(C) Common Dreams
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Hamlin’s Injury Highlights Precarious Position of Many Young N.F.L. Players [1]

['Ken Belson', 'Jenny Vrentas']

Date: 2023-01-29

Motta, so far, is among those applicants who have been denied by the disability board.

Motta was so eager to play that day at Lambeau Field that he had his broken right hand wrapped into a club and was given Toradol before the game to mute his pain.

After the collision that fractured his vertebra, Motta was still dazed when he was sent back onto the field to fill in for a starting safety who had left the game with a concussion. He didn’t feel pain in his neck until after the game, when he struggled to remove his pads. Only after Motta participated in practices and started the next game did the team send him for magnetic resonance imaging of his spine.

Motta said his application for the Line of Duty benefit has been denied based on the disability plan’s point system.

“Because there’s not too many players that come through with a fractured C1 vertebra, they don’t really know how to evaluate the symptoms of that,” he said. “I have neuropathy, tingling, stiffness, headaches. Pain has just become part of my life.”

Motta received workers’ compensation and sued members of the Falcons’ medical staff over the handling of his injury (the suit was resolved out of court). Sitting at a desk in a customer service job made his pain worse, so he now teaches Qigong, a Chinese mind-body practice, and works as a free-dive instructor. He will meet with a doctor next month to make a final appeal to the disability board.

Even for Injured, Benefits Can Be Out of Reach

Fifteen years before Hamlin’s collapse, Kevin Everett, a former Bills tight end, suffered a spinal-cord injury in the opening game of the 2007 season, his third in the league. Initially paralyzed from the neck down, Everett became vested by spending that season on injured reserve, and he was approved for the highest tier of total and permanent disability benefits, which are now worth $265,000 a year.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/29/sports/football/nfl-contracts-injuries-young-players.html

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