A federal court Tuesday ordered the National Football League's retirement and player supplemental disability plans to pay the estate of Steelers Hall of Fame center Mike Webster about $1.2 million in additional benefits.
The ruling, handed down in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Maryland, also awards Webster's estate any interest on the money that has accrued since 1991 as well as attorneys' fees, said Bob Fitzsimmons, of Wheeling, W.Va., an attorney for the estate.
Sunny Jani, a McKees Rocks businessman and administrator of Webster's estate, had sued the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan and NFL Player Supplemental Disability Plan for wrongful denial of benefits for the family of Webster, who died at age 50 on Sept. 24, 2002, following triple bypass surgery.
"We're caught between being ecstatic and somber," Webster's son, Garrett, said last night. "We had the misfortune that our father was taken away from us because of this."
Steelers president Art Rooney II was not available for comment. Fitzsimmons called the Rooneys "a class family who were very helpful to Mike Webster not only when he played football but in his pursuit of this appeal."
Webster played 245 games for the Steelers from 1974-88, helping the team win four Super Bowl championships. He played two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs before retiring in March 1991.
By the time he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1997, he was basically homeless and indigent.
When he was examined by physicians in 1998, they found that the constant blows to the head he had received on the football field had left him with brain damage so severe that he was unfit for any type of gainful employment.
The NFL's retirement and supplemental disability plans in 1999 began paying Webster what is termed total and permanent degenerative disability benefits that were retroactive to 1996.
Webster and his estate have received about $600,000 in these benefits, much of which has gone to pay Webster's debts and legal bills incurred during his troubled life after football.
Webster appealed the decision of the retirement and supplemental disability plans, arguing that he was eligible for active football disability benefits from the date of his retirement.
"He has remained completely and totally disabled for any occupation beginning in approximately 1990 and will not be expected to improve," according to court documents submitted by one of the retirement board's own medical experts.
Webster's estate continued the appeal following his death.
Yesterday's decision "shows those players who have been injured that they can receive the benefits they are absolutely entitled to," Fitzsimmons said. "The (retirement and disability) funds were paid by the players and owners to compensate people for disabilities suffered while playing football."
Attorney Doug Ell, who represented the NFL retirement board, told Wayne Drehs of ESPN.com that he was "disappointed" in the decision and that an appeal was likely.
Garrett Webster called it "a landmark case."
"Not only are we going to benefit from this, but (so are) other people around the world, not just NFL families, but other families who have a brain-injured person. That's probably the part I'm most happy about," he said.
"We have a responsibility to help people with brain injuries, to further the cause. That's why we went though this, so other people don't have to go through this."
Jani, who considered Mike Webster to be one of his best friends, said with a sigh, "All the money in the world is not going to bring Mike back."
