Dave Pear's Blog

Golden football but no golden parachute...

Remember Troy Vincent? He was the one player inside the NFLPA who chose to question Gene Upshaw in his final year at the NFLPA. As President of the NFLPA for four years, he actually believed that he could bring up the idea of a succession plan for Gene Upshaw. And it cost him dearly. Although Vincent eventually ended up in the final run for the NFLPA Executive Director position after Upshaw’s untimely departure, his earlier tangles with many in the Upshaw regime left him at a severe disadvantage; DeMaurice Smith was subsequently appointed as the new chief of the NFLPA last year. But Troy was back on his feet once again after being appointed the new VP of Player Development for the NFL earlier this year.

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Amen Clinics: Head Trauma / Drug Abuse

Our heads are hurting from following the growing coverage on concussions in the mainstream media just as the NFL season kicks off.

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We were all excited when the NFL finally got rid of Ira “Dr. No” Casson as Co-Chair of the NFL’s “Mild” Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. What surprised us was the selection of Dr. Richard Ellenbogen as co-chair of the newly-named NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee. Dr. Ellenbogen hails from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle as chief of neurological surgery and has been very proactive at the state level in legislation regarding concussions in youth athletics.

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Mercury Morris has recently been discussing an investigation into the NFL and its handling of the retired players’ disability and pension benefits. Here’s his synopsis of what he’s made available to select members of the media so far:

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So here we are well into our third year with Dave’s Blog. When Dave first decided to document and present his experiences in dealing with his life after football, we had no idea just how many people wanted to read his story or how many – or how few – other retired players were suffering the same fate.

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Over these past couple of years, we discovered there were a lot of different but similar accounts of all the ways that retired football players have been denied their earned benefits.  Just when you thought you’d heard it all, a new one comes along.

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This past weekend, we read a post on the National Football Post about Conrad Dobler’s most recent struggles to survive after 30 surgeries – including 10 knee replacements – all while still looking after his wife, Joy, who has been a quadriplegic since 2001. (Read the article – click HERE.)

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And last week, we received a letter from Larry Kaminski expressing his personal frustrations in trying to navigate the archaic disability application process for his disability benefits. We’re posting Larry’s letter below. We have several more stories that have come in just recently - watch for them over the next week .

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Last week, we received a couple of copies of the current Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Players Retirement Plan (released in April 2009) from different sources. After reviewing and comparing them, we’ve confirmed that we have an accurate copy of the plan and we’re posting it here for everyone.

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Here’s the full video of the Congressional Forum held on May 24, 2010 in New York City on Key Issues Related to the Identification and Prevention of Head Injuries in Football (2:16). You can see the witness list on the Judiciary Committee site (click HERE).

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Alexander Hamilton US Customs House

With the growing firestorm from DeMaurice Smith’s recent comments about retired players’ relations, we forgot to mention that the Congressional Judiciary Committee held a Forum this past Monday (May 24th) in New York City on Key Issues Related to the Identification and Prevention of Head Injuries in Football. Among the people speaking were Dr. H. Hunt Batjer and Dr. Richard Elenbogen, the two newly-appointed co-chairs of the NFL’s “Mild” Traumatic Brain Injury Committee – er, wait – they changed it to the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee! So what happened to concussions and brain injuries? Did they just magically disappear? We almost miss Dr. No!

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With things continuing to heat up in the off-season between the NFLPA and the NFL during a no-CBA year, the real issues that continue to at the forefront for retired players will never change: disability and pension reform, as well as access to medical care after football. These issues have made their way into the mainstream media and have certainly gotten the attention of our representatives on Capitol Hill. Nonetheless, a whole new set of apologists have come on the scene to point fingers at the messengers. In recent months, we’ve started to see more attack posts blaming the messengers for not coming up with solutions. To answer some of these people – at least in part – we haven’t even begun to point out everything that’s wrong yet! And if you can only waste your time criticizing everyone else, maybe you might consider putting up a few suggestions of your own? Or maybe the NFL’s got your tongue?

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In our last post, we covered another NFL benefit offer for retired players and we mentioned the popular myth that the NFL (and Gene Upshaw’s NFLPA by association at the time) perpetuated for decades was that most retired players had dramatically shortened lives and many of you would be dead by the time you were 55. A lot of the older players have confirmed that this was the general information being given to them over the years.

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Some people just can’t seem to keep their hands out of the cookie jar. Or maybe it’s more like getting their fingers stuck in the till. Our friends over at AON Consulting have popped back up on the radar screen once again. A couple of weeks ago, Dave received another important communiqué from his good friends at the NFL Player Care Foundation. It was a reminder about this program for discount prescription drug benefit.

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Read into it what you will but we don’t recall too many times when the NFLPA has stepped into an arbitration hearing for a retired player in the past. What we really have a problem understanding is why the NFL insists on asking for arbitration anyway. Wouldn’t it have been easier – and a whole lot smarter – just to have paid these guys their Severance Pay in the first place? (Click on the images to enlarge for easier reading.)

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NPR’s Tell Me More with host, Michel Martin, interviewed Dr. Eleanor Perfetto and Brent Boyd this morning. Dr. Perfetto recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of her husband, Ralph Wentzel, who played lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers from 1966 – 1973; her lawsuit is the first workers’ compensation claim for dementia resulting from brain injuries incurred while playing football. Ralph Wentzel is now living in an assisted living facility with severe dementia. The NFL’s Plan 88 is covering his assisted living costs ($88,000 a year). Brent Boyd was an offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings and was diagnosed with early onset dementia 4 years ago. (Brent’s website is HERE.)

Dr. Eleanor Perfetto

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Dr. Daniel Amen

Dr. Daniel Amen introduces and summarizes his recent breakthrough study of nearly 100 retired NFL football players’ brains using SPECT scans at his Amen Clinics. This summary chronicles some of the time line and history of how the study came about and the subsequent negative reaction from the NFL. Scientific evidence continues to mount for the case linking brain concussions to long-term brain damage and we can only hope that brain health finally gains a prominent place in all professional sports.

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A new study to be released this Friday will reveal some very surprising numbers and statistics in comparing major global sports and professional athletes. While American football is unquestionably the most lucrative professional team sport on earth, most people – especially football fans – will be completely shocked to realize that football doesn’t even place in the Top 10 for salaries. Who’s Number 1? MLB’s New York Yankees is the top team with an average annual salary of $7 million while the NBA is the richest league (!). The NFL is among the cheapest, ranking below cricket!

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