In a callous scheme that reached the highest echelons of management, the Patriots purposefully altered medical treatment of a player's major knee injury in order to avoid paying out signing bonus money, according to a document filed by the NFL players union and unearthed by the Washington Post.
Former defensive end Jonathan Fanene was owed $3.85 million in bonus money at the time he injured his knee in 2012. The NFL Players Association said in a grievance letter it has an email in which team doctor Thomas Gill suspiciously informed owner Robert Kraft he was "trying to put together a case" to recoup the bonus.
The letter also contends coach Bill Belichick, winner of three Super Bowl rings and the mastermind of Spygate, directed Gill to postpone operating on Fanene's knee while the team encouraged the player to retire and return the bonus money.
"The allegations would suggest behavior that is completely inappropriate," NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith told the Washington Post. "I will look forward to seeing what the league intends to do as far as investigating this pursuant to their personal conduct policy."
Fanene was released in August 2012 for "failure to disclose physical condition" — on the grounds he had undisclosed arthritis in his left knee — a designation which would entitle the Patriots to keep the bonus. Gill confirmed he received an email from Belichick encouraging him to "play four corner offense" (a stall tactic) on a scheduled arthroscopic knee procedure, but claims it was in the interest of fact-finding.
Jonathan Fanene chases Mark Sanchez during a Bengals-Jets playoff game in 2010.Photo: AP
"It just didn't work out," Belichick said after Fanene was released in 2012. "Nothing to add other than that. It just didn't work out."
The union responded on Fanene's behalf via grievance letter in June 2013, calling for Gill's ouster under terms of the collective bargaining agreement, which says a team doctor's caregiving obligation "shall be not to the club but instead to the player-patient."
Fanene has a gag order under terms of an out-of-court settlement eventually reached with the Patriots, according to Fanene's agent, Angelo Wright. The 32-year-old Fanene has not returned to the NFL.
This messy affair ironically was submitted by NFL lawyers last week to a US District Court judge as evidence in a class-action suit against NFL physicians, hoping to exhibit the medical grievance process functions well.
Gill left the Patriots in April 2014. He was previously at odds with tight end Rob Gronkowski over the treatment of a 2012 forearm injury that eventually required four surgeries to heal, and was exorcised by the Red Sox in 2011, shortly after he was criticized by Jacoby Ellsbury for misdiagnosing his fractured ribs.
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