Ex-professional football players have filed a motion to compel discovery in a class action that accuses NFL's employee welfare benefit plans of withholding disability benefits.

The motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore requested that the defendants produce documents such as physician reports and decision letters, which communicated benefit claim approvals or denials to claimants, to prove that the NFL's plans consistently refused to approve National Football League players' valid disability benefit claims and violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by breaching their fiduciary duties to retired players.