Former Ravens running back Willis McGahee suffered more than 40 injuries in his 10-year career in the NFL. He was twice knocked unconscious, including against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2009 AFC championship game, and hospitalized before being diagnosed with a concussion.
Now 41 and a decade removed from his last game, McGahee says he feels like a 70-year-old man and that it’s a struggle to get out of bed because of those injuries he suffered in a career that spanned 151 regular season and postseason games, 8,882 rushing yards and more than a dozen surgeries. He also says he has difficulty playing with his 2-year-old son, Maximus, and that his physician told him he has arthritis in his joints similar to that of an 80-year-old.
McGahee doesn’t blame the league, he says, because injuries are part of the game. But he is furious over having been denied disability benefits five times by the NFL, which is why he is one of 10 players suing the league as part of a class-action suit accusing it of, among other things, “unscrupulous tactics” to wrongfully deny claims.
“I paid my dues, played hurt plenty of times,” McGahee, who played in Baltimore from 2007 to 2010 before officially retiring with the team in 2019 and lives in Miami, told The Baltimore Sun. “That was part of the job. But I don’t do that anymore. I was hoping these guys would see things the right way, but they’re not. [The NFL] says they care about players, but they don’t care about players. Just because we look good on the outside don’t mean we’re good on the inside. I feel like [crap] on the inside.
“It’s a sham process.”
The lawsuit was filed in February in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore, which is also where the NFL’s player benefits office is located. Among the allegations are that doctors in the plan are financially incentivized to deny claims. It also alleges that data shows a “disturbing pattern of erroneous and arbitrary benefits denials, bad faith contract misinterpretations and other unscrupulous tactics.” Other plaintiffs include Eric Smith, Jason Alford, Daniel Loper, Michael McKenzie, Jamize Olawale, Alex Parsons, Charles Sims, Joey Thomas and Lance Zeno. The suit names the league’s benefits plan, board of trustees and commissioner Roger Goodell.
When contacted by The Baltimore Sun, an NFL spokesperson said the league had no additional comment from the statement it issued in February because of the ongoing litigation.
“The disability plan, which is established by the NFL-NFLPA as part of the CBA, includes an uncapped financial commitment to provide benefits for any retired player that meets the eligibility requirements set by the parties,” the league said when the lawsuit was filed. “These eligibility requirements and administrative procedures were developed after consultation with occupational, mental and physical health experts. The plan annually provides more than $330 million to deserving players and their families.
“The NFL-NFLPA disability plan is fair and administered by a professional staff overseen by a board comprised of an equal number of appointees of the NFL Players Association and the league, which includes retired players. This board reviews the activities of the office and operation of the benefit program, including every contested application for benefits to ensure that retired players who are entitled to disability benefits receive them as intended.”
The NFL has since requested an extension to file a motion to dismiss and has until Friday to do so, according to court documents.
But McGahee and his attorney Sam Katz, one of several lawyers representing the former players, believe there is more than enough evidence for the case to move forward and for players to receive the benefits they say they are owed under the law, now and in the future.
One such example, according to Katz, is a statistical sample of 29 benefit conclusions that were all denied by a board-selected and board-paid neuropsychologist who earned $820,000 in direct and indirect compensation. Another board-selected doctor, Katz said, denied 33 of 33 evaluations, including McGahee’s, and earned more than $1.4 million in compensation.
“The NFL says because they are paid a fixed fee, they’re not incentivized,” Katz told The Sun. “It’s been pretty clear there are many doctors in this program that need to be removed for their lack of neutrality. We’ve seen it multiple times where a doctor was on the board one year and no longer there the next year, where the doctor granted the people that deserved [the benefits], and next thing you know, the doctor is no longer in the program or barely seeing players. Meanwhile, there’s a doctor three states over [from where the player lives] that the NFL is sending a player to when there’s a closer one who gave a fair exam.”
The complaint also alleges that the board did not review all relevant material for claims, instead relying only on the conclusions of the physicians. But Katz said the board has consistently told players they’re required by law to review all of the evidence in the record.
“Not only are they wrongfully denying players by not reviewing all the records or sending players to bias doctors, they’re taking this additional step in providing misinformation in summary plan descriptions and denial letters, telling players they did review all the records and telling players they have no doubt the doctors are impartial,” Katz said.
One of McGahee’s denials was in Atlanta in 2016. According to the lawsuit, of the 33 exams done by the neurologist who examined McGahee, none of the players were deemed eligible to receive benefits. A neuropsychologist who also saw McGahee had a denial rate of 87.5%, according to the complaint.
In 2020, McGahee filed an appeal, but that was also denied and none of the doctors who examined him then were found to have approved a player for benefits in the sample, Katz said.
Then there are the reasons McGahee was denied. Among them, according to the lawsuit, is that he was deemed to be able to do a job consistent with his education and training. But Katz says the plan states that can’t be considered when determining a player’s eligibility for benefits.
“The neurological testing he had as part of the NFL’s concussion settlement [in 2013] showed functional decline from a neurologist in community affairs, in his home [life] and hobbies, and in his personal care that would be consistent with more than a moderate functional decline,” Katz said. “On one level, when he goes to a fair doctor through the concussion program, they’re finding this kind of functional decline because of cognitive issues, but when he goes to these doctors, they come to this conclusion that he’s not [eligible for benefits] because he can do something consistent with his educational level and prior training even though the plan’s plain terms say that won’t be considered.”
Other players likewise spoke of the difficulties they have faced once they’re done playing.
In February, Smith, an offensive tackle who played for the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, said in a news conference that he’s in pain “day to day, every day” and is in need of a shoulder replacement. He said that when he traveled from New Jersey to North Carolina to be seen by the plan’s doctor, the visit lasted five minutes.
Smith was denied by the doctor, according to the lawsuit, which also alleges the physician was found to have a 100% denial rate in a sample.
“There were times I would black out and wake up … and I’m bleeding, there are holes in the wall. My wife and kids are crying,” Smith said in a videoconference in February. “I went down a dark path. If I ever hurt one of them, in one of these cases, that’s probably the end. Like, I’m done.”
Meanwhile, while McGahee was speaking in his recent Zoom interview, his young son could be seen running by him. The former running back labored to get up to go speak with him, at one point grasping his own head in his hands.
“I’m tired of this [crap],” said McGahee, who also claims he has suffered from depression because of the concussions. “It’s stressful, but I just want everybody to get their fair chance. It’s bigger than just me.”
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