Bob Grant: Retired Players Aren’t Stupid, Roger!
It ‘s almost comical when you look at the bill of goods the NFL and the Alumni are now trying to sell to Retired Players and the Public.
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Picture this:
You’ve seen this movie! The crowd in the lynch mob is saying that because they care so much about you, they’re going to now APPOINT some folks to represent you. Meanwhile. they keep braiding the noose, even as they hand out death sentences to many of us and life-without-parole to others. They continue to tell the public that getting hit in the head for years is good for you. What do you think that this Alumni bunch is really going to say or do in opposition to the NFL Owners? Do you think that they’re going to bite the hand that’s feeding them? Do you think that they’d ever take the Owners to Court to try and force them to do anything? Do you honestly believe that the Owners are crazy enough to give the Alumni crowd sharp swords that can be used against them later?
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And why do we have to wait for even more studies on the fact that brain trauma was a big part of the game when we played? Why don’t they just go on and admit that they knew that we were being as damaged during our careers as much as boxers were and are? They’ve finally been making rule and equipment changes because they’ve decided to ‘fess up to the facts and dangers for Active Players, haven’t they? And what will these Active Players do if they find out years down the road that the minor changes made today still weren’t enough? Unless something is put in place today to take care of all of us – Active AND Retired players together – things will never change in the future.
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Why don’t the NFL Owners just place enough money in a fund – right now, today – to eliminate the problems that Retired Players are faced with. They could do it so easily and it would be little more than “Chump Change” to any of them.
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Instead, Roger is already playing tricky word games by now telling the Media that the Alumni is the INDEPENDENT group that THEY have SELECTED and APPOINTED to REPRESENT us. Will somebody please pull a dictionary out and look up the meaning of “INDEPENDENT.” Obviously, Goodell and company think that we’re dumb jocks who can’t read or think for ourselves. “INDEPENDENT”? You’ve got to be kidding me.
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What does “Somebody that we can talk to” mean, Roger?
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I am asking you, as a true Independent Activist and Advocate for our cause, to not just “Look at things.” I am asking that you “Look INTO things” that are presented to you. You’re all intelligent people – don’t allow them to bamboozle you with this lie.
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These two statements will make some folks mad but I don’t care. The Alumni was encouraged and formed in the first place because the Owners wanted to find some way of driving a wedge into a young and growing labor union back in the 1960’s. The Alumni never went out on a limb for us the way that the men who formed the original Union did. And speaking of getting back to tradition, I’m not playing a race card when I say that historically black players weren’t included or even welcomed into the original Alumni! That’s a fact! And I defy anyone to look at their history of Leadership and Membership and show that I’m wrong.
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The Owners are trying to wound or destroy the Union. They figure that they can use us to help them do it. We believe that in reality, they’re only giving about 30% of their Gross/Gross to the Active Players instead of the 60% that they always claim. Upshaw took his $7 to $10 million a year to help them promote that deception. Now they want to take even more back from the Active Players.
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When someone tells you that they’re giving you a slice that amounts to 60% of the whole pie, the first thing that you should say is, “Show me the whole pie so that I can see if that slice that you gave me is what you say it is.” That should be easy: All they’d have to do is show you the whole pie. The Owners could open up their “real books” and we could see whether or not they’re telling the truth.
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But don’t hold your breath. The NFL Owners aren’t about to open their books and that Alumni crowd is sure not going to support us in asking them to do that.
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Some of the men involved in the Alumni effort are “brilliant,” but they’re not “FREE” (or “INDEPENDENT”). (Now pull out your dictionary again and look up the word “FREE.”)
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This effort by the NFL Owners to control the active and retired players goes back for decades before the coming of Goodell and the current group of EMPLOYEES.
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It seems that “Dog Rights” have become more important than the “Human Rights of Retired Players.” A dollar seems to have become more important than a man.
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I’m not going to support them and the Alumni in their attempt to break the backs of the young players. A few of the young players may behave badly from time to time but most do not. They’re portrayed as some kind of “hip hop gangstas” too often as well. Most of them are not.
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Only through the unified independent efforts of all players – active AND retired – who work hard to make the game of football what it is today, can we hope to finally see fair distribution of disability and pension benefits.
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Bob Grant,
Mad Again
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This Just In:
Before everyone and their brother jumps in to try and take credit for it, DeMaurice Smith and his crew have been working with the NFL to protect retired players’ disability benefits during a potential lockout in 2010. Click HERE to read the announcement.
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Bob Grant: Retired Players Aren’t Stupid, Roger! | College Football Zone
October 20th, 2009 at 2:53 am #
[...] Here is the original post: Bob Grant: Retired Players Aren’t Stupid, Roger! [...]
Dave Pear
October 20th, 2009 at 9:43 am #
Bob,
Thank you for having the courage to stand up for the truth and the rights of retired players!
For anyone to say that the NFL Alumni Association is an independent group of retired players is a hoax and preposterous.
This nonsense about the NFL Alumni being independent is a ruse and misleading. It is more whitewash in an attempt to mislead Congress into believing that there have been real changes for retired players.
In 2007, Gene Upshaw and Roger Goodell promised Congress they would fix the disability debacle and make real changes for retired players (I was there in Washington DC and I – along with a packed House – heard both Gene and Roger make this promise). However, the very next week they came out with the Truth squad and the White Paper as a tactic to publicly discredit disabled players. And they posted medical information about nine retired disabled players on their own public web site (http://www.nflpa.org).
However, the Truth squad and White paper are now gone. Where did they go?
Since these 2007 hearings in Washington DC Commissioner Goodell has come up with a lot of new programs for retired players. The problem is, these new programs have a fancy name but are gibberish. They offer little or nothing.
I would be happy to discuss my experience or nightmare in trying to access these so-called benefits.
Now we’re being told that the NFL Alumni is the independent group for retired players? This is more gibberish.
This is more whitewash for Congress in an attempt to create the illusion that there has been real change for retired players. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The issues have always been pensions and disability reform. Pensions must at least match Major League Baseball (MLB) and we need a disability plan unique to our industry (that is legitimate and can be accessed).
Now head injuries and concussions are coming to the forefront. And the NFL wants to continue to do more studies using doctors who are not qualified or trained in this specific area of medicine.
The days of this cosmic trickery are numbered and I don’t think Congress is going to be misled this time around.
Sincerely,
Dave & Heidi Pear
Larry Kaminski
October 20th, 2009 at 10:16 am #
Bob:
I like it when you get mad because you do such a great job articulating the truth! We’re considered to be experimental ball players who created wealth but are thrown away after our useful life. I have old trucks and forklifts that I give better care than the NFL does to former players.
Thanks for your great contributions to this battle against the unfair treatment of past players.
We need our own representation and a vote that someone can see is honest because who else knows how we feel other then the person who is ailing. We are not whiners but MEN who want to be treated fair.
Thanks,
Larry Kaminski
Denver Broncos
1966 – 1973
Earl Thomas
October 20th, 2009 at 11:22 am #
WOW!!!
Has Mr. Grant asked for a meeting with the newly appointed NFL Alumni Leader? If not, maybe he should. If you look at our history, we have never had great business leaders to deal with the business issues (and there are many) facing all players.
Once we have an appointed leader, maybe we all should respect them and attempt to work with them. If we want to run for their positions, then compete against them and attempt to have the body elect you.
Correct, we are not stupid. But if you were the Commissioner, would you meet with Mr. Grant?
Earl Thomas
1971 – 1976
Chicago Bears, St. Louis Cardinals, Houston Oilers
Bob Grant
October 20th, 2009 at 3:40 pm #
Earl,
I have already. And in fact, I attended two (2) meetings with Commissioner Goodell (one by invitation from Harold Henderson and the NFL just a few weeks ago) and we have exchanged considerable opinions at both. He and I personally agreed that we like each other personally but that each of us should always speak our positions and opinions frankly if we are to ever get anywhere. Ask him if you don’t believe me.
George is invited to do the same. He might start by taking us up on the same invitation that we have extended to Roger, Harold, De Smith, the NFL, the NFLPA, Harry Carson from the Alliance, the Alumni and Fritz Pollard Foundation and Lawyer John Hogan (Alumni Supporter) to state their positions openly on any issue on Dave Pear’s blog. We will write it just as they say it as long as they don’t use “cuss” words.
Thank you for reading the blog along with our other 350,000+ visitors per month now and I encourage you to continue participating.
If I make an accusation that’s not true – and I did not in the post above – you should always feel free to call me on it. And I, on the other hand, will also continue to call others on things that they say that aren’t supported by fact.
You know, we have a history in our Country of having Citizens who speak out when they believe that something is not right. I’m just carrying on with the principles that I learned back in the 1960′s in the American Civil Rights Movement from many of our Black Leaders who were also personal friends. “Google” me if you want to verify that statement.
Since I received the right to vote back in the 1960′s and have the right to VOTE for who represents me, then I also have the right to criticize anyone who is ELECTED. Should I not exercise my “Right Of Free Speech”? Even against a President of the United States – and he’s always a pretty important man, my Brother.
You surely remember what it was like back in Greenville, TX back in the fifties and sixties: You had better not open your mouth against the “FOLKS” who were in charge. That day is long gone, Earl.
No hard feelings between you and me, I hope.
Gayle and my schoolmate, Brian Piccalo, were the only two Bears that I ever liked but I must admit that you were a fine player and from what I have heard, a fine man.
Bob Grant
Independent Player Advocate
FREDERICK 'RICK' HAYES
October 21st, 2009 at 12:39 pm #
Bob Grant has never represented that he speaks for anyone other than himself. He’s always publicly stated that he has NO desire for a salaried or “appointed” position. Based on my own observations, his primary intent comes through as an extremely intelligent retired independent player interested in stimulating the other retired players’ concerns through their individual and independent expression of their thoughts and ideas in an open forum of public discussion.
For anyone to publicly attack him – however disguised in confusing dialog – says more about that individual’s intent and loyalty than their true expression of any positive contribution towards our goals.
I find it offensive to have an individual “appointed” and announced to the media by the NFL Commissioner of a “so-called independent” party to represent the NFL Alumni, an organization funded by the NFL. I would hope that the individuals of the NFL Alumni would have a vote in their “independent” public representation!
PEACE with ALOHA,
Rick Hayes
L.A. Rams 1974
UW Huskies 1969-1973
George Visger
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:45 pm #
Bob,
Well said! It’s time we all join forces – active and retired players – to pool our strengths and resources to put an end to this CRIMINAL element which has destroyed so many of our lives. How many more years of Delay, Deny and Hope They Die will we endure, before some one is held criminally accountable. Sure, we have old school warriors who set the stage for the young players today knocking down the big bucks, but we must bring everyone to the table or the NFL’s policy of divide-and-conquer will just continue.
This all plays right into their refusal to take responsibility for head trauma suffered by more of us than we will ever know.
I just returned last night from a 2-day evaluation at Dr. Amen’s Clinic, which evaluated me after the 9 brain surgeries I have survived since my final season with the 49′ers in 1981. I’m 51 years old now and my evaluation stated I am 80% disabled (never received a penny from the NFLPA), with a very high risk of developing dementia in the coming decade without intensive intervention. Considering I had to sue the 49′ers for Workers Comp just to get brain surgeries #2 and #3 paid for in 1982 (settled in 1986), and it took me 3 1/2 months of fighting and veiled threats to The Travelers just to get approval to attend the clinic. In addition, I convinced them they needed to approve my wife’s attendance so she could bring them up to speed on what it’s like to live with me.
Men, we need to rally and join forces to fight for what we paid for with our blood and continue to pay for with lost brain cells.
George Visger
San Francisco 49′ers 1980 & 1981
Bruce Jarvis
October 27th, 2009 at 9:38 am #
Bob,
Meaningful change and improvement in the NFL veterans lives will only be achieved by an effective effort to counter the power of NFL ownership. Roger Goodell is in place to keep the NFL ownership from having to spend the money to make the NFL pension plan what it should be: Superior to baseball and basketball to compensate for the risk we have all undergone and are now paying for with severe health problems and shorter lives. Ditto with Disability.
Continue to speak out with your strong message. Splinter groups like NFL Alumni aren’t helping because they appease rather than do the difficult work of countering the owner’s power with the ugly truth that you and others are unafraid to tell. Our cause will be advanced when the owners truly feel financially threatened AND NOT BEFORE.
We have three hammers: 1) the media (press and internet); 2) Congress; and 3) litigation. You, Dave Pear, Valerie Thomas and Bernie Parrish are on the right track. PLEASE CONTINUE TO TURN UP THE HEAT!
Thanks for doing the heavy lifting,
Bruce Jarvis
Buffalo Bills
1971 – 1974