![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/UPDATED-ROUSE-HEADSHOT-2023-Ryan-Jackson.jpg\")
Aaron Rouse<\/p>\nState Sen.\u00a0Aaron Rouse\u00a0is suing the\u00a0NFL\u00a0in pursuit of disability payments linked to injuries sustained during his three-year career as a safety.<\/p>\n
Rouse, a Virginia Beach Democrat, is suing after initially applying to access disability benefits from the NFL in March 2021. Former players can access disability payments with the majority vote of a six-person board within the organization that hears players\u2019 petitions. NFL teams pay into the plan.<\/p>\n
The board denied Rouse\u2019s application in 2021, his lawyers said, and then his subsequent appeal in 2022.<\/p>\n
In those two applications, doctors for Rouse testified that he\u2019d been \u201ctotally impaired\u201d due to multiple concussions.<\/p>\n
Aaron Rouse<\/p>\n
Rouse claims the NFL failed in reviewing his case and that he was wrongly denied benefits. His complaint also describes the composition of the NFL\u2019s board as having an \u201cinherent structural conflict of interest\u201d because three voting members on the NFL\u2019s Disability Board are appointed by member clubs within the league.<\/p>\n
Rouse\u2019s lawyer, Charlene Morring, declined to comment. A spokesperson for the NFL did not immediately return a request for comment. An investigation by The Washington Post in 2023 found that the NFL vigorously fights applications from former players who allege injuries sustained while playing in the league.<\/p>\n
Rouse starred at Virginia Beach\u2019s First Colonial High School before playing for four years at Virginia Tech. He was selected in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers, with whom he played for two years. Rouse, who also spent time with the New York Giants, entered politics in 2018 \u2014 winning a seat on the Virginia Beach City Council. He then flipped the state senate seat vacated by Republican Jen Kiggans when she was elected to the U.S. House.<\/p>\n
According to doctors quoted in the complaint, Rouse suffered \u201csevere and debilitating conditions\u201d as a result of his time in the\u00a0NFL. The disabilities include neurological impairments resulting from multiple concussions, cognitive impairments affecting his mental functioning, and psychiatric conditions that further limit his functional capacity, his complaint states.<\/p>\n
The complaint says the\u00a0NFL\u2019s\u00a0Disability Board found that Rouse did not meet the threshold, which requires a former player to be found \u201ctotally and permanently disabled\u201d by a neutral physician.<\/p>\n
As part of his appeal of that denial, Rouse was analyzed by more specialists. One\u00a0Hampton Roads\u00a0neuropsychologist, Dr.\u00a0Felix Kirven, found that Rouse would be considered \u201ctotally impaired due to his multiple concussions\u201d under modern standards. Two other doctors,\u00a0Scott Sautter\u00a0and\u00a0Alan Wagner, diagnosed mild cognitive impairments and second-order effects from Rouse\u2019s multiple concussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe medical evidence from treating physicians, including Dr.\u00a0Felix Kirven, Dr.\u00a0Scott Sautter, and Dr.\u00a0Alan Wagner, supported Rouse\u2019s claim that he is totally and permanently disabled due to the cumulative effects of multiple concussions and other injuries sustained during his\u00a0NFL\u00a0career,\u201d the complaint reads.<\/p>\n
Rouse currently chairs the\u00a0Senate Privileges and Elections Committee. He\u2019s also the chief patron of high-profile legislation regulating cannabis and so-called \u201cskill games,\u201d the slot-machine-like gambling kiosks that proliferated in convenience stores and gas stations across the commonwealth until a court ruling found them to be illegal.<\/p>\n
Rouse\u2019s complaint seeks a court order requiring the\u00a0NFL\u00a0to pay his disability benefits with interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Sen.\u00a0Aaron Rouse\u00a0is suing the\u00a0NFL\u00a0in pursuit of disability payments linked to injuries sustained during his three-year career as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,929,4247,88,6,4239,2084,43128,113140],"class_list":["post-812164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-football","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-politics","tag-virginia","tag-virginia-beach","tag-virginia-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116228544269859623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}