Disability plans through an employer—even a professional sports team—are governed by a federal law called the Employee, Retirement, and Income Security Act, or “ERISA.” As I’ve explained before ERISA makes it much, much easier for insurance companies to deny benefits, and much, much harder for employees to get them.
And insurance companies have extra incentive to deny disability benefits for professional athletes, whose claims may be worth a lot of money, and the injuries (like concussions, CTE, and other brain injuries) may be hard to prove or document. The insurance companies will hire specialists and do everything they can deny your benefits.
That is why is it important for players making a claim for benefits to seek legal assistance from ERISA attorneys who know how the law works. Anyone who tries to handle a claim denial on his or her own—even a well-known athlete—may ultimately cause more harm than good.