Marvin Cobb: An Open Letter to NFL Active Players
Gentlemen:
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My name is Marvin Cobb. I played at USC in the early 70’s, and I played 6 seasons in the league, mostly with the Cincinnati Bengals in the late 70’s where I also served as a Player Rep. I am now an Independent Advocate for increased pensions and better disability benefits for retired NFL players and as such, I am proud to have had the honor of co-producing the first Las Vegas Independent Retired Football Players Summit with Bob Grant last May. We featured two of the nation’s foremost experts on brain injury from football and hopefully showed the NFLPA how to put on a proper agenda that addresses the real issues that are important to retired players and will be important to you one day very soon.
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I am reaching out to you men playing the game today, to attempt something that may not work. It didn’t work on me either when I was playing. I was much too busy being “indestructible” and planning my long “15-year career.” Like you, I couldn’t admit that as a DB, my retirement from football would probably not be planned. And like you, I used my once-good credit to finance a lifestyle that cost twice as much as the Bengals paid me. I didn’t find out until an MRI 20 years later that what the Bengals team doc called a “stinger” was really a fractured vertebra (and I still tried to play another year). Nevertheless, recalling that old saying about leading horses to water, I know I can’t make you drink, but maybe I can help make you a little thirsty.
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You’ve seen the recent news and the congressional hearings on the direct connection between concussions and serious brain damage and other consequences as we get older. Not surprisingly, the NFL continues to try and downplay the long term health consequences of playing pro football. Now we hear that the owners want to take back 20% of your hard-earned money AND officially abandon any responsibility for your long term health …and mine, too. In case you were wondering if pro football was a game or a business, now you know for sure. Apparently, the owners feel their current share of the $8 billion dollar pie is just not large enough.
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I played six seasons at an average salary of $50,000/year. I understand the average salary today is a little more than $700,000/year for veterans and about $400,000/year for rookies. After taxes and agents fees, vets are averaging about $500,000 in net annual salary (ten times my average gross salary, by the way). If the League is successful in negotiating a 20% decrease for players, your average take home pay goes down by $100,000 a year, from $500k to $400k. And this is while they still have trouble admitting football can be hazardous to your brain?!! How much are the owners making from your willingness to risk the future quality of your life to play this “game”? If you make ten times more than I did, the owners are making a hundred times more than you are …and they want more of your share now! Not to mention my little share…
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The owners’ strategy has always been the same: To divide and conquer. And why don’t they change strategies? Simply put, because this one works! They have divided you active players from us retired players, despite the fact that you are only a single play away from being one of us! They have divided stars and starters from backups and I’ve lost track of just how many retired players’ groups there are to keep us bickering amongst ourselves. This really needs to stop.
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Your only hope (and mine) is to stay together and trust your leadership. I couldn’t always say that, but I am saying it now. Your strength in these CBA negotiations is in your resolve to stay united and to think more about (and to be willing to fight for) your future, and the future of the next generation of players.
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In closing this first letter, remember this the next time you hear about some new and improved football helmet design. Contrary to what you may believe, the human skull is not smooth and flat on the inside like it is on the outside. The inside has ridges, with sharp edges; and your brain – which has the consistency of tofu or jello – is not anchored inside your skull which means that every time your moving head stops suddenly, it crashes into the ridges inside your skull and literally causes brain damage. If whiplash victims from rear-ended car accidents can get brain damage without ever making contact with the steering wheel, think about what happens every time you head butt someone …even with your helmet on …even on purpose. Selah.
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In Service,
Marvin Cobb
Cincinnati Bengals 1975-1980
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Jane Arnett
January 10th, 2010 at 11:07 AM #
Marvin -
Absolutely fabulous letter!
Of all the “fronts” in the struggle to care for our men, reaching the active players might be the most critical in the long run, not just for the 10,000+ retirees but for the 1800 active and the thousands yet to come. You’ve said it so well I can’t imagine your comments not reaching and moving many men. For those who don’t get it, they’re either in denial and aren’t being honest with themselves or basic damage might have already occurred. Either case is frightening and chances are one day we’ll use words like “heartbreaking” when we speak of many of them. As family members of retired pro football players, we will welcome them with open arms when the inevitable day comes that they step into this side of the family. As you said, many don’t seem to understand that they’re just a play away from adding “retired” to their name.
For the sake of the active and future players, I pray they hear you.
Jane Arnett
Independent Retired Players Advocate
Mrs. Jon arnett
Dave Pear
January 10th, 2010 at 2:17 PM #
Thank you, Marvin!
Football is a violent sport and ALL concussions and head injuries are serious. If you play football, you WILL get hit in the head. It is fundamentally impossible to take this dangerous aspect out of the game.
If someone tries to tell you that if a player only gets hit in the head 100 times in a game instead of 150 so somehow now the game is safer, that is simply not true.
I have news for the NFL: There is no such thing as half-pregnant. And it’s the same faulty reasoning that if a drug dealer only allows his customers to purchase 1/2 a syringe of heroin instead of a full one then somehow that will make it safer to inject this poison into his body.
Just like the Tobacco companies, the NFL must also be required by law to put a warning label on every contract a player signs stating the hazardous effects of the sport, along with the subsequent responsibility the League must accept for each and every player once he leaves the game.
This should be done at ALL levels of football (youth, high school, college and professional). The NFL must finally be honest about the effects of this brutal sport.
There should be benefits in place that are accessible when a retired NFL player becomes injured. They should include:
1) Pension/disability reform: Pensions that match major league baseball (MLB) and a disability plan that is unique to our industry. (Unlike the current disability plan which is a total debacle and ILLEGAL!);
2) Medical after football: Active players do not realize that these life-changing injuries in many cases don’t rear their ugly head until years later (maybe 15 to 30 years) and NO insurance company will insure you. What is your plan then? Fast forward 25 years after your football career.
The NFL & NFLPA continues to “Breach their Fiduciary Duty” to retired players and their beneficiaries on disability benefits. Just like in the recent Players Inc. trial where the jurors in the courts found the union to be guilty of such phrases as “malicious and oppressive conduct with evil motive” and “conduct that was outrageous and grossly fraudulent” and ordered to pay $28,100,000 in awards and damages. You see, our Union enlisted thousands of retired players for 14 years and never paid any retied player under this program with a signed GLA agreement one penny for the use of their image in the popular, “John Madden Football” video game. However, John Madden has received $130,000,000 so far and he has remained silent but he did manage to go on a two-week vacation when the trial began and then subsequently “retired.” Gene Upshaw said, “We could have the greatest dog food in the world, but if the dogs don’t like it, we can’t sell it.”
Thanks, Gene. (Gene and I were teammates in Super Bowl XV) Sounds like we’re all family until it’s time to split the money up?
This is a MUST-read story on John William Heisman by By BILL PENNINGTON in the New York Times:
Published: December 8, 2006
“Without John Heisman, there might not be a forward pass in football, and without a forward pass, the game would probably have died from disinterest or been abolished because of its fatal brutality.”
“In 1904-5, 44 players had been reported killed in football games, with hundreds sustaining serious injuries. Heisman said the forward pass “would scatter the mob.”
Click HERE to read the rest of the article.
With all due respect Dr. NO Ira Casson, please allow me to propose this illustration: You have stated that you are a scientist and you require a scientific study before drawing a conclusion that shows the dangers and effects of repeated blows to the head. Would you also require a study for young children who play in a busy street during rush hour traffic? Currently, I know of no studies at this time. Cars and very large trucks will be driving driving by at 60 – 70 miles an hour. Common sense or irrefutable logic would tell a prudent person that serious injury or death is all but certain. However, from your testimony last week in Detroit to Congressman John Conyers, Jr., you would require scientific evidence and probably more studies, right? Because from what I heard on Monday, your reasoning would be you’re still not sure that any young child would actually be struck by a car and if by some chance he or she was struck, would receiving a hit in the head by a truck moving at 70 miles an hour really even cause a serious injury? Because there’s no scientific evidence to prove otherwise, right?
This fight for justice is for ALL retired players especially those who are not able to represent themselves because they have no support system due to the current illegal disability program and the damage it has done to them and their families. This current system can NOT be fixed. It needs to be totally rebuilt from the foundation up to eliminate all the conflicts of interest. For Example: Tom Condon is a high-profile agent who represents some of the biggest names in the NFL. How in the world can he also be a voting member of the Disability Board? How would he vote if one of his clients applied for disability? How has he voted in the past? And Condon also happens to be an attorney (and the man behind the throne of Gene Upshaw)!
In conclusion, the Commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell is the Chairman of the Retirement Board. When will Commissioner Goodell stand up for the rights of retired players and their beneficiaries?
We’re all still waiting for a response.
Regards,
Dave & Heidi Pear
Larry Kaminski
January 11th, 2010 at 4:17 PM #
TO: Independent Players
I feel that Parrish, Grant and Cobb have shown us what focus, commitment and passion can do to reach the goal of getting us through this maze of traps set by the NFL owners. They exposed Upshaw and put De smith on call. Keep up the great effort!
You have my support.
Larry Kaminski
Denver Broncos
1966 – 1973
Katherine
January 11th, 2010 at 8:48 PM #
Thank you, Dave, and thank you, Marvin. I myself am the wife of a Retired Player whose name all of you would recognize. He would not want me to mention his name or the fact that he probably does not have much longer to live, so I will not. He considers all of you who are fighting this brave fight to be his brothers and urges you to fight on for all of us until both the NFL and the NFLPA does right by our men and families. The fans who paid a few dollars for a ticket to see our men entertain them at such a great cost to themselves and their families will hopefully stand with and for them now in their hour of need.
Once again, thank you – and thanks to Mr. Bernard Parrish for finally getting some restitution for so many of us.
Katherine