Recent comments in /f/sports

washingtonpost OP t1_j7qvhbd wrote

Reply to How the NFL avoids paying disabled players — with the union’s help by washingtonpost

From reporter Will Hobson:

Pressured by Congress, the league and its union promised reforms years ago. But a Washington Post investigation shows a system still stacked against players left broken by football.

The 2022 NFL season will be remembered, in part, for two shocking scenes that renewed focus on the damage America’s most popular sport inflicts on its players. One was the sight of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa writhing on the field after suffering his second concussion in five days, briefly bringing a Thursday Night Football game to a halt. The other was Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsing with a cardiac arrest, ending a Monday Night Football game and briefly bringing the sport to a standstill.

Both events brought swift public responses from the NFL and the NFL Players Association, professing their concern for the health and safety of the league’s players.

But beyond the glare of national television, debilitated former NFL players continue to encounter a benefit plan, jointly managed by the league and union, that fights aggressively to deny claims and repeatedly shirks legal obligations to fairly review cases, a Washington Post investigation found.

Over the past six months, The Post reviewed thousands of pages of medical records, denial letters and other plan documents produced in lawsuits since 2008, the year after former players went to Congress to complain of onerous red tape, biased doctors and a rigged claims process. League and union officials disputed those allegations but promised reforms.

In the 15 years since, though, eight players have successfully sued the league’s plan, triggering tense and protracted legal fights that have revealed repeated instances in which the NFL’s plan seized on technicalities, ignored medical evidence and flouted federal judges to justify denying claims.

The NFL declined to make any official available for an interview. In a statement, the league dismissed the plan’s losses in court as a small fraction of the thousands of cases it has handled. And even in cases where federal judges ruled the plan wrongly denied a claim, the NFL asserted, the judges were wrong.

“There have been roughly 10,000 claims considered since 2008,” wrote league spokesman Brian McCarthy. “Even if those less than a dozen cases were improperly decided — and they were not — the less than one dozen cases hardly amount to a pattern.”

The NFL and the union, NFLPA, both emphasized the sum the plan pays out to disabled retirees: more than $320 million last year, a substantial increase from the $20 million the plan told Congress it was paying out in 2007.

The NFL’s plan is unique, making it difficult to compare its record in the courts to peers. A typical disability insurer manages plans for many companies, covering millions more customers than the NFL plan. But playing in the NFL is also far more likely to leave players with potentially disabling injuries than perhaps any other job in America, increasing the likelihood for lawsuits.

Several experienced disability attorneys who have battled the NFL’s plan in court, in interviews, said the league’s plan stands apart in how vociferously it fights claims. And they expressed outrage that the NFL maintains every judge who has ruled against the plan was mistaken.

Read more about our investigation into these lawsuits here, and skip the paywall with email registration: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/02/08/nfl-disability-players-union/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

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Newish_Username t1_j7qsu2x wrote

Reply to McCarthy: 'Tom Brady is going to be a terrific analyst' by FullyProtective

Ya know, I really like Tom, and Pats are one of my least favorite teams. Dude had a career long enough to play against certain people, then play their kids. And when he left his original team, he still won the Superbowl. Sure, he was lukewarm last football season, but you could tell his heart wasn't in it.

But my favorite thing about him? How he riles people up with irrational rage just because he exists. Like in this comment section! I get a hard on just watching people froth at the mouth because TB fucked their team so bad. And I say this as a Chiefs Fan. Fucking love Mahomes. But until he gets some more rings, Tom is the GOAT.

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Aeon1508 t1_j7p8r5a wrote

Reply to comment by onfire9123 in McCarthy: 'Tom Brady is going to be a terrific analyst' by FullyProtective

Mahomes will catch him in everything but rings barring injury. Even without injury he could just not last as long and still fall short.

But I absolutely don't believe that something as absolutely freaky as 7 rings is just going to just happen again. Assuming th cheifs win mahomes is still 1 ring back from Tom's pace. If mahomes won 5 rings he'd still be above every qb except Brady.

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