Dave Pear's Blog

OK – so now we have a new back-and-forth PR spin game with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell trying to tell everyone how committed he is to taking care of retired players and then the NFLPA calls his remarks ‘ disengenuous’ from their annual meeting …in Hawaii. (Read the Associated Press article – click HERE.)

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We have one simple question for both sides: Since when did retired players become a negotiating chip or a sound bite?

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We have a short clip from YouTube starring our favorite 3 Stooges, Larry, Curly and Moe. Larry plays the NFL, Curly plays the NFLPA and Moe plays – well, Moe just plays Moe. Grow up, people – enough already! Retired players are dying by the day and you people are still squabbling about who cares about them more? Actions speak louder than words. When retired players finally start receiving real checks in the mail, we’ll all start believing you. Until then, listen to Moe.

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Typically, Mike Florio on ProFootballTalk (now owned by MSNBC Sports) tends to lean more anti-NFLPA in his posts. But today, when NFL mouthpiece Greg Aiello decided to knock the NFLPA for having their annual gathering in sunny Hawaii, Florio actually quipped back:

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“Still, the union’s trek to the islands has prompted a jab from NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, who made the following point via Twitter:  “Weather today in NY is atrocious . . . would rather be in Maui but can’t afford it.”

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“The union might respond to the dig by suggesting that Aiello ask former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue for a loan.  After all, Tagliabue made $3.3 million last year, despite retiring in 2006.”

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Luke ,

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I’m still waiting for someone to produce anything at all that I’ve received this money, and where is the W-2 you said the Eagles were sending me two weeks ago?

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Burt

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NFLPA Lawyers Door

It seems that the NFLPA was under the rule of lawyers for decades when departed Executive Director Gene Upshaw ran the place. We’ve covered many of the lawyers inside over the past couple of years. And current Executive Director DeMaurice Smith recently alluded to the conflict of interest posed by the Groom Law Group with regard to the players’ pension plans; they wrote the plan and they represented BOTH the NFLPA AND the NFL when it came to defending the plan. (Click HERE to see the Super Bowl announcement.)

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Then you have Jeffrey Kessler who fought against the retired players in the Parrish GLA lawsuit by representing the NFLPA (who’s SUPPOSED to be representing the retired players’ interests – got that?!) and then turns around to represent the Union in the recent American Needle antitrust case in the Supreme Court. You also have CAA superagent Tom Condon who makes the big bucks representing many of the active players in their contracts with the League while also supposedly looking after retired players’ interests by serving for years as one of the 3 NFLPA representatives on the Disability Committee (most applicants get turned down for full benefits). And last but not least, you have NFLPA General Counsel, Richard Berthelsen, who’s been there as long as the wallpaper advising Upshaw over the years.

Gene Berthelsen

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A new article from the Boston Globe’s Albert Breer, titled “Union’s pitch for capped 2010 shot down provides just a little more insight into why the League doesn’t want a cap next year.” The best part is an Update paragraph that was added to the end of the story:

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For the past couple of days, we had a run of comments on an earlier post between Burt Grossman and Lionel James about their missing Severance Pay. It turns out that Burt has been going in circles with the NFL, the Eagles front office and the NFLPA trying to get the $40,000 in severance that he had coming after retiring from the Eagles in 1994 based on rules set out in the CBA. We even put him in touch with Mitchell Welch from Gay Culverhouse’s Players’ Outreach so they could see firsthand how little assistance retired players can expect once they’re out of the game. Like the old expression goes: The lights are on but no one’s home.

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Irv Cross explained how that Severance Pay is calculated according to the CBA since 1993 – click HERE to read his earlier post discussing these rules.

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Anyway, here’s Burt’s story about his missing $40,000:

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Rep. Linda Sánchez

Earlier this month, Congresswoman Linda Sánchez (D- CA) wrote a very clear letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about that legacy fund for disabled and retired players. Of course, if it’s going to be a fair deal, it has to be based on real numbers. But isn’t simply allowing the NFL and its owners pick a number to put on the table like letting a convicted criminal pick his own sentence? Or how about like letting Bernie Madoff tell the Feds how much he stole so he can tell them how much he’s going to pay back to his victims? Her letter makes a clear request for real, audited numbers.

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Click on the thumbnail images to enlarge for reading.

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We’ve recently had some comments and questions come up regarding Severance Pay for players who retired in the past 10 – 15 years. And, of course, a lot of broader questions about retired players and their part in the discussions and agreements. But without actually seeing a copy of the current (2006) Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), it’s hard to discuss much when you don’t know what’s in it.

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So – here’s a copy of the entire 361-page CBA that was officially adopted on March 8, 2006 and was set to expire in 2012. We’ve posted on the entire contract on Scribd for easier access and viewing. (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.) The League and its owners recently decided to walk away from the agreement in advance of a new contract, leaving the possibility of an uncapped year in 2011 and a looming lockout. continue reading »

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Conrad Dobler still loves to stir things up once in a while, even after dozens of knee surgeries. He recently went on the road to promote his latest book, Pride and Perseverance, and while at a pre-Super Bowl press conference in Miami, he let loose with some comments about Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees. No one expected the amount of coverage – good and bad – that his comments would receive.  But to paraphrase P.T. Barnum, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity – just be sure to spell my name right!” Over the past year, Brees had made some broad disparaging comments about the general condition of retired players’ lives and why they were having the problems after their retirement from the game.

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We’re posting an excerpt from Conrad’s book that summarizes the frustration most retired players have when trying to deal with their Union and their League in trying to get access to the benefits that have been set aside for them in the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Players Retirement Plan. With 32 surgeries behind him – all obviously football-related – anyone with common sense would agree that the man should have been receiving full disability benefits over the years.

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The Story of My Fight for NFL Benefits

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A lot of retired players and fans write from time to time to ask if there’s a simple flowchart of the pecking order in the NFL. This is the simplest one we could find that we know everyone will understand:

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It’s another Monday, one week after Super Bowl Sunday. Some current news items of note as well as a couple of reminders on some events and dates that are coming up.

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No Raise for poor Roger!

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According to a recent piece from Dan Kaplan of Sports Business Journal, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has generously opted out of a raise in accepting a new 5-year extension to his own contract through March 15, 2015. His salary – along with other executive salaries – are being publicly disclosed in their recent 2009 IRS tax return that Sports Business Journal received in advance of filing. It’s hard to feel sorry for a guy who still managed to take home $10 million+ ($2.9 million in base pay, and $9.76 million overall including bonuses, and deferred and other compensation). They even managed to pay former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue $3.3 million in “consulting fees,” apparently for having done such a fantastic job of negotiating that last CBA (which they’ve now canceled a year before it expires). In total, the Top 8 NFL Executives earned the paltry sum of $35.86 million in 2009. Do you think any of these guys have to worry about their pensions or medical and health care? Hmm. And these are the guys asking for 20% pay cuts from the players?

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ESPN is sponsoring an independent study on NFL retired players’ pain and pain management issues. This study will be conducted by Dr. Linda Cottler from Washington University in St. Louis through phone interviews. They’ve assured everyone that participants and personal details will be kept completely anonymous. (Click on the letter to enlarge for easier reading.)

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Remember this one? When some of the rhetoric first started coming out about the NFL’s revenue-sharing with the NFLPA and the players, Commissioner Roger Goodell’s standard answer was that those generous owners were handing over almost 60% of their revenues to those greedy players. Recently, the League has been demanding a 20% reduction in salaries as well as no salary cap on the top end of rookies’ and older players’ contracts. And now it’s also becoming clear that the NFL’s idea of 60% has never really been 60% of gross but some convoluted accounting that ends up actually being closer to 52%. The League’s PR flaks and shills (aka attack dogs) have been trying to spin out the idea that the NFLPA needs to open their books even as they continue to dodge calls for an audit of their own numbers. We believe that transparency is needed from both sides of the fence but right now the fact that the NFLPA has to file annual LM-2’s with the Dept. of Labor makes the Union more open than 31 of the 32 teams in disclosure (the Green Bay Packers are the only publicly-owned team and therefore required to open their books annually). As common sense goes, the NFLPA’s numbers will never be completely accurate if the NFL hasn’t actually been paying its real share all these years.

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So now…

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A lot of you out there probably still remember Gay Culverhouse’s passionate testimony in front of Congress last October. (You can read her testimony by clicking HERE.) During the time Gay Culverhouse was President of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, she witnessed firsthand many of the things that teams and team doctors do in treating their employees: the players. Dr. Culverhouse has been taking up the cause for retired players’ rights in their generally next-to-impossible process to apply for disability and pension benefits. After she began to realize the scope of this problem, Dr. Culverhouse recently started a new nonprofit organization – Gay Culverhouse Players’ Outreach Program – to provide assistance to any and all players who either need assistance in applying for their benefits or who have been turned down for benefits. (Click HERE to access their website.)

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If you would like additional information, they’ll be hosting a Gay Culverhouse Players’ Outreach Program meeting on Monday, February 15, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Comfort Inn Conference Center, 820 E. Busch Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612. Appetizers, soda & beer will be served. For room reservations call 1(800) 288-4011, mention Players Outreach Program, and book by Feb. 12th to receive special pricing.

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First item is one final reminder to get your paperwork sent in to Garden City Group to claim your piece of the GLA settlement lawsuit. If your name is on the list and you don’t have your paperwork, you’ll need to call them immediately (866) 697-5552 and leave a message with your number – they will get back to you quickly. Have them fax it to you so you can get that paperwork postmarked no later than Feb. 9, 2010 to qualify for your first of two checks. Click on the GLA Settlement News link on the right side of this blog to find the information and phone numbers that you need.

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And for those who have already received your checks, Bernie Parrish can now accept credit card donations for his next litigation fund. Click HERE.

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Over Super Bowl weekend, we also quietly posted a free viewing of the documentary Blood Equity on this site as well as the Football Summit blog. 15-year NFL veteran & 3 time Super Bowl Champion, Roman Phifer produced this film about life after football as most players live it. Click HERE to get to that post so you can watch it in its entirety online! Of course, the producers couldn’t get permission to use any actual NFL footage because of the subject so you won’t see any on-the-field material anywhere in this film.

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