Do no harm: Who should bear the costs of retired NFL players’ medical bills? (2 Viewers)

[bigdub81]

I feel for the older players, for what they were making salary wise back then and for the punishment that they had to put their bodies through. But in the end, nobody made you play pro football. I've seen interviews with players such as Deacon Jones telling Michael Strahan that players of his time had to go get jobs to make ends meet once the season was over.

Nobody will disagree that the NFL has made itself into what it is today off of the very players that they are neglecting to see through medically speaking. Is it wrong? In a way. I can argue that point in the sense that the NFL's popularity, profit and bottom line has been influenced by the likes of what those retired players brought to the league.

I think that as long as the league continues to make a profit off of these guys, then yes, they should bear some of the financial burden. It should be set up on a pay scale system for the amount of years played and at a set specific age in order to qualify. These players know just as well as the NFL and everybody else knows that the league will forever continue to profit off of what they've done.

You will always see the Bendarik hit on Gifford. Gayle Sayers and Jim Brown hurdling over defenders and the likes of Earl Campbell running through a defense and the Ronnie Lott's and Junior Seau's trying to stop them. The ones that I don't feel sorry for are the players of the free agency/big money generation who waste their salaries and endorsements by whatever means (Vince Young) and cry broke after a few years out of the league.

Players such as a Brady, Manning, even Brees who make millions on top of millions at every position should NEVER go broke in this day and age. If you do, sorry for you but there should be absolutely no excuse, even if it comes down to your future medical care and the possibility of having to pay out of pocket for it.

 

[Randy Jones]

And why not the taxpayers?.....after all, we wanted him to play, we were cheering him all along, until he destroyed his body & health. heck, the gov. is throwing money away left & right.....its about time to do something useful....

you are assuming all taxpayers watch football. That is not a valid assumption. Maybe all fans are taxpayers, but not all taxpayers are fans.

 

[Randy Jones]

The landscaper who wears his knees out and suffers as he gets older; should he go to every homeowner whose yard he did and demand compensation? No because he already received it.QUOTE]
That is not a good example. The landscaper is usually self employed. A better example would be a soldier who voluntarily joins the Army knowing the risks of combat. He has an injury (injuries) in the preformance of his duites and encounters lingering problems with that injury or injuries many years down the road for one of many reasons.

Generally speaking, both employee and employer are well aware of the risks and there are implicit obligations on the part of the employer to take care of the employee upon whom the employer benefited from his services. I would have thought there would have been a contractural obligation to provide this type of benefit. It mentions in the article that health benefits runout after 4 years, but it is very unclear about the obligations of workers' comp. The article also makes it sound as if the NFL and teams are deliberately obstructing these cases.

If this instance, is combined with the head trauma issues, I would think the NFL would come up with a program to address long term health issues related to playing football and let it quietly go away. The PR damage is costing them more than such a program would.

 

[krushing]

Wouldn't Social Security and Medicare take care of a lot of the cost? Everyone pays in, everyone has benefits. Retired is retired, old is old.

Not until they hit 65.

 

[26ISTHEMAN]

This is a workers' comp issue, and the team and its workers' comp insurer should be responsible for treatment of any injury caused by the job. To the poster who asked who pays the longshoreman who gets hit by a crate, the answer is his employer, no questions asked. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and some people try to take advantage of the system, but by and large, if you get hurt on the job, and that's the issue here, your employer is responsible.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

You are kidding.....................right??

The NFL wouldn't be the NFL and the owners wouldn't own teams if it wasn't a money making proposition. And why shouldn't the players themselves bear part of the cost? They knew what they were getting into when they signed to play a game that destroys the human body!!
:

I don't think it should be "taxpayers" either - just realize in this system it's just fine (with some minimal handwringing) for taxpayers to pay the owners for the privilege of building a stadium + all the other sweetheart deals; but its not ok to provide for the people who actually did the things we enjoyed

When these topics come up I find it hysterically sad that we kid ourselves into believing we are a democracy - we are clearly an aristocracy
We talk about players "knowing" the risks and accepting responsibility, and the we turn around and try to minimize the risks for owners
does that not seem odd?

 

[Rod-138]

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.

 

[Randy Jones]

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.

In some states workers comp is managed by a state agency. Many cases are open ended due to unanticipated injury complications. There is also a lot of federal cases law dealing with thissubject.

 

[mister pc]

I love Saints football but its become increasingly hard for me to support the NFL. After throwing our team under the bus in the name of player safety, while the multi-billion dollar cartel is screwing over retired players with health ailments every chance they get, its hard to reconcile.

 

[saintsmarchin]

When I retire from my job one day; Id like for them to pay for my back problems.. knee replacement.. hip replacement. The works!

 

[State Of Affairs]

I feel bad about old, broken players. If you want to say they should have been responsible, that's your perogative. But do you want to write to Drew, Jahri, Marques, Cam Jordan, Martez Wilson, or Jimmy Graham and tell them the most responsible decisions they can make for their future (their bodies, certainly) is to stop playing football, ASAP?

Not the popular thing to do but that's EXACTLY what they should do... Sure, play for 4 or 5 years and then hang em up!!! You statement is way out there... Basically, these players shouldn't leave the game before serious damage is done cuz we might miss them or not get to enjoy their play????

Everyone needs to read the article before commenting...

These guys have health insurance provided by the league for 5 years after retiring from football if they had 3 years in but 15 years later, there body is falling apart and they're filing workers comp claims and many filing claims in states other then the state they worked trying to circumvent and "work" the system.

There comes a point that if you played for 15 years, there is no way you won't have these kinds of issues.... It shouldn't be anyone's responsibility to take care of these guys any more then has already been provided.... They made the decision to play and continue to play until there body fell apart... They could have easily quit after a few years and got a job where their body wasn't beat up constantly...

 

[jrdbrn]

The majority of football players are compensated extremely well for what they do... most making my lifetime salary in 1-3 years. To not know that playing football could hurt your body is ignorant in my opinion. I just don't understand why the NFL would have to pay for their medical bills after they're out of the league. I work IT. Will the companies I work for pay for my carpal tunnel surgery I will likely require in 20 years? What if I can't type like I was accustomed to and changes my lifestyle? I then get depressed. How is it any different?

I feel this way because I like football... and if this continues, there won't be any. The consumer will have to pay for this in the end and eventually it will fold. Prices are already atrocious.

 

[SaintsJunkie]

How about the individual that decided to play football or race cars, or box, or whatever, how about they pay for their own medical care, just seems fair

 

[State Of Affairs]

How about the individual that decided to play football or race cars, or box, or whatever, how about they pay for their own medical care, just seems fair

I did a lot of typing to basically say this.... Good job summarizing... I'd only like to add that the NFL does cover player for 5 years after they retire if they played for at least 3 years...

 

[Randy Jones]

How about the individual that decided to play football or race cars, or box, or whatever, how about they pay for their own medical care, just seems fair

They're self employed if they box etc. What abo police or nuclear power plant workers. Following your logic no risky profession should be covered y workers comp. How much an employee makes is irrelevant