The NFL's current disability plans – known as the NFL Player Disability & Survivor Benefit Plan and NFL Player Disability & Neurocognitive Benefit Plan (the Plan) – are employee welfare benefit plans designed to provide disability and related benefits to eligible former NFL players. The Plan and its Board have a fiduciary duty of loyalty under ERISA to the former players for which the Plan was created.

The benefits potentially available to eligible retired players include: 

• Total and Permanent Disability benefits (T&P)​ 

• Line of Duty Disability benefits (LOD)​ 

• Neurocognitive Disability benefits (NC) 

After submitting a disability benefit claim through the Plan, in most cases the former player must be assessed by a doctor. These doctors are hired and paid by the Plan. For years, the Plan and its Board have touted these doctors as “absolutely neutral” and impartial. The Disability Initial Claims Committee and the Board use the assessments of these doctors to determine whether a player qualifies for benefits. 

The Disability Initial Claims Committee consists of three members:  

• One appointed by the NFL Management Council 

• One appointed by the NFLPA 

• A jointly designated Medical Director 

The terms of the Plan state that the Committee members and the Board must review all of the facts and circumstances in an applicant’s administrative record before rendering a decision. If the members of the Committee are deadlocked with respect to a benefit decision and the Medical Director determines that the medical evidence is inconclusive or insufficient, the claim will be a “deemed denial,” and represent the Committee’s final decision. In other words, if there is a tie, the claim is denied. The player can then appeal to the Board.  Similarly, the Plan is set up such that, if the Board is deadlocked 3-3 on an applicant’s appeal, the denial of the claim is deemed affirmed.

How the Plan is stacked against players 

Our team conducted an investigation reviewing hundreds of disability plan claims records that are not available publicly​. Out of thousands of former players who have applied for benefits, as of 2022 only 30 currently receive Active Football T & P benefits​ to our knowledge. Board members have testified in separate litigation that the Board does not review all player records – even though they misrepresent that it does​. 

One of the clearest problems with the Plan is its network of doctors. The Board is mandated to maintain a network of "Neutral Physicians" to examine players, but although federal regulations require impartiality, the Plan does not contain procedures to ensure that those doctors are indeed impartial and unbiased. As a result, these doctors that the Board touts as “absolutely neutral” are, as alleged in the lawsuit, anything but absolutely neutral. 

There is powerful statistical evidence that shows doctors who receive more money from the Board are more likely to recommend a denial of retired players’ benefits claims​.

As alleged in the lawsuit, these NFL-proclaimed "absolutely neutral" doctors are financially incentivized to make decisions on player eligibility that will increase the likelihood of the Board referring more players to them. In other words, these doctors are financially incentivized to submit reports the Board can rely upon to justify denying player benefits. Numerous doctors including neurologists, orthopedists, psychiatrists, and neuropsychologists have been paid between $1 million and $2 million dollars by the Plan and recommend the denial of claims at what appear to be astonishingly high rates. 

By misrepresenting to Players that conflicted doctors are “absolutely neutral,” the defendants have created a sham process.