Hunter Hillenmeyer suing NFL

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The Trib has a big story presumably in tomorrow's paper on former Bears LB Hunter Hillenmeyer.

Sixteen months later, the time has come as he wages a fight to receive what the NFL Players Association says is $900,000 due him according to the collective bargaining agreement after two doctors, one the independent neurological consultant for the Bears, recommended he no longer play football.

 

"It makes me sick to see (the league) claim it is driving concussion research and putting player safety first," he said.

 

"The whole system is designed to do one thing: make owners money. …

 

"The fact that a case as black and white as mine can't even get resolved is indicative of a much, much deeper truth. Owners know what the game is doing to players, but once they fully acknowledge it, the gig is up."

 

The league, some charge, has not adequately addressed how it deals with those who have suffered brain injuries. Hillenmeyer is part of what the NFLPA says is a growing number of players who have had career-ending head injuries but have been denied benefits or salary due them as outlined by the collective bargaining agreement.

 

The players union says that despite independent neurological consultants warning players such as Hillenmeyer that it is too dangerous to play again, teams have tossed these players aside after their concussion symptoms dissipate and cognitive test scores return to a baseline level. The stance of the clubs is that they have no salary obligation or cause to pay injury benefits.

 

If a player suffers a debilitating knee injury, MRIs will make a case for a clear financial resolution. When it comes to the gray area of the gray matter of the brain, it's far more complicated.

 

"We are going to remain aggressive," said DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFLPA. "There are benefits in the collective bargaining agreement that clearly apply to players who were injured during the course of football, especially when there is medical justification to indicate that it would be dangerous for them to continue to play."

 

•••

 

Medical documents show Hillenmeyer suffered five concussions as a member of the Bears, the first in training camp in 2005, the last during a preseason game against the Cardinals on Aug. 28, 2010, when he was coming off a block and was hit — a play he has experienced hundreds of times a season.

 

"It shouldn't have caused a concussion," he said.

 

That's a serious problem, said Dr. Robert Cantu, one of the nation's foremost authorities on concussions and the co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University. Cantu says that when concussions are caused by less severe blows it's more worrisome.

 

"In some instances you really see a guy get creamed and you look at the videotape and say, 'No way he's not going to get concussed,' " Cantu said. "Believe it or not, that is better than somebody who just simply had a hard blow to their back that whiplashed their head backward and now they're on queer street for a week. We worry much more about those that take minor blows that have symptoms, and we also worry most about those who have symptoms for a very long period of time."

 

Two weeks after his concussion against the Cardinals, Hillenmeyer knew he wasn't right from the season-opening kickoff against the Lions at Soldier Field. At halftime, he informed the medical staff of his symptoms. Two days later, he was placed on season-ending injured reserve. He hasn't played since.

 

Hillenmeyer received his pay for the 2010 season.

 

The Bears terminated his contract Feb. 28, 2011, one month after the team's concussion consultant, Dr. Elizabeth Pieroth, a board certified clinical neuropsychologist, examined him and recommended he no longer play.

 

Home > Sports > Chicago Bears

Up against the NFL

Former Bear battles team and NFL over lost benefits, salary

 

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"Hunter is a very bright young man with an unfortunate history of multiple concussions from football," Pieroth wrote in her report. "Given this history, his apparent increased susceptibility/vulnerability to concussions, increased recovery time, and position as a linebacker, it is my recommendation that he consider retirement from professional football."

 

That is where the NFLPA sees what should be an open-and-shut case for Hillenmeyer. The Bears cut him with one year and $1.8 million remaining on his contract. According to the union, Article 45 of the collective bargaining agreement stipulates Hillenmeyer is eligible for an injury protection benefit of 50 percent of his base salary up to $1 million, meaning he should be able to collect $900,000.

 

Former general manager Jerry Angelo and senior director of football administration and general counsel Cliff Stein rejected his claim for benefits. "We are represented by league counsel and cannot comment on a pending legal matter," Scott Hagel, the team's vice president of communications, told the Tribune this week.

 

The Bears denied the claim even though Hillenmeyer seemingly meets the criteria in the CBA of having "been physically unable, because of a severe football injury in an NFL game or practice, to participate in all or part of his club's last game of the season of injury."

 

"I was told by the Bears' own independent neuro-psych doctor that I could not continue playing football," Hillenmeyer said. "Just to be sure I was covering all my bases, I went to see Cantu. … He gave the same diagnosis: No more football.

 

"I filed the (injury protection benefit) paperwork thinking it was a pretty open-and-shut deal. Now, I can't point the finger directly at Cliff or Jerry because they might have just been following orders from the (NFL Management Council), but they could have just agreed to the claim and it would have been done.

 

"At first I was pretty upset — with Jerry in particular — that someone who had played above my pay grade for him for eight years would be getting squeezed like this on the way out the door. In hindsight, given the murky and evasive correspondence from the league office, I would think that he was just following orders."