Florida: Professional Football Player Injured During Tryouts Was Not Employee of League

A Florida claimant, who was injured during tryouts for a professional football team, was not entitled to workers’ compensation benefits from the Arena Football League when the League had not signed the standard player contract. While a claimant did not always need a formal employment contract to be considered an employee, such a contract could not be enforced against a nonsignatory. Here the player and the team signed the contract, but no one signed on behalf of the League. Allowing the claimant to participate in a tryout did not show assent to hire the player as a skilled football player for the duration of a football season.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Arena Football League v. Bishop, 2017 Fla. App. LEXIS 8126 (June 6, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 64.01.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law