CBS Sports: NFL, NFLPA announce largest youth helmet replacement program ever - ProFootball Weekly: NFLPA names DePaso general counsel - NBC Sports: Ricky Williams doesn’t believe there’s a link between concussions and brain damage - We've posted the entire 896-page NIOHS NFL Players Study - just CLICK HERE to read. - FOX sports: Former Giants WR Robinson dies at 50 - IT'S OFFICIAL: George Martin resigns from NFL Alumni - FOXsports: Junior Seau, 43, found dead in apparent suicide - Washington Post: Ray Easterling, former NFL player who sued league over concussion treatment, dies at 62

Thanks to our friend, Jennifer Thibeaux, we have a great collection of photographs from our well-attended Second Annual Independent Football Veterans Conference held April 20 – 22 2012 at The South Point Resort in Las Vegas. Videos and PowerPoints to follow shortly!
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Here’s the slideshow from flickr  (there’s an enlarge button in the lower right hand corner of the slideshow screen if you want to view our slideshow fullscreen; just hit ESC to close fullscreen mode):
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With so many areas to cover this year at our Second Annual Independent Football Veterans Conference, we’ve adopted a broadcast format and assembled discussion panels with audience participation instead of individual speakers for the most part. Each panel will be broadcast as a separate topic covering the most important issues and questions retired players want to know.
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Each panelist will be given an opportunity to talk approximately 5 – 10 minutes about their particular areas of expertise and interest after which 30 – 45 minutes will then be devoted to general discussions and questions from our studio audience and our online viewers. For a list of our panelists and speakers, click HERE. We’ll be posting our Panelists’ Bios shortly.
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All retired players welcome to participate in this live event but be sure to register for your entry pass today - click HERE – and book you flight and room(s) at the South Point as soon as possible! The Conference is open to all retired football players by simply registering to attend. Media and other guests are limited and by invitation only – click HERE to contact us.
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Each panelist will be given an opportunity to talk for approximately 5 – 10 minutes about their particular areas of expertise and interest, after which 30 – 45 minutes will then be devoted to general discussions and questions from our studio audience and our online viewers. For a list of our panelists and speakers, click HERE. We’ll be posting our Panelists’ Bios shortly.
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2012 IFV Conference Schedule

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Second Annual Independent Football Veterans Conference

At last, we’re finally ready to announce our Second Annual Independent Football Veterans Conference! A lot of you have been calling and writing about our Conference and we thank everyone for their patience.
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We’ll be meeting once again in Las Vegas at the South Point Resort & Casino April 20 – 22, 2012. This year, we’ll be using a panel-style approach to cover a wide range of important topics ranging from the most recent information on lawsuits, your benefits, as well as more of the latest information on brain health and concussions. Other hot topics open for discussion will include The Legacy Fund, widows’ benefits (or the lack thereof), severance pay, Workers Compensation and Retirees’ Rights among other hot topics! We also have some social events planned for Friday and Saturday evening that will allow our attendees to catch up on their playing days with their teammates. We already have a dinner sponsored for our attendees scheduled for Saturday evening.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Dave will be heading in to the hospital tomorrow morning (Tuesday) for his scheduled total right hip replacement. We’ll keep you posted on his progress. In the meantime, we’ve been following the growing number of new concussion and helmet lawsuits over the past couple of months from all across the country. It’s been hard keeping up with all the details and lawyers and players behind each suit. Last week, many of them were consolidated in a Federal Court in Pennsylvania under Judge Anita Brody. Dave asked one of his attorneys, Jason Luckasevic, from the firm Goldberg Persky & White, to provide an overview and summary of what has happened so far.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: A copy of NFL Alumni COO Ron George’s Memo to Chapter Presidents arrived in our Inboxes this morning. Here it is in its entirety:
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From: Ronald George
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012
To: Chapter Presidents
Cc: George Martin; Joe Pisarcik; Randy Minniear
Subject: FoxSports Article
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Dear Chapter Presidents,
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Below you will find links to two articles written by FoxSports.com that were posted today.
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OK – so here we go again. We posted Dan Pastorini’s story about wanting to opt out of the NFL Alumni’s Group Licensing Agreement (click HERE to read that earlier post). On their membership page online, the GLA was automatically attached as a part of the membership process with no option to opt-out of the agreement in order to join the Alumni. Dan pointed that out to the rest of us. And that’s when the knives came out.
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Look, we don’t care who said what and exactly what the details may have been between Dan Pastorini and George Martin. And quite frankly, like most people, WHO REALLY CARES?!! But then two Alumni members, David Carter, President of the Houston Chapter, and Rod Smith, Carolinas Chapter President – both members on the Alumni Board of Directors apparently – decided to give a detailed He-Said-He-Said version of what transpired between Pastorini and Martin. And then Jeff Nixon decided to jump in on the Alumni blog and make it personal with Dave and me. Again. We only hope they’re paying you well over at the Alumni now, Jeff…

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Here’s the real issue and this is what we’re absolutely 110% in agreement with Dan Pastorini: Attaching a completely unrelated and unsolicited Licensing Agreement to what’s supposed to be nothing more than a simple membership enrollment is just plain wrong! In fact, it’s downright sneaky, unethical and it actually violates consumer law!
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Jeff Nixon decided to call Dan Thursday and Dan shared that conversation with us on Friday:
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“Jeff Nixon told me that George had admitted ‘He may have made a mistake’ in tying the GLA to their membership enrollment.”
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“If I almost missed it when I was signing up, then I wonder how many other players had already missed that GLA footnote? And that was my point! It was all a matter of principle.” Dan said. “As a matter of fact, if George is finally coming out and admitting that it was a mistake in adding the contract and they’re now planning on removing that hook, what about all the guys who have already inadvertently signed their GLA? I think the Alumni needs to invalidate all those copies of the GLA that they’ve acquired through their membership forms and then offer their GLA to its members separately. It’s not me I’m concerned about now. It’s any of the other guys who have already been locked into this GLA without their full knowledge or consent.”

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