Polian Disputes Report That Mudd And Moore Are Free To Return

On Tuesday, NFL Coaches Association Executive Director Larry Kennan told Chris Mortensen of ESPN that former Colts offensive line coach Howard Mudd and former Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore could follow their pension-grab retirements with a prompt return to the team as “consultants,” with the only limitation being a six-month waiting period before re-entering any of the team’s benefit plans. While that might eventually be the case, the team has not yet concluded that this approach will work. The source on the point is fairly trustworthy. He’s Colts president and G.M. Bill Polian. Earlier today, Polian told Adam Schein and Solomon Wilcots of Sirius NFL Radio’s The Sirius Blitz that the information from Kennan is incorrect. Asked whether it’s Polian’s understanding that Mudd and Moore can return with only a no-benefits-for-six-months caveat, Polian said, “No it is not. . . . It has not been communicated to me in any way, shape, manner or form that has any resemblance to that statement.” Polian also addressed what he needs to hear in order to agree with Kennan’s position. “I need to hear from our corporate attorney who is right now interfacing with as many experts on ERISA law as he can find,” Polian said. “And it is the ERISA law, that is an acronym for a federal law which governs pensions and pension plans. He is interfacing with those people and trying to develop an understanding of what can and can’t be done. He’s the guy that will ultimately guide us in making that call.” We’ll reiterate the point we made Tuesday -- this whole retire-and-return thing seems too good and too easy to be true. And Kennan could be pushing the position that Mudd and Moore can return in part because Kennan possibly feels partially responsible for cajoling them into retiring, since for a while Kennan was selling the disingenuous notion that Mudd and Moore opted to walk away because of the recent decision to allow teams to opt out of the league-run pension plan. Bottom line? If there was anything good or easy about this arrangement, Mudd and Moore would be back on the job. The fact that it’s taking so long suggests to us that the Colts’ lawyers have preliminarily concluded that they can’t return -- and that they’re now trying to find a plausible pathway around that reality.