Do no harm: Who should bear the costs of retired NFL players’ medical bills? (1 Viewer)

[Rod-138]

Good post, Randy. I've made that point a few times now on this board and to some people during discussions, but it's like people can't separate reality from make believe land.

Reality is the answer is simple : this is a workers comp issue and they should consider its eligibility for payment. After that, if its denied, well then it's like the same as if you or me hurt our knee at home. Who is responsible, who will pay? We will


Some of you seem extremely jaded and opinionated about the legitimacy of workers compensation insurance and I encourage you to do some research about case acceptance rates vs denial rates. Just because your deadbeat uncle's claim was denied doesn't mean they deny everything and ask questions later.

I worked for a WC firm for about 6 years and nearly every case is accepted and paid in full. I hated the company and have no reason to lie for the industry, but I saw the claims acceptance / denial ratios, including the saints, and they make the naysayers sound very, well, ignorant of reality.

Truth is we don't know the facts of this specific case and the reason his knee claims were denied, but it wouldn't take long to figure out if we had all of the information.

 

[Rod-138]

Remember this is based on law. Your little league team having an insurance pool for injured kids is great, but NFL players are workers, and law states work related injuries fall under comp. we chose this option, people, voters, workers.

It's a good option for most businesses and please understand, it is not optional, there is no thing the NFL should or shouldn't do. This is the law, they are a business, they must report injury claims to their WC provider per statute whatever it is.

There is no amendment saying if your business is popular and super risky, then you have to provide a special insurance no other business has. This is da law bros. it's like saying the OJ verdict was wrong so we should scrap the entire system.

Should we ? What about all the verdicts that served their purpose. And if we should scrap the system, then we have to vote on that through legislation. We the people, not the NFL, get it?

 

[renegadewa]

Didn't it say in the article that this guy had a degree? That usually come with some semblance of intelligence so not planning ahead and not making arrangements for injuries and medical attention rests squarely on the players shoulders!! No one can tell me that they .................."didn't know"!!

They played a game knowing full well that injuries don't happen every now and again................injuries happen in EVERY game!!

I truly feel bad for some of those guys but they should have taken care of business when they were making the bank that could have set them up for life after football!!

 

[Randy Jones]

Didn't it say in the article that this guy had a degree? That usually come with some semblance of intelligence so not planning ahead and not making arrangements for injuries and medical attention rests squarely on the players shoulders!! No one can tell me that they .................."didn't know"!!

They played a game knowing full well that injuries don't happen every now and again................injuries happen in EVERY game!!

I truly feel bad for some of those guys but they should have taken care of business when they were making the bank that could have set them up for life after football!!

What anyone knew or didnt know has nothing to do with this. When are you people understand this. Its about the law.

 

[Swimmer]

I know that brain trauma is the hot topic for retired players right now, but the rest of the body takes a huge beating too.


also - that dude's knee is straight up nasty

You can't imagine Earl Campbell at age 40. We belonged to the same club. His body was mutilated and he suffered severe panic disorder (brain) where most commit suicide - seriously. It was painful to watch him try to walk. Daryl Royal (Coach) took Earl under his wing and rounded up the UT alumni to support and rehab Earl.

 

[mikaloyd]

Get a job!

 

[dtc]

Didn't it say in the article that this guy had a degree? That usually come with some semblance of intelligence so not planning ahead and not making arrangements for injuries and medical attention rests squarely on the players shoulders!! No one can tell me that they .................."didn't know"!!

They played a game knowing full well that injuries don't happen every now and again................injuries happen in EVERY game!!

I truly feel bad for some of those guys but they should have taken care of business when they were making the bank that could have set them up for life after football!!

How does anyone really plan to have to have millions in knee surgery and one leg 3" shorter than the other?

Seriously.

How do you plan to have a crippling illness related to having played a sport for a fleeting time in your very young adulthood?

He probably made less than $1mil in his whole career and some of you think he should write a check for a new knee every 4 or 5 years.

 

[P'cola WhoDat]

After reading all of the posts from the workers comp experts I came up with these questions.
If Roger tripped and fell while walking into his Manhattan office and broke his femur, had surgery and was cleared by the Dr's after say 6 months or so to return to work then 15 years later after he retired his leg started bothering him and was unable to walk would he have a valid workers comp claim? If so how much would he get? As I understand it workers comp only is responsible to pay his medical bills and a settlement based on a percentage of disability of said leg. I have a hunch he gets lifetime benefits
Also since he was laid up for 6 months when it happened how much of his salary would he receive? Would it max out at the 3 or 4 hundred dollars other people who are unable to work because of a work related injury or would the NFL keep paying him while he was unable to work?
My point is this. Whatever deal Roger and the other NFL execs get the players, past and present, should get exactly the same if not more.

 

[Rod-138]

Pcola, Let me try to clarify a bit.

First off, the principal of insurance is to return you the place you were before the incident. Not a better place, not a worse place, but fair remuneration for the type of insurance.

Now, this is workers comp, so you're only eligible for medical coverage to repair the injury that was established to have occurred at work + lost wage benefits (66% of avg weekly wage) that cap at around $600.00 a week. Lost wage benefits also cap out at 10 years of lost wages.

So, the issue with your case and many others applicable to the NFL is "the Dr cleared him"

If you are cleared, or released to return to work with a diagnosis of max medical improvement for an injury, in other words there's no more treatment to be had, then basically your claim over.

There is no settlement because there is nothing to settle, your injury is repaired and you can return to work.

If in 15 years the same hip bothers you, well unfortunately there's no way to tell if its due to the said injury or simply time's effect on the body. The average 35 year old has a decent looking MRI of the spine, but the average 55 year old has 1-2 herniated discs. Time + gravity wrecks a body.

Anyway, if the worker has continuous visits + an uncertain treatment future, the the case may be settled to avoid prolonged cost to the ins company and business employing the worker. Instead of paying 3k a year in physical therapy cost, the parties could agree the injury will likely resolve in 4 years and settle for 10k.

Once settled, the worker loses his right to make another claim for that work related injury.

Workers have 1 year to file a claim from the day they are injured before their claim prescribes, typically. NFL players that choose to play through injuries and fail to report concussions lose their right to treat, which results in all this litigation. I hope that helped

 

[DABOOT162]

This should be handled on a case by case basis. If you made millions and squandered it away on cars and mansions then you should have to suffer the consequences. Old guy who destroyed his body building this league and didnt make a lot of money.. The league should cover the tab My .02

 

[boo-boo]

So 16 years after he stopped playing he began to have medical issues. Go to a job you quit 16 yrs ago and try to get workers comp. Something tells me it aint going to happen.
You cannot tells me they didn't know the risk when they played.

 

[Noggy]

players union, and they need to offer the current players a savings program

This.

 

[Rod-138]

This.

Once again, that's not possible without a law change. The easiest way to change the law would be to include football players with entertainers/stage performers, like strippers, and make them ineligible for comp.

If they're not eligible, then you could consider avenues like a players union fund etc, but as is, if they're workers, which they are, then the comp system trumps those courts regardlessly.

If you have insurance for example, your insurance claim will be denied if your medical report reads the injury occurred at work. They can't pay it, the insurances don't lapse and comp has to make its decision before anything else happens.

If denied by comp, then you can pay with your insurance given your claim was found not eligible, like a heart attack at work - it's commonly denied by comp but has to go through the channels before regular health ins can pick it up.

It would be the same with any players union fund unless the law changes to remove NFL players from the status of workers to entertainers, like filthy strippers

 

[BIG DAWG]

Roger Goodell!

All this started because of Bountygate. So i blame Goodell. Let him pay.