Well. This is interesting. Not because Terry Glenn is seeking to sue the NFL, as such, or even for the grounds (although we'll get to that). It's interesting because players never ever EVER sue the NFL using the EEOC or other labor laws.
Many have long held that NFL players should be entitled to, for example, disability compensation because the game itself tends to destroy the body; the disabilities are a clear and direct consequence of playing the game. The problem is that the pension and injured reserve provisions of their contracts tend to bar such suits -- in order to claim later disability, for example, a player would need to file an initial disability claim every time they were injured enough to miss a game or even significant practice time. This would entitle them (eventually -- the process is not swift) to claim workman's compensation ... which would be far less than they get under the injured reserve provisions as negotiated by the NFL Players' Association, and would take so long to wind its way through the system that many players would be in action again by the time their claim was adjudicated. Without an initial workman's compensation claim, in most states, a later disability claim is usually rejected.
All of THAT said ... what on earth does Glenn think he's doing? Why on earth should the team have had to take his chronic depression into account? Not that I'm terribly sympathetic to The Man generally (or NFL team management specifically -- they perpetuate some monstrous abuses against their players, and then facilitate their players' misbehavior), but surely the team is entitled to say, "This is a claim after the event. If he was under treatment for depression, he should have been able to meet his obligation; if he wasn't under treatment, then he shouldn't have been playing anyway. In either case, we were required by the terms of the player contract to take the actions that we did."
It's all about leverage, of course. If the Patriots stand their ground -- and, really, they should -- then Glenn takes them into court for what would be a long, tedious case, win or lose. If they cave, then he gets his money. Of course, at this point, the Patriots are also stuck. Owners are no doubt pressing them to stand their ground; if they give in to Glenn, owners fear that players all over will be making all sorts of claims about why they miss tests or shouldn't have to take them, and so forth. (And, of course, there's the horrendous example to be set if Glenn is actually right.)
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!