Maryland's Highest Court Rules NFL Players Covered by Workers' Comp After Redskins Punter's Injury

Tom Tupa spent 18 seasons in the NFL as a punter, most recently with the Washington Redskins. On August 19, 2005, during pre-game warm-ups for a preseason contest at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, he fell awkwardly after a punt and felt a sharp sensation in his lower back. He sought medical attention immediately. The injury proved career-ending.

Tupa filed a workers' compensation claim with Maryland's Workers' Compensation Commission in 2007. The Redskins and their insurer, operating as Pro-Football, Inc., contested the claim on two grounds: first, that injuries sustained in professional football were not compensable because the sport's physical danger was an accepted condition of the work; second, that a forum-selection clause in Tupa's contract required any claim to be resolved under Virginia law, stripping Maryland of jurisdiction.

Benjamin Boscolo of ChasenBoscolo Injury Lawyers represented Tupa through each stage of the litigation. The Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission sided with Tupa in March 2008, awarding temporary partial disability benefits and medical expenses. Pro-Football appealed, and in February 2011 the Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed in a 3-0 decision, holding that compensation cannot be denied because of the degree of risk inherent in a job. Maryland public policy, the intermediate court found, outweighed any contractual attempt to route the claim to another state.

Pro-Football pushed the case to Maryland's highest court. On August 22, 2012, the Court of Appeals affirmed unanimously. Judge John Eldridge, writing for the court, found that Tupa's injury arose 'out of and in the course of his employment.' Critically, the court explicitly rejected the 1983 Court of Special Appeals decision in 'Rowe v. Baltimore Colts,' which had denied workers' compensation to a professional athlete on the ground that physical hazard was expected in the sport. The court also confirmed that a private contract clause cannot override Maryland's workers' compensation protections.

Boscolo noted after the ruling that NFL clubs could no longer argue that the hazardous nature of football excused them from providing workers' compensation coverage to injured players. The award itself covered temporary partial disability benefits from February 2006 through February 2007, plus medical expenses, a modest sum whose importance was legal rather than monetary: the decision reset the rules for every professional athlete employed in Maryland.