I worked for Louisiana Workers' compensation and they insured the Saints whiel I worked there. Worker's comp. is the proper venue for his injury claims and its not the Saints or Bengals that decide to accept his claims, that's his lawyer's talking, its the insurance company - a private entity capable of making its own decisions + the local comp. district, including a judge.
The landscaper + high school football player posts were good points and very applicaple to real decision making for adjusters concerning football players.
Consider this - A saints player gets hurt. A claim comes in and reads, player X was injured while making a football related move at training camp. The claim is looked into a bit more, but basically, that player's injuries were compensated at that point and continuedto be until he was released by his treating physician with no further treatment required.
Now, consider the same player makes an injury claim 10 years later - claiming the original injury never fully healed and he now needs another surgery. He hires a lawyer and they see a physician that agrees, the original injury caused this new injury.
The insurance company then looks at the claim delivered by the Saints or Bengals or whomever and says, HRMMMMM, I dont know about this - the State law reads his claim could have prescribed + let me at least get our doctor to look at it. The insurance company's doctor disagrees, citing the player was cleared 10 years ago, and there's no evidence of the old injury which healed - causing the new injury.
Now, we have a dispute, likely the same dispute that's happened to theabove player. This claim may be denied and decided upon by a judge, or settled before the player's case is seen in court.
Thats kind of a quick dirty response, but i can try to answer more questions if anyone has them. Laws are governed state by state, so if you think your state should have more liberal laws concerning injured workers - well, you can make a case with your local state rep.
All claims now go through California thanks to some fast moves pulled by the NFLPA a few years back, I think, since they have the most liberal system in the US and laws would back the players more.