Greetings from Las Vegas
We’ve been at the Independent Retired Football Players Summit at the South Point Resort & Casino in Las Vegas since Thursday and it’s not just the weather that’s been getting hot!
OK, OK – before everyone gets their underwear in knots, it’s actually only one thing they “agree” on. But before we get into that, a little background: Over the years, the late Gene Upshaw was adamant about the fact that he didn’t work for the retired players. (Read about it HERE.) Yet, the NFLPA receives at least 60% of gross revenues from the NFL and its owners and a portion of that goes to the retired players for disability and pension benefits that they help to manage and distribute as minimally as possible.
The news has been incredibly blunt in these hard times: Medicare and Social Security could be hitting the wall in 8 years. It’s going to hit everyone hard, especially the baby boomers and those who can ill afford to lose it. For many, what little assistance they might get from Medicare and SSI is all they have to fall back on. And many of us have friends and family who have already been totally wiped out financially by a medical catastrophe.
Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire just signed the nation’s most comprehensive return-to-play concussion law for high school sports. The law was named for Zackery Lystedt, a 16-year old high school football player who went back to play following a concussion and subsequently suffered a life-threatening brain injury. All athletes under the age of 18 will now need a licensed health care provider’s approval before being allowed to return to the game after a concussion. The law will also require each of the state’s school districts to work with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association to develop standards for educating parents, players and coaches of the dangers of concussions and head injuries. (Zackery finally is only partially recovered after over a year of rehab.*)
Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a broader acknowledgment of the long-term effects of concussions and brain injuries from sports in general and football in particular. The NFL has spent much time and money burying their study results for their own ends, including their actuarial numbers which a subsidiary of insurance giant AON has reputedly been conducting for years. Of course, Directors and Officers of AON have also been owners of the Chicago Bears for decades… (Read our earlier posts HERE and HERE or you can simply do a search for Aon on our blog by typing it into the search bar at the top of this website.)
How time flies. It’s been over 6 months since NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell first announced his tour back in September to hear all about retired players’ grievances. (That story first appeared HERE.) You may remember that this tour was announced with great fanfare and press last year as Roger Goodell’s opportunity to speak and listen to the retired players across the country. If the reports have been accurate, it sounds like the Commish managed to visit a staggering 6 NFL cities out of a total of 32 teams (?!!) before all press releases stopped.
Fellow Members,
Our last post talked about Richard Berthelsen’s courtroom denial (read it HERE) with crafting the NFLPA’s Group Licensing Agreements (GLAs). Here’s another little piece of history for all of you that Dave just dug up from his files. Dave was still living in Bradenton, Florida back in 1993 when he forgot to mail in the renewal for his membership with the NFLPA. Back then, it was $50 a year and they sure made a heavy-handed pitch to make sure everyone renewed. And in 1993, guess who was General Counsel for the NFLPA under Gene Upshaw? Richard Berthelsen (unless he lied on his biographical material on the Sports Lawyers Association website). Wonder who wrote those nifty and lucrative GLAs back then?
And we quote: “We have a group licensing program which could result in licensing fees for our retired players. More that 1500 members have given us their group licensing rights to date.” Wowee! Everyone sure made a lot of money from that deal, didn’t they?
There’s going to be a lot of backpedaling as DeMaurice Smith begins to take control as the new Executive Director of the NFLPA. You’ll remember that when Gene Upshaw departed just a month before the NFLPA/Players Inc. trial was to start in September of 2008 so the judge postponed that start date until October 2008. In that time, Richard Berthelsen was appointed as acting Executive Director while their Board frantically started their search for a new Director.
Last Saturday, Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure left East Lansing, Michigan with a couple of his old college buddies to do an Easy Rider run all the way down to Mexico. They’re making this run to help raise money for the Shinsky Orphanage in Mexico and that’s their final destination: Matamoros, Mexico, where the new orphanage building and complex will be constructed. They’re still accepting donations on per-mile or one-time contributions. (Click HERE to read about the Shinsky Orphanage and their noble work and to donate.) It’s all tax-deductible and be sure to check out some of the cool enticements for donors.
You can follow Joe & Co.’s real-time progress online by going HERE (or click on the map to get an update). continue reading »