From an outsider’s point of view, life in National Football League appears to be all glitz and glamour. Publicity and notoriety, life-changing money, the opportunity to showcase one’s craft against the sport’s best competition in the world. The list goes on and on. And while some players can successfully adjust to life as regular civilians after they hang up the cleats, others are not so fortunate. Just ask former Green Bay Packers cornerback Mike McKenzie, who played in the league for 11 seasons and was a member of the Packers from 1999 to 2004. 

McKenzie and nine other former NFL players are the lead plaintiffs in a proposed class action lawsuit filed in February of this year in a Baltimore federal court against NFL’s Disability Plan (referred to in the lawsuit as “the NFL Player Disability & Survivor Benefit Plan and NFL Player Disability & Neurocognitive Benefit Plan”) and Commissioner Roger Goodell, among other defendants. 

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants wrongfully denied disability benefits to former players and breached “their fiduciary duty of loyalty through affirmative misrepresentations, hostile and adversarial positions, bad faith, active concealment, and by otherwise failing to discharge their duties solely and exclusively in the interest of disabled retired NFL Players and their beneficiaries.” The governing federal law is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). 

McKenzie wrote an impactful op-ed on Nola.com last week and detailed the struggles that he has experienced throughout his post-NFL life as a result of the countless injuries he suffered during his playing days, which included season-ending knee injuries in back-to-back seasons, concussions, and a broken hand. 

“I spend my days in dark rooms to avoid headaches, I rely on my wife to help me navigate my medical issues and look after our children, and I am plagued with constant pain,” McKenzie wrote. 

The Disability Plan offers disability benefits, such as Total and Permanent (“T&P”) disability benefits, Line of Duty (“LOD”) disability benefits, and Neurocognitive (“NC”) disability benefits, in addition to related benefits to former eligible NFL players. 

The application process typically entails players being evaluated by a “neutral” physician(s). Although the physicians are deemed to be neutral, the lawsuit alleged that they “are selected and paid for by the Disability Board.” The Disability Initial Claims Committee makes a decision on whether the player is entitled to disability benefits after they “review all facts and circumstances in the administrative record,” which includes the report(s) produced by a physician(s). The Committee is made up of three appointed members. The NFL Management Council and the NFLPA each appoint one member, and the final member, the Disability Plan’s Medical Director, is “jointly designated” by both the NFL Management and the NFLPA. If the Committee denies the player’s claim and therefore deems he is not eligible, he can appeal the decision to the Disability Board. The Disability Board is comprised of six members, with three being appointed by the NFL Management Council and three being appointed by the NFLPA. Goodell is a non-voting honorary chairman. 

McKenzie acknowledged that it was difficult for him to get an appointment with a physician, to begin with. And even when he was examined, “the doctors do not rely on past medical findings or consider any past treatments I’ve had. I’ve seen many NFL-hired doctors over the past few years and have been told each of their reports are independent of any other findings.” 

McKenzie applied for T&P benefits twice, once in December 2018 and once in April 2021. Each time, his claim and subsequent appeal were denied. Throughout the course of the three-plus year process, at least six physicians examined McKenzie. These physicians’ compensation over a certain period of time, as paid for by the Board according to the lawsuit, ranged from at least $495,500 to almost $1.5 million. Four of the six aforementioned physicians had a 100% denial rate pertaining to disability benefits either specific to T&P or both T&P and LOD; one had an 87.5% denial rate (eight-player sample size); and one had a 92.95% denial rate (71-player sample size). 

McKenzie believes that the high denial rates combined with the lucrative compensation are not happenstance, as he pointed out in his op-ed that “recent data shows that the more a doctor hired by the NFL Plan is paid, the more likely they are to deny retired players’ claims.” 

While the league and its players association recently championed the fact that they paid out more than $320 million in disability benefits to retired players in 2022, McKenzie and his fellow plaintiffs’ lawsuit is not the first of its kind in connection with suing the Disability Plan over benefits. 

Since 2008, eight former NFL players have obtained a judgment against the Disability Plan, according to the Washington Post. In one case in particular brought by former NFL running back Michael Cloud, who spent seven years in the league with three different teams, federal judge Karen Gren Scholer drew issue with the Disability Plan’s process of reviewing claims, which she called “a rubber stamp” process. 

“Based on the mountain of evidence set forth in this trial, it is clear to me that the [NFL disability] plan is broke, and it’s time to fix it,” Scholer said in May 2022 when rendering her decision, according to the Post. 

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Below are at least six physicians that examined McKenzie along with their total compensation and denial rate, according to the lawsuit. For those interested, you can read the complaint here.

• Dr. Paul Saenz
  • at least $1,122,864
  • 100% denial rate (17-player sample size)
• Dr. Eric Brahin
  • at least $1,387,000 from 2013 to 2020
  • 92.95% denial rate (71-player sample size)
• Dr. Janyna Mercado
  • at least $633,000 from April 2017 to March 2020
  • 100% denial rate (13-player sample size)
• Dr. Stephen Macciocchi
  • $1,496,800
  • 100% denial rate (12-player sample size)
• Dr. Virgil Medlock
  • at least $495,500 from April 1, 2016 through March 31, 2021
  • 100% denial rate (8-player sample size)
• Dr. Hussein Elkousy
  • at least $1,128,123 
  • 87.5% denial rate (8-player sample size)