Ten retired National Football League Players (NFL) filed a class-action lawsuit against the league’s benefits plan, board of trustees and Commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday, accusing them of “unscrupulous tactics” to wrongfully deny claims.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, alleges financially-incentivized doctors were given additional cases if they denied more claims, with the goal of limiting benefit payments to the very players for whom the plan was designed.
The complaint also accuses the defendants of a “disturbing pattern of erroneous and arbitrary benefits denials, bad faith contract misinterpretations, and other unscrupulous tactics” as a way to wrongfully deny disability claims.
“These benefits are not a gift, these were bargained for, this is part of the deal, they are entitled to it,” Christopher Seeger, one of the lawyers representing the players, told reporters during a video news conference.
“Nobody is asking for any favours or handouts, just asking for what the players are entitled to, that’s it.”
Both the NFL and NFL Players Association (NFLPA) did not immediately respond when asked to comment on the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs include two-times Pro Bowl running back Willis McGahee and Eric Smith, a former safety who played seven seasons in the NFL and, according to the lawsuit, suffered 13 documented traumatic brain injuries.
“The NFL likes to pretend like they care about player safety, but it’s only when something big-time happens in a game they are like ‘oh yeah, we’ll fix this’,” said Smith.
“But once it’s past and all the media has given up on that they don’t care anymore. Like us players, they don’t care about us anymore.”
The other plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are Jason Alford, Daniel Loper, Michael McKenzie, Jamize Olawale, Alex Parsons, Charles Sims, Joey Thomas and Lance Zeno.
The lawsuit comes near the end of an NFL season where player safety was at the forefront after Damar…
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