NFL Disability Plan Wins Appeal Axing Player’s Lawyer Fee Award

The NFL’s disability plan convinced the Fifth Circuit to invalidate a $1.8 million award of attorneys’ fees to a former running back whose post-trial victory in a benefits dispute was undone on appeal.

Michael Cloud won nothing from his disability benefits lawsuit and thus didn’t achieve a level of success that would entitle him to an award of attorneys’ fees, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said Thursday. Factual findings made by the district court—which concluded that the plan mishandled Cloud’s claim—aren’t enough to change that result, the appeals court said.

Cloud “may rightfully boast of an important moral victory based on those findings,” the Fifth Circuit said. “But a moral victory is not a merits victory. It may be a public relations win. But it’s still a purely procedural one for purposes of determining attorney’s fee awards.”

Cloud, who played for the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Giants and was on the New England Patriots’ 2004 Super Bowl-winning team, sustained several concussions and back and neck injuries during his seven-season National Football League career. The US District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled after trial that the league plan abused its discretion in denying Cloud higher disability benefits, and it awarded him retroactive payments of more than $1 million, increased future payments, and attorneys’ fees.

The league plan appealed, and the Fifth Circuit reversed Cloud’s victory in 2023. The US Supreme Court declined to review the matter.

The case went back to district court, where Judge Karen Gren Scholer awarded Cloud more than $1.8 million in attorneys’ fees. According to Scholer, the Fifth Circuit’s “narrow” opinion didn’t disturb the hundreds of factual findings she made in Cloud’s favor after trial, which entitled him to an award of attorneys’ fees.

The appeals court’s latest opinion was written by Judge James C. Ho and joined by Judges Edith Brown Clement and James E. Graves Jr.

Dennie Firm PLLC represents Cloud. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Groom Law Group, and Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr PC represent the league plan.

The case is Cloud v. Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Ret. Plan, 5th Cir., No. 25-10337, 12/18/25.