Judge: NFL Fund Must Pay Sweeney

His battle with drug addiction far from over, former San Diego Charger offensive lineman Walt Sweeney could at least take some satisfaction Friday in winning a big round in his battle with the NFL.

U.S. District Court Judge Rudi M. Brewster ruled that the league’s retirement fund must pay Sweeney, 54, nearly $500,000 plus legal fees. Sweeney had sued for full disability payments back to 1977, the year after he retired, claiming drug problems had left him unable to work. He said the drugs that started his addiction were supplied by club officials with the Chargers and the Washington Redskins.

The judge ruled that the retirement fund must pay Sweeney $4,000 a month in benefits for 1977-83, must add $2,200 to the $1,800 a month it has been paying him since 1990 and must pay Sweeney $4,000 a month for the rest of his life.

“I’m very happy about the decision,” Sweeney said by phone from the Rancho L’Abri drug rehabilitation center outside San Diego, where he continues to undergo treatment. “I hope it opens the door to a lot of other guys they [those running the retirement fund] ran roughshod over.”

Doug Ell, counsel for the retirement fund, called the verdict “somewhat of a split decision,” and said his side will “aggressively contest those parts of the decision we disagree with.”

Sweeney will not receive any payments for 1984-89, because it was determined that he was employable in those years. He served as a spokesman for a drug and rehabilitation center.

”. . . The NFL practice of furnishing drugs to players to maximize their performance and resistance to pain caught a player who may been unusually susceptible to chemical dependency,” Brewster wrote in his decision. “It is a risk knowingly assumed by the NFL teams.”

While happy about the decision, Sweeney was angry that the decision might be contested.

“It shows a lack of care and concern,” he said. “They spend millions of dollars on lawyers to keep the dough from guys like me. The [NFL] pension stinks.”