John Hogan: NFLPA: Get Your Own House in Order Before Heading to the Hill
The Associated Press reports this morning that 20 current and former NFL players headed to Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress to help avoid a lockout in 2011 if a new CBA is not reached. (Read that article by Frederick Frommer HERE.) De Smith told reporters that the players would remind Congress about the “gifts” Congress bestows on the league, such as an antitrust exemption for broadcasting contracts. (You can also read the story on ESPN HERE.)
The AP article from Frommer stated: “It may be hard to conjure up much sympathy for football players making seven-figure salaries. But Smith noted that thousands of people are employed as stadium workers.” I almost wet my pants laughing! How stupid do they think Congress is? They’re concerned about stadium workers? How about the thousands of retired players who paved the way for those seven-figure contracts? Guys whose NFL pay was so meager – they needed to work in the off-season to make ends meet. How about the guys – including Hall of Famers – who are subsisting on NFL pensions that aren’t enough to pay their utilities bills? How about all the guys who paved the way for today’s millionaires with their knees, spines and shoulders and can’t get the disability and medical benefits that they so justly deserve?
I guess the NFLPA thinks they can shovel it because they think they got away with it a couple of years ago when they submitted the NFLPA White Paper after the Congressional hearings. It has so much misinformation and half-truths that it’s almost worthless. “The truth, without the whole truth, is meaningless and just as good as a lie!”
The Union’s actions highlight the fact that it is not just the NFL which is responsible to properly take care of retirees. The PA is the other party to the CBA and any agreements on health, disability and pension reform.
De Smith has been singing “One Team, One Locker room” so long and so frequently that I have expected it to appear on Billboard’s Top 100! Yet all of the cast and crew who screwed retired players – as was found in the recent Class Action – are still in place. While change has been promised, no action has taken place. What specific proposals do you have, Mr. Smith, to return retired players to your locker room?
Mr. Foxworth, Mr. Spikes, Mr. Vrabel – did you even mention retired players when you went to Capitol Hill? Do you active players even know what the issues facing retired players are? While it is certainly noble of you to be so concerned about the hard-working stadium workers who depend upon their jobs, members of your own player-family are in dire need of your attention. How long will you continue to ignore their needs?
John Hogan Disability Attorney
Dave Pear
July 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pm #
Dear DeMaurice Smith,
The NFLPA Leadership has been found guilty in the Players Inc. trial of infractions along with violations of the law.
They have BREACHED THEIR FIDUCIARY DUTY towards retired NFL players.
Furthermore, the language in the courts that jurors found the union to be guilty of included such phrases as “malicious and oppressive conduct with EVIL motive” and “conduct that was outrageous and grossly fraudulent”!
These impostors have a malicious attitude and a sinister objective.
When will justice be served to retired players?
Regards,
Dave & Heidi Pear
Kathy Smith
July 15th, 2009 at 1:23 pm #
Dear John,
Good to hear from you and thank you for the support!
Kathy Smith
George Visger
July 15th, 2009 at 1:32 pm #
Hang on John,
Do you realize what these current players are worth each day they spent in Washington “just meeting, greeting and hanging out” with so many important people? Hell, they could be raking it in at a charity fund raising event.
I am positive my 8 brain surgeries (VP Shunts), 3 knee surgeries, Gore Tex ACL transplant, crushed C6 and C7 and fractured S 8 vertebrae and Gran Mal seizures the last 25 years were well worth the…. let’s see… Oh yeah, ZERO $$ I have received from the NFLPA after being injured during the 49ers first Super Bowl season in 81. But hell, I only have 2 yrs vested and 13 surgeries, so I’m glad they are down there taking care of who’s important (the coke vendors).
Keep stuffing your pockets, Smith; there;s an old saying, “What goes around comes around.” The big coach in the sky will sort out the trash and make the final cuts.
The rest of us just need to circle the wagons brothers. There is strength in numbers.
George Visger
SF 49ers 80 & 81
Robert
July 15th, 2009 at 4:02 pm #
Actually, more details are now just coming out that Demaurice Smith included three retired players for his trip to Washington: Eric Turner (1995 – 2003 Redskins, Chargers, Broncos), Mike McBath (1968 – 1972 Bills – but then you probably already knew that) and Nolan Harrison (1991 – 2000 LA & Oakland Raiders, Steelers, Redskins).
http://tinyurl.com/knwyn6
As much as some people don’t want to hand the new Executive Director any credit at all for anything he does, this was an unprecedented – and bold – move on his part and certainly a far cry from anything Gene Upshaw ever did in his entire 25-year+ dictatorship. (Did I already need to remind anyone about just how bad things were under Upshaw or are some people now going to start whining about why Smith didn’t bring along an equal number of retired and active players?)
Gary Larsen
July 15th, 2009 at 5:13 pm #
I was under the impression that NFLPA was working for the retired player. What a shock to see all my dues going for nothing!
Gary Larsen
1964 – 1974
Rams & Vikings
Purple People Eater