NFL disability program leaves retired Saints tight end hurting and angry

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

Former Saints tight end Boo Williams needs surgery, medicine and doctors to make the pain in his injured neck subside. But he can’t afford any of it. The 44-year-old was recently awarded $5,000 a month by the NFL’s disability benefit plan. But Williams tells The Associated Press the plan and the league have repeatedly mishandled his claims and should really have paid him $500,000 or more over the past 14 years. His story is not unlike those of dozens of retired players in similar positions, who spend their days picking through a web of lawyers, paperwork and bureaucracy in a fight against the NFL and a disability plan they argue is unfair and broken.