This blog has only been up for almost two years. But Dave’s been personally at his battle for over 25 years. And guys like Bernie Parrish have been at it for well over 40 years – long before most of today’s players were even born (well, maybe not Brett Favre…). There’s no doubt that this past year has been an interesting one. It’s been full of a lot of ups-and-downs with a lot of side trips that can get a little distracting at times. With the economy tanking and people losing their jobs all over the country, it’s hard not to get frustrated occasionally. Tempers can flare and passions will rise. But there’s no doubt that the issues which have always been most important to the retired players are gaining more visibility than ever because of everyone’s collective efforts.
December ended up being a crazy busy month for Dave: 2 print interviews and 3 radio interviews so far. Dave’s primary focus has been on getting the word out on disability benefits and pensions, as well as answering some questions on the recent Parrish vs. Players Inc. GLA settlement.
… Jeff Pearlman did a story for Sports Illustrated/CNN on Dave’s personal regrets about having played football. That helped generate over a million hits this month for the blog. Click HERE to read that article.
Over the past 24 hours, we’ve certainly had a lot of discussions around the old adage “Not seeing the forest for the trees.” In the old way of controlling their spin on all stories about football, the NFL managed to keep all of the television networks and most of the major print media on very short leashes because of their broadcast rights and access to players and managers for interviews. And then the Internet came along. Despite claims of a few who proudly proclaim they invented the Internet and Facebook, this new medium has not only moved the retired football players battle to a new and level playing field; it’s in a different league altogether. Just as the past two weeks have completely caught Tiger Woods and his team of old-school PR flacks like deer in the headlights, the NFLPA and the NFL and their old media machines have been hard-pressed to catch up with a new medium that they can no longer control. The Internet doesn’t belong to anyone and it belongs to everyone.
Conrad Dobler just posted on his Facebook page that he was going into his 32nd knee surgery. 32 surgeries! After weeks of infections from his latest knee replacement (including a MRSA infection), Conrad’s facing a possible amputation or a freeze, where they literally lock his leg straight so it can no longer move at the knee. Even through all of this, Conrad hasn’t lost that edgy sense of humor: “Today I am having my 32nd knee surgery they are going to try to save my leg & put my knee back in BUT they are not sure it will work. Only other option other than amputate is to freeze it. It would be permanently straight & 6 inches shorter. I got rid of all my platform shoes in the 70′s & my tailor will be pi**ed so that’s not an option. Will keep you posted. Don’t forget to order my book!”
The Parrish vs. Players Inc. lawsuit presented an interesting conundrum for the NFLPA under Gene Upshaw; here they were, being sued by their own membership for not paying them royalties due after years of revenues generated from video games and trading cards and other licensed items. Yet they couldn’t allow themselves to notify their retired members that they were part of a class action against… them?!! Keep in mind that this was Upshaw’s NFLPA. It didn’t take long for new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith to quickly void Berthelsen and Kessler’s tired old arguments for another appeal and move the process to the settlement that’s close to being distributed today. Do we have to remind anyone that if Gene Upshaw was still around, retired players would still be looking at another 3 – 5 years of appeals with no end in sight? (Actually, it appears that Yes – We DO Have to Remind Some People.) And all this happened within the first few months of change in the front office.
After months of after-trial wrangling behind the scenes and a scathing letter from Judge Alsup, it looks like we’re now at the final stages of seeing those checks in the mail. But unfortunately not until late February 2010. We just got off the phone with the folks over at Garden City Group in Seattle and they’ve informed us that everyone who was listed in the GLA List should be receiving a letter in the next week or so with details on finalizing your claim (click HERE to go to an earlier post to confirm if your name is on that list and to read Judge Alsup’s final remarks). You’ll need to provide them basic information such as confirming your contact information, as well as providing taxpayer information (Social Security Number etc.). As an added precaution, you might consider mailing your paperwork via USPS Certified Mail with a return receipt so you know they received your paperwork on time. And making a photocopy of the paperwork for your files might not be a bad idea either.
This is the 4-page final settlement agreement that was signed by Judge William Alsup in San Francisco on Nov. 23, 2009.
(The crew over at DocStoc have added some great new features: Click on the FULL SCREEN button to enlarge it for easier navigation – hit the ESC key to close. You can also click the DOWNLOAD button to save a PDF copy for printing and reading. There’s also a Menu button in the upper left corner with even more options.) .
… And here’s the 12-page Summary from Judge Alsup covering Attorneys’ Fees, costs and compensation for the class representative. Everything Bernie Parrish has pointed out is covered in this document …and more. (Ouch!)
The annual RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) meeting was held last week in Chicago. A new study based on live brain scans of professional football players was announced and discussed at one of their presentations. Here’s the news release that you’ll probably never see on the NFL’s website:
Dave and I found this recent article from Monte Burke in Forbes magazine. Sometimes it’s insane trying to keep up with the latest coverage that relates to retired players’ issues and we certainly try to post comments whenever possible and – oftentimes – absolutely necessary. We could swear that this piece came right out of the NFLPR machine in heaping praise on Roger Goodell and the NFL for their bold moves when it comes to concussions. As always, nothing is mentioned about the role that retired players played – and paid – in getting this story to the forefront today. The silence is deafening.
While The NFLPA is continuing to implement cuts to overhead and expenses, as well as advising its active players to start saving as much money as they can, the NFL is apparently cutting any and all outlays that don’t put money in their pocket.
This was a congratulatory letter sent from the NFLPA on Nov. 10th, 2009 to George Martin upon his selection as Executive Director of the New NFL Alumni. It’s signed by the NFLPA Steering Committee and NFLPA Chapter Presidents. To date, it has remained unanswered.
(As always, click on each thumbnail to enlarge for reading.)
This piece just arrived from The Boston Globe’s Ron Borges. Mixed in between the lines on the great news about a quarterback- Tom Brady – finally breaking ranks with his counterparts is another completely separate story: It’s one of the best outlines detailing some of the sordid history of side deals that set the stage for the upcoming lockout. You couldn’t make this stuff up!
Dr. Daniel Amen has just allowed us to post a great interview in which he discusses his interest in studying the current debate and issues, how his clinic is studying the problem, as well as some of the new findings that have started to come out of these ongoing studies. (The entire interview is only 13:00 minutes long and covers a lot of topics so please take a few minutes to watch this for yourself and your loved ones.)
This blog has only been up for almost two years. But Dave’s been personally at his battle for over 25 years. And guys like Bernie Parrish have been at it for well over 40 years – long before most of today’s players were even born (well, maybe not Brett Favre…). There’s no doubt that this past year has been an interesting one. It’s been full of a lot of ups-and-downs with a lot of side trips that can get a little distracting at times. With the economy tanking and people losing their jobs all over the country, it’s hard not to get frustrated occasionally. Tempers can flare and passions will rise. But there’s no doubt that the issues which have always been most important to the retired players are gaining more visibility than ever because of everyone’s collective efforts.
More good news – and a little fun – to exercise your brain as the end of the year approaches.
Over the past 24 hours, we’ve certainly had a lot of discussions around the old adage “Not seeing the forest for the trees.” In the old way of controlling their spin on all stories about football, the NFL managed to keep all of the television networks and most of the major print media on very short leashes because of their broadcast rights and access to players and managers for interviews. And then the Internet came along. Despite claims of a few who proudly proclaim they invented the Internet and Facebook, this new medium has not only moved the retired football players battle to a new and level playing field; it’s in a different league altogether. Just as the past two weeks have completely caught Tiger Woods and his team of old-school PR flacks like deer in the headlights, the NFLPA and the NFL and their old media machines have been hard-pressed to catch up with a new medium that they can no longer control. The Internet doesn’t belong to anyone and it belongs to everyone.
Conrad Dobler just posted on his 
