Just Say No…
After posting up Andrew Stewart’s story earlier this week, we decided that this is a perfect time to post another personal experience that Dave has recently had. Late last year, Dave quietly approached NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith about his disability case. While there were no expectations of favorable outcomes, we all felt that with nearly a year into his job, certainly an Executive Director asking the Disability Board to extend the courtesy of a fresh review of an older case might encourage some new found objectivity.
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Here’s the initial exchange of e-mails (Once again, we’ve posted everything on Scribd for easier reading. 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):
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De Smith & Teri Patterson E-mails
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De Smith Response e-mails
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Then after several months, the responses and the “Dear Dave” letter: a very formal 4-page legalese way of saying, “Too bad. See you later.”
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De Smith Letter to Dave
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We left it alone until now, hoping to at least wait and see if any real change would come from the NFLPA leadership for the retired players. But now after we’ve seen the NFLPA Building and the Dire Need Fund re-named after Gene Upshaw – who was probably the single-most destructive factor in methodically destroying retired players rights and benefits in any professional sport (or industry for that matter) – it certainly doesn’t look like any real change is coming soon. What we have seen is a lot of PR with new video channels and heck – we’ve even seen some slick new slogans about One Locker Room One Team (looks like the retired players got the toilet!) But aside from all that, retired players have seen less than nothing for their indisputable contributions to making football the richest professional sport in history. Then we read Andrew Stewart’s denial and…
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We finally made the decision to make this exchange public out of sheer frustration as well as to once again encourage other retirees to come forward and compare notes on your personal experiences with being denied your earned benefits. There are still a lot of players who are only realizing that they’re not alone after being denied their fair disability benefits. It doesn’t seem to matter what you do or don’t do in applying for your disability benefits: You applied BEFORE your 15-year window was closed or AFTER it passed. DENIED. You have visible physical injuries or you have brain injuries: DENIED. You’re an old retired player or just a freshly injured retired player: DENIED. You use the best doctors to build an airtight case that would even withstand the scrutiny of Social Security Disability standards: DENIED. The smell of a massive class action lawsuit is getting stronger by the day.
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Disability Attorney John Hogan took the time to write a professional response to DeMaurice Smith’s letter from January of this year:
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John Hogan Sept 9 Letter to DeSmith
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And an extra document from vocational specialist Earl Thompson – a REAL vocation and rehab professional – who had added clarification on the real extent of Dave’s disabilities earlier:
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Thompson Letter
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Attorneys John Hogan and Ron Katz will be on a discussion panel with NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith on sports concussions at the Santa Clara Sports Law Symposium next Thursday, Sept. 16th (click HERE to visit the site) – more on that later.
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Gregg Bingham
September 9th, 2010 at 9:52 PM #
John -
Best damn letter (to De Smith) I’ve read in years!
Keep pounding the table and lighting fires and some day that fire will catch on and burn like hell!
Way to go, JOHN!
Gregg Bingham
1973 – 1984 Houston Oilers
Dave Pear
September 11th, 2010 at 8:49 AM #
A Personal Note to De Smith,
As a Washington DC attorney, what are you going to do? You’ve been in your new position for almost 2 years and the NFLPA Leadership still continues to Breach their Fiduciary Duty towards retired players on Disability Benefits.
In fact, the new replacements are worse (if that is possible). One more example is Bernard Dr. NO Bach. Plus, the Groom Law Group still calls the shots for the disability debacle they created. Why won’t you listen to the wise counsel of disability attorney John Hogan? He is a REAL expert in his field, more so than these other so-called experts that the League (and maybe the Union?) continue to use to deny us our earned benefits. How about giving each of US a $500 check every time a denial gets issued? We’d all be rich by now!
Nobody represents retired NFL players!
Regards,
Dave & Heidi Pear
Dr. Kenneth P. Stoller
September 14th, 2010 at 12:43 PM #
These Dr. No physicians who make the fictional Dr. No look like a nice guy are the “Kapos” of the medical profession. A Kapo was a prisoner who took on the job of being a guard for those who ran the concentration camps in WW II – in other words, they ratted out their own.
Dr. Kenneth Stoller
MD, FACHM
Nolan Harrison
September 16th, 2010 at 7:28 PM #
Dave,
I’ve read your numerous posts and have had interaction with you before as a board director member of the NFL Players Association Former Players. In previous conversations I expressed to you that we are both trying to do the same thing and that is to do things for the betterment of Former Players. My attempts to try to reach you and to reach some kind of understanding were lost. Now a legitimate effort by DeMaurice Smith and the National Football League players Association to review your case has been trampled upon by your actions and words. It is unreasonable to expect that before a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached that a new disability plan can be put in place. The owners want to do away with the pension plan of the current players altogether, to make them take an 18% pay cut, and to increase the amount of games and damage their bodies take. All of your venom and attack have been at the NFL PA. It’s interesting how there is not as much emphasis on the fact that it will take a new collective bargaining agreement to obtain any changes to the current disability plan. Changes which you think and you would have others believe are squarely in the hands of the NFL PA. That is simply not the case. I have read John Hogan’s letter to DeMaurice Smith. There is no wrongdoing on the part of the NFL Players Association as it pertains to your case. The fault is with the current collective bargaining agreement disability plan. Not with any actions or lack thereof of the NFL Players Association. We have pledged to try to implement a new system of disability through the new collective bargaining agreement. That is something that DeMaurice Smith has spoken to us about as Board of Directors, Chapter Presidents, and members of the Players Association. Your attacks on the one institution that actually can do good for your cause is misguided, selfish, and destructive to everyone else who will have claims in the future. I have expressed to you my sympathies for the pain and suffering that this game has caused you. I and thousands of other former players who are just like you, suffer just like you, but do not choose to attack the NFL PA like you. Those thousands have decided to back the institution that has always been there for them. Not without mistakes, or misjudgments, but has always been and will continue to be there for them. This new NFLPA is not your enemy. No matter how much venom and misguided attacks you may throw our way. DeMaurice Smith’s duty and my duty are to continue to fight for all current and former players’ rights and benefits. To create a system in this next collective bargaining agreement that will rectify the inadequacies that exists in the current agreement. The administration of today will attempt to correct the mistakes of the past. But we can only do that with the support of those of the past and the present. John Hogan spoke of my leaving before his presentation at the Independent retired football players’ summit. That was not of any disrespect for one disability attorney’s opinion. But because I have extreme confidence in this executive director, this players association, and this senior directors desire to make things better for all players.
While this might not be politically correct, to be honest with you, from reading your posts I don’t believe that anything we do or say will be good enough for you. For example, we are advocating for a Legacy fund, that can help put money in the pockets of many former players and you attack that concept. Why would you attack the possibility that we could get the owners to repay the players what they owe? This is money that is owed to you and thousands of other players out there who participated in the building of this game but have not seen their benefits increase like the rise in value of the teams that they bled for. As I stated before, I will continue this fight along with the help of our elected leadership the NFL PA staff and our Executive Director until we have won. That is the only outcome that will be acceptable to me and to everyone that I’m associated with.
Nolan Harrison III
Senior Director
NFLPA Former Players
LA Oakland Raiders
Pittsburgh Steelers
Washington Redskins
1991 to 2001