit are: Kenny Alford, Daniel Loper, Ian McGahee, Michael McKenzie, Jamize Olah, Eric Smith, Charles Sims and Joey Thomas.
Several of them had their applications for benefits denied on multiple occasions, marred by conflicting reports from doctors with denial rates often exceeding more than 90%, the lawsuit says.
The league doesn’t have a system in place for auditing physicians’ reports and does not penalize those who make inaccurate or incomplete reports, even though physicians are supposed to be neutral.
How Long Did a Running Back Injure? The Family Law Lawyers Against Timing Unintentional Injuries of a Former Running Back
Yearly disability compensation can range from $65,000 a year to $265,000 a year, depending on if the injury was sustained while performing activities for the league or not, and how long ago the injury happened.
A doctor for McGahee, who played 11 years as a running back, incorrectly stated McGahee was unimpaired, despite several tests showing impaired cognitive function, and used McGahee’s demographic information, including his race, to estimate his IQ prior to the injury, the lawsuit says.
Sims tried to submit additional team and medical records in an attempt to recover from the injury he sustained, but was once again denied, as the board decided there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that he was injured.