NFL Plan Ousts Disability Suit After Player Skipped Key Process

A former defensive end for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost his lawsuit seeking higher disability benefits from the NFL retirement plan because he failed to properly raise his claim internally before filing suit.

Chidi Ahanotu’s claims against the league plan failed because he didn’t show that he exhausted the plan’s internal appeals process or that it would have been futile for him to do so, Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida said in a Tuesday opinion. Ahanotu said it would have been futile to file an internal appeal but he ...