Dave Pear's Blog

We finally have Bernie Parrish’s testimony before  the Congressional Judiciary Committee on concussions which was recently held at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit on January 4, 2010. Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and his staff did an incredible job of organizing this hearing on such short notice just after the new year. You can still watch the entire 5 hr :22 min hearing in an earlier post by clicking HERE.

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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.

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On November 23, 2009, in San Francisco, California, Federal District Court Judge William Alsup rendered a blistering set of three orders approving the settlement agreement in Parrish & Adderley vs. NFLPA Players Inc. However, in rendering the orders, Judge Alsup said of the award of attorneys’ fees, “When combined with the expense reimbursement below, counsel is receiving approximately 25 percent of the value of the settlement. This figure adequately compensates counsel for the work performed in this action. A reasonable fee in light of the ultimate recovery obtained for the class, and is reasonable in light of the missed opportunity for an even higher recovery.”

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We keep getting inquiries and comments on an almost daily basis asking about when the retired players will finally be receiving their Players Inc. settlement money. Since the settlement was first announced with great fanfare in early June at a well-covered press conference that included NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, plaintiffs’ attorney Ron Katz and plaintiff Herb Adderley, few details have been available on how, what, when, where and why. We need a Jerry Maguire to remind the NFLPA/Players Inc. to Show Us the Money!

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OK, OK – before everyone gets their underwear in knots, it’s actually only one thing they “agree” on. But before we get into that, a little background: Over the years, the late Gene Upshaw was adamant about the fact that he didn’t work for the retired players. (Read about it HERE.) Yet, the NFLPA receives at least 60% of gross revenues from the NFL and its owners and a portion of that goes to the retired players for disability and pension benefits that they help to manage and distribute as minimally as possible.

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4/17/2009
Subject: Madden not paying retired players while collecting over $100 million in royalties off the retired players’ backs – Did Madden scramble your identity to keep from paying you?

The retired NFL players who were used in Madden EA video games will be suing Madden and EA for using us in those games without compensating us. Madden’s agent Sandy Montag boasts he and Madden collected over $100,000,000 in royalties while paying the retired NFL players used in those games absolutely nothing. Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement. I doubt he wants to answer all those fans who will be asking, “Why, John Madden? Why did you screw all those retired players over, you seemed like such a friendly, good-natured buffoon?”

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The Congressional Confirmation Hearings for Eric Holder as Attorney General are going on right now. Most of the retired players have expressed their negative views about this mouthpiece and lobbyist for the NFL. Their fears of Holder running interference with ongoing Congressional investigations into the NFL’s mistreatment of its retired players need to be brought to the forefront to ensure that Holder will be forced to recuse himself from anything to do with the NFL. Better yet – after looking at some of the press coverage on the things he’s been involved with over the years, perhaps he shouldn’t be confirmed.

No doubt, Holder is one of the best lawyers money can buy… But surely there are better, more ethical attorneys (is that an oxymoron?) for the job?

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As most of you now know, Bernie Parrish played a key role in the successful players’ litigation against the NFLPA and Players Inc. in San Francisco. Around the same time, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced what appeared to be a groundbreaking tour to NFL host cities to hear about what the retired players truly want to see happen for them. Unfortunately, as we soon discovered, it’s been nothing more than a transparent PR scam to generate the illusion that they’re actually doing something. While Goodell shows up dragging along his personal entourage that includes the like of Harold Henderson (general counsel) and the NFL PR flaks, the players themselves are told that they can’t bring anyone to the meetings. No counsel, no doctors, not even caregivers or spouses. So disability experts like John Hogan were not even allowed to attend that first meeting in Dallas (he was uninvited by the likes of Harold Henderson AFTER he was invited and flew there at his own expense). (Click HERE and HERE and HERE to read about that first meeting and the fallout after.) And it goes on. The second meeting in Chicago was even worse; it was announced with short notice, few retired players showed up and their stories were all the same. And oh yes – no one was allowed into the “meeting” except retired players.

Now there’s another meeting scheduled for Baltimore on December 11th at 6:30 at the Doubletree Hotel. And yep – absolutely no one allowed to attend except retired players. So if you’re a retired player – dead or alive – you’re invited to show up and speak your mind!

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Bernie Parrish has a common-sense proposal that he’s compiled in a simple outline that’s easy to understand. It speaks for itself so hereit is in its entirety:

Guys: I sent this to you a month or so ago and I sent it to many congressional staffers, Representatives and Senators. I’m about to send it again so if you have anything to add or change, please let me know.

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Bernie Parrish just updated us with details on the what has unfolded so far with his lawsuit against the NFLPA et al:

Here’s what’s happening with the class action suit. It’s the NFLPA’s worst nightmare.

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Never one to pull any punches, Cleveland Browns’ all-time great, Bernie Parrish, calls it like it is in this e-mail I received just last week:

The Pellman-Aon Corporation (Bears owner Patrick Ryan’s company our retirement plan actuary) Alliance meets again today. Elliot Pellman who falsified his medical resume and got caught by the NY Times saying he had a degree from SUNY Stony Brook that made him qualified as an expert on brain injuries when he did not. Dr. Pellman is a rheumatologist with a degree from Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico not from SUNY Stony Brook appointed by Paul Tagliabue to be the NFL’s concussion expert. Elliot Pellman heading up another NFL PR farce is a cruel joke. He knows too much for the owner’s or their current puppet in the Commissioner’s office to fire him so they created a joint replacement scam to fit his degree, if in fact he really has one. Though almost any full service hospital in America have doctors who can replace joints. This new Goodell sham limits disabled players to 14 hospitals around the country who give the Pellman-Aon Alliance Program a special deal after you, the disabled retired player put up the first $5,000 for your surgery.

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