Dave Pear's Blog

Fellas,

A number of months ago I told you all that Gene had actually stated to a group of his gangsters the following: ” We don’t have to worry about dividing those assholes because they have divided themselves.” Let’s not let him be proven right.

I also stated to all of you some months back that I was a “Bernie Parrish Man” all the way. That has not changed. Upshaw, the NFLPA and the NFL feared – and fears – Bernie more than it does any man alive. That’s a fact. The NFL even offered to negotiate directly with the retired players if someone could get Bernie to “go away.” Ha ha ha. Fat chance of that ever happening. No one can dispute the commitment that Bernie, Herb and Walt had before any of the rest of us even dreamed that we could really take these Gangsters…

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Harold Henderson in front of Congress

It was obvious after the meeting that the NFL’s in house attorney, Harold Henderson, tried to do an end run with his attempts to get real information to the retired players. Here’s the follow up on our Snowing in Dallas (click HERE to read that) post about Commissioner Goodell’s visit to Dallas. Many of you were well aware ahead of time that John Wooten had invited John Hogan to the meeting in Dallas. As a courtesy, we decided not to publicize his trip, with hopes that John Hogan would be given some time to actually address many of the issues he has personally encountered with the NFLPA’s disability program (or lack thereof). But that was not to be. John was initially turned away from the “closed” meeting and then allowed to take a seat but was told he couldn’t address the group about his findings and ideas. John left the meeting before it finished and then received an interesting e-mail from John Wooten (after we posted Snowing in Dallas) denying he had invited John Hogan to attend. What was more interesting however was another e-mail that came in after Wooten sent that e-mail out to John Hogan AND Harold Henderson. Henderson then sent a short and terse e-mail back to John Wooten and it sure looks like he doesn’t know too much about the Internet and e-mail either (like our good friends at Akin Gump!). Looks like Henderson clicked on that REPLY ALL button and sent his message out to John Wooten as well as John Hogan and several other people in the NFL organization: Jeff Pash, Peter Abitante and Deborah Pugliese). Pash is an Executive VP and an attorney, Abitante is their PR flak (?!!) and Pugliese is Goodell’s secretary. Now why would Henderson have to keep their PR counsel informed? Here’s the e-mail:

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This weekend, I received an insightful e-mail back from our SS Disability attorney friend, John Hogan, with his observations about the proposed Alliance Plan from Commissioner Goodell. I told him I’d try calling Sarah Gaunt again on Monday morning.

So this morning, I called the Union office again to ask about this new plan and the call was picked up by a ‘CJ’ who apparently runs the front desk (or screens our calls). I told her who I was and asked to speak with Sarah regarding some questions I had. I was put on hold for about 5 minutes. When she finally came back on the line, she told me that Sarah was “busy” (again) and couldn’t take my call. So I asked her if I could pose the questions to her instead, to which she told me that she was “busy with other calls.” To which I asked her what the difference was with MY call and any other calls she might have. She again put me on hold and then hung up on me a couple of minutes later without coming back on the line.

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John Hogan – an Attorney who specializes in Disability for over 25 years – asks: What is a promise? continue reading »