Dave Pear's Blog

Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS

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23 March 2011
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BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
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(New York, N. Y.) — Pat Matson has a very clear interest in the National Football League owners-National Football League Players Association or correctly the former National Football League Players Association as the players have decertified as a “union.” Matson was a player in both the American Football League with Denver and Cincinnati and when the American Football League-National Football League completed their merger in 1970, Matson moved to the NFL with Cincinnati.

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Matson was the Cincinnati Bengals player representative in the brief 1974 NFL strike. Matson is one of the players who have been left behind by the very players association where he was once a players representative and walked a picket line in 1974.

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Matson is facing his 32nd operation from injuries sustained during his ten-year career between 1966 and 1975 with Denver, Cincinnati and Green Bay. He needs his ankle fixed. He has had knee replacements and hip replacements. In 1975 when he was a member of the Green Bay Packers he had a trifecta — elbow, knee and ankle. Matson laughed that the procedure made it tough for him to go to the bathroom. Matson’s first surgery came after he tore up his knee at the University of Oregon.

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Matson seems to be fine mentally even after having four of five concussions during his career. He said he walks a little funny though. He admits he is fortunate despite the surgeries, as he played 10 years and had a business career after football. He probably should be getting more than $1,064 a month in pension but that is considerably more than many who played for roughly the same amount of time over the same time period that Matson was employed in the AFL and NFL.

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Matson is not a big fan of the late Gene Upshaw – the former Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association – and New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees.

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Last year Brees seemed to dismiss complaints by former players who were looking for more benefits from the NFL.

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“There’s some guys out there that have made bad business decisions,” Brees said. “They took their pensions early because they never went out and got a job. They’ve had a couple divorces and they’re making payments to this place and that place. And that’s why they don’t have money. And they’re coming to us to basically say, ‘Please make up for my bad judgment.’ In that case, that’s not our fault as players.”

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Brees sounded an awful lot like Upshaw who once said that his association couldn’t take care of everyone.

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Brees should have spoken to someone like Matson who did get a job after his career. In fact, Matson had a job during his playing days. After his career, Matson worked for Roger Penske and was able to get health insurance even though just about every player who leaves the game has a pre-existing condition which makes it extremely difficult for former players to get health coverage. Players who have been in the NFL since 1993 and become vested veterans have health benefits for five years following their careers. In Matson’s day, there was no post-career safety net. Five years is probably not enough for present day players, as their bodies seem to give out in six or seven years after a career and they need constant medical care.

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Brees seems to be totally out of touch with working conditions of past players (pre-1993ers) and that is pretty sad as Brees has his name on the antitrust lawsuit that the former players association planned in the event of a lockout in an effort to torpedo the NFL’s labor scheme.

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The football culture is suck-it-up-and-be-a-man. You tear a knee up, put some tape on it and play.

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Matson doesn’t have too much regard for either the owners or the players association in this battle.

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“The owners only care about getting all of the money,” Matson said of the 2011 lockout. “I don’t know what (Brees) is talking about or doing to help the pre-1993 players. Rookies are making $50 million. (We) got no payment for training camp; they furnished your meals and put you up. We got 50 bucks for an exhibition game (six in 1968) and Paul Brown used to have three-a-days (practices) in heat and humidity that was terrible. I never gave it a second thought to have an off-season job; we always had jobs in the off-season.”

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The football culture seems to not have evolved very much since the days when the NFL was a part time occupation for both owners and players. In the 1950s, Chicago Bears owner George Halas ran the football operations from July until December and was a sporting goods store owner in Chicago the rest of the year. Football was just a stepping stone to another career but the players from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and later have found out that football whether they like it or not is a lifelong profession as they suffer with football related ailments that include depression, mood swings, brain trauma, neck, shoulder, elbow, hip, knee and ankle injuries. There are also family issues and documented bankruptcies and business failures.

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Thoughts of suicide – and actual suicides – haunt former players.

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There apparently is no real count of how many players who never qualified for NFL post-career benefits available who are on the government dole before the age of 65 with Social Security disability or Medicare. There is no way of knowing how many high school, college, Arena Football Leaguers, USFLers, World Football League players who are also being cared for by the United States government although taxpayers may be on the hook for billions to provide care from football injuries.

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Matson tried to sue the NFL/NFLPA for addition benefits in 1998 and failed. He blames both sides for the problems that retired and discarded players have and are facing.

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“Upshaw had his good old boys network with (Harold) Henderson (NFL Executive Vice President for Labor Relations and Chairman of the National Football League Management Council Executive Committee). They denied everybody’s claims (for disability). They wished you would go away and die. The NFL is boot hill. If you ignore it long enough. Upshaw was paying $150-$200,000 for yes men and got a $6 million a year salary. We (the former players) are walking dead and can’t do anything.”

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In 1969, Matson broke his tibia as a member of the Bengals against Denver. He told the Bengals trainer that he was hurt but no one wanted to tell Bengals coach Paul Brown that Matson was hurt.

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“(The trainer) was scared of Paul,” said Matson. “He said you’re okay. If you can walk, you play, not like an NBA player if his toe hurts, he is out for two weeks. After the game, I told my wife as I walked up the steps at Nippert Stadium. Four days later, they X-rayed it.”

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The Bengals franchise moved to Riverfront Stadium in 1970 and the players had to contend with an Astroturf surface.

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“It was pretty damaging. The (baseball’s) Reds didn’t like it. It was like an asphalt surface,” he said.

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Matson played just six games in 1969 but he was a valuable member of Paul Brown Bengals and had the respect of his teammates. He was the team’s player representative. In 1974, the NFLPA went on strike which forced the cancellation of the annual College All-Stars versus NFL Champion Charity Game in Chicago. There was a 44-day strike that year but the NFLPA could not keep the membership on the same page.

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The players’ mantra in 1974 was “No Freedom, No Football” which was a shot at the owners who were not giving players a right to sell their services after they played out their contract. If a player decided to sign with another team, the “Rozelle Rule” named after NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle kicked in. The commissioner would review the signing and figure out what “compensation” was owed to a team who lost a free agent to another team. The players struck on July 1. NFLPA Executive Director Ed Garvey and his membership could not get the owners do not agree on even a single demand. The players association called off the strike on August 10 and decided to sue the NFL. In 1975, members of the New York Jets and the New England Patriots struck on the final weekend of the pre-season in an effort to get the talks moving. Eventually the NFL was found guilty of violating federal labor and antitrust laws.

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In 1977 after the NFL owners were found guilty of violating federal labor and antitrust laws, the owners and players came up with a new collective bargaining agreement. The players did receive improved benefits, an impartial arbitration of all grievances were implemented, there were some changes in the waiver system and option clauses and some free- agent restrictions were ended.

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Interestingly enough, according to Matson, the NFLPA also sought better disability and insurance along with widow’s and health benefits in 1974. Matson said Paul Brown told him. “You tried to ruin the NFL but you are going to stay,” after he picketed in front of the Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio.

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“(There is) a lot of wear and tear on the human anatomy,” said Matson of playing football. And he played two of the toughest positions physically — the offensive line and on the wedge on special teams.

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If you were hit in the head and knocked out, the trainer would come out and see if a player was okay.

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“If you could see two out of three fingers,” said Matson of an on-field check up, “you went back in. I was in the middle of the wedge. Nobody cares about a wedge. I was at the point of attack in the wedge.”

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In Matson’s day, defensive linemen were allowed to slap the heads of offensive players to gain an advantage.

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“Deacon Jones, Tom Jackson, he was really good at it. I studied the Oakland Raiders who were really good at that,” he said. “Today they’re wrestling with each other.”

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Matson does wonder about the icons of the 1990s, a guy like Steve Young or a guy like Troy Aikman. Both suffered a number of concussions during their days as quarterbacks although Aikman has said that a back problem and not concussions ultimately led him to retirement.

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Matson is hoping the NFLPA will look after the old players as part of the collective bargaining process which will eventually resume once the court proceedings wind down but he doesn’t hold much hope. Matson is 66 years old and qualifies for social security and Medicare. His body is a wreck and he needs some work on his shoulders as well as his ankles. The NFLPA failed him and his peers by not having collectively bargained a post-career benefit package with the owners.

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Evan Weiner

Evan Weiner, the winner of the United States Sports Academy’s 2010 Ronald Reagan Media Award, is an author, radio-TV commentator and speaker on “The Politics of Sports Business.” His book, “The Business and Politics of Sports, Second Edition” is available at www.bickley.com or amazonkindle. He can be reached at evanjweiner@yahoo.com
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6 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

1. John Hogan
   March 23rd, 2011 at 11:57 am #

   

   Evan’s writing should be required reading for all active NFL players and their wives.

   I still continue to be amazed by the dis-connect between active and retired players.

   John Hogan
   Disability Attorney & Player Advocate

2. Clyde Werner
   March 24th, 2011 at 12:57 pm #

   

   I was being recruited by Oregon for both Football and Track out of HS in 1966.

   Down to the last couple weeks to make my decision.

   Len Casanova is the Duck’s Hall of Fame coach at the time. Oregon Duck’s Asst. coach Bruce Alexander picked me up at the airport in Eugene. We go over to the campus for my “official visit” & tour. We meet up with another “Big Stud Guy” high school recruit named Andy Maurer from Medford, Oregon…. He’s 6′ 4″ 230 lb. And a super nice guy !!

   Bruce Alexander drops us at a frat house that would be hosting us that weekend. Says he’s got a couple of football players who will be taking us around for the weekend.

   They were… OL Pat Matson and – a Duck linebacker – now Hall of Famer NFL Linebacker named… Dave Wilcox.

   Fast forward to…
   1970!

   Andy went in 2nd round to Atlanta, I went in 2nd round to KC.

   For what it’s worth, my degree was in finance and I was a mortgage loan officer for Seattle First National Bank during the off season… if you even remember that bank.

   Made $550 a month during the off-season. And by the way, I worked summers to also pay back my frat bill. Scholarships didn’t cover it all.

   Drew Brees is not of this time and reality…

   Clyde Werner
   Kansas City Chiefs
   1970 – 1976

3. Dave Pear
   March 24th, 2011 at 1:01 pm #

   

   Benefits from the NFL for the pre-1993 retired players are a laughing stock!

   1) The current disability plan is illegal and consistently violates ERISA Law and HIPAA compliance.

   2) Pensions amount to no more than a monthly car payment and would never cover a health insurance payment for most retired players because the NFL saddled us with pre-existing conditions. We have now heard our union bragging about a what sounds like a “generous” 50% increase. That sounds exactly like Gene Upshaw’s phony dog-and-pony show he did in Washington DC in 2007 – because 50% of nothing is still nothing. For example, Wayne Hawkins: He played 11 years in the NFL and receives $200 a month! Yes – you read that right! For those of you at the NFLPA who are obviously not so good at math, that’s $200 for his entire 11 years of service, NOT $200 for each year of service! So his big 50% increase would make his monthly pension check a whopping $300 a month! This certainly isn’t a job for a yeoman from our counterfeit Union. They’ve never really been there for us!

   For a recently retired player, 50% is a lot. For a pre-1993 player, it makes no sense. Why do we even have a two-tier system? Any other Union representative (UAW, the REAL AFL/CIO, etc.) would understand that you would never go and tell the older workers at the plant from before 1993 that they weren’t going to receive the same pension as some young kid working today who already makes substantially more money on the assembly line now than his Union brothers in the past.

   The only solution: Pensions should at least match Major League Baseball (MLB). For ALL retired players.

   3) Medical. Pre-1993 players have none. We need medical insurance and not these phony gimmicks and discount programs we keep hearing about. Retired players will no longer believe in credibility from the NFL, NFLPA or Bell/Rozelle Retirement Board. Show us the facts and details. And no more Gene Upshaw 50% increases!

   Justice now for retired NFL players (especially the forgotten pre-1993).

   Regards,
   Dave & Heidi Pear

4. Larry Kaminski
   March 24th, 2011 at 2:28 pm #

   

   Dave:

   The piece on Pat Matson hits the nail on the head. I played with Pat and have communicated with him on the injury issues. He’s had the door slammed in his face by the NFLPA, NFLA, Goodell, and his former teams. The quotes from Drew Brees should be posted in every paper. Brees acts like goody-two-shoes. Does he realize he may be one hit away from the same results we all face? When do we quit the emotional arguments and get some results….?

   Larry Kaminski
   Denver Broncos
   1966 – 1973

5. Howard Carson
   March 24th, 2011 at 8:46 pm #

   

   Pretty lame for Brees to make those kinds of comments. I’m assuming he’s talking about the after 1993 players. He doesn’t get it about what pre-93 players made in my day: 1980 to 83, $30g 1st year, $35g year 2, year 3 strike in ’82 and got a little more at $90g. Fact is you’d think guys like Brees who are blessed with that kind of talent would be a little bit more informed and sensitive to players who weren’t more fortunate but still played for the love of the game and in doing so paved the way for current players to reap great benefits.

   Drew Brees gets my vote for the Pin Head Award.

   Howard Carson
   LA Rams
   1980 – 1983

6. Lou Piccone
   March 25th, 2011 at 3:21 pm #

   

   Evan, could you clarify the 1993 CBA as to the effect of decertification, and what actually happened after that? The Union decertified and the McNeil/White cases were filed, the Supreme Court finds the NFL to be in violation of the Anti-Trust laws and then the Union negotiated all of the New Post-’93 CBA benefits, leaving us behind. But essentially, they must have also allowed the Anti-Trust Exemptions to continue with the new CBA… please clarify if possible.

   Thank you!

   PS. – Thanks for helping to get the True News – instead of the Screw-You-News – out to the public and our Retired Players! God Bless You!

   Lou Piccone
   NY Jets – 74-76
   Buffalo Bills – 77-83