Summary of Proposals for Meaningful Changes

to the NFL Disability System

Under the Bert Bell /Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan

The disability benefits which should be available to former professional football players, as well as the administrative process which adjudicates these claims, needs to be responsive to the unique needs that playing in the National Football League creates. The Board of Directors of the RFPA is proposing that the following changes be made to the current NFL Players Plan:

* Revise the definition of total and permanent disability.  We suggest: 

“…a player will be considered totally disabled when the impairments reasonably deemed to be the result of league football activity are the major contributing factor(s) in the players’ inability to sustain full-time competitive work activity.”

* That total disability is one which has lasted, or can be expected to last for 12 continuous months, rather than the present requirement that it be “permanent”.

* Require a showing of substantial improvement or the demonstrated ability to engage in meaningful gainful employment for the termination of total disability benefits.

* Remove the 15 year limitation for entitlement to “football degenerative” benefits. 

* That players be eligible for football degenerative benefits at least until the full Plan retirement age of 55, as long as they can demonstrate that the late effects of their League injuries and activities are the major contributing factor to their total disability.

* Restore entitlement to retroactive disability benefits.

* Allow payment of Line of Duty benefits for an indefinite period of time, rather than the current 90 month limitation.

* Make the “Alliance window” for disability applications permanent.  That is, a player shall not be precluded from applying for disability benefits after he has already elected early retirement.

* Make “neutral” physician examinations a rarity.

* Hire experienced adjudicators to process disability claims.

* Acknowledge the vocational factors of disability.  A doctor cannot determine whether there are jobs which a former player can actually perform.  He is only qualified to set forth the medical limitations on such things as walking, standing, lifting, and carrying.

* Adopt Social Security’s “treating physician” rule.

* Obtain more detailed information from the player’s treating and examining physicians.

* The use of a Medical Advisory Physician (“MAP”) should be rare.  When employed, he should have an advisory role, not an examining physician role.

* Members of the DICC and Retirement Board must justify their denial decision in writing.

* Discharge the Groom Law Group as Counsel to the Plan. The Groom Law Group, one of the nation’s preeminent employment law firms, is the author of the Plan and its deficient procedures, and is the architect of the entire disability debacle.

Please visit http://www.retiredfootballplayers.org/ and go to or blog page.