Class Action Aims to Pull Back the Curtain on NFL’s Allegedly Persistent Denial of Disability Benefits for Retired Players

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Ten former NFL players allege in a proposed class action that the league’s Player Disability & Survivor Benefit Plan and Player Disability & Neurocognitive Benefit Plan have erroneously and arbitrarily denied retired players’ disability claims. 

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The 86-page lawsuit says the disability plans, their six-member board, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell have engaged in an “aggressive and disturbing” pattern of “systematic bias” against disabled former players. In particular, the parties, motivated by “financial considerations,” have sought to limit the payment of benefits to the players whom the disability plans were designed to help, the suit claims, seeking the removal of the NFL Disability Board’s members “by reason of their egregious and repeated breaches of fiduciary duties.” 

The filing also accuses the defendants of “repeated hostility, continual objectively unreasonable conduct,” bad-faith contract “misinterpretations,” and “other unscrupulous tactics” in their failure to properly discharge their duties to disabled former NFL players, who, despite the violent nature of football, do not receive lifetime medical insurance to care for lifelong ailments. 

The plaintiffs—Jason Alford, Daniel Loper, Willis McGahee, Michael McKenzie, Jamize Olawale, Alex Parsons, Eric Smith, Charles Sims, Joey Thomas and Lance Zeno—aim to “pull back the curtain” on behalf of similarly situated former NFL players, many of whom suffer from the effects of head trauma and other injuries and impairments related to their football careers. According to the suit, retired players have no choice but to “navigate a byzantine process” in an effort to obtain disability benefits, “only to be met with denial” in most cases. 

“Federal courts across the country have been pulling back the curtain on Defendants’ violations of [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act], including a flagrant disregard of the full-and-fair review requirement, biased claims administration, a disturbing pattern of illogical and inconsistent interpretations to the detriment of participants, and other unscrupulous result-oriented decisions,” the lawsuit reads, citing litigation dating back to as early as 2006. 

The lawsuit contests, among other things, that the NFL disability plans do not have procedures designed to ensure that “neutral physicians” tasked with providing complete reports on a player’s disability for the sake of determining their benefits claim are indeed impartial and unbiased. The plans also lack framework to ensure steps can be taken to reduce bias and promote accurate claim determinations, the filing says. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all participants in the NFL Player Disability & Survivor Benefit Plan and NFL Player Disability & Neurocognitive Benefit Plan who filed an application for one or more categories of disability benefits on or after August 1, 1970. 

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