Dave Pear's Blog

George Visger, 52, earned the ultimate prize in professional football: a championship with the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XVI in 1982. The former defensive tackle also bagged an Orange Bowl victory while playing with the University of Colorado.
.
But now he’s paying the ultimate price for all those years on the gridiron. After thousands of on-field hits to his head, hydrocephalus, and multiple brain surgeries, he is struggling with memory problems. And he receives absolutely NO benefits whatsoever – pension or disability – from the NFL in spite of his Super Bowl ring because he doesn’t meet their arbitrary 3-year vesting rule!
.
George is currently an environmental consultant in California.
.
Dan Bunz is a former American Football linebacker who played for the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions in an eight-year career that lasted from 1978 to 1985 in the National Football League.
.
As a linebacker for the 49ers in Super Bowl XVI, he made one of the most famous defensive tackles ever witnessed. On a critical 3rd-and-goal from the one-yard line, Anderson passed to Charles Alexander in the right flat, but Bunz came up fast, grabbed the receiver around the waist, and hurled him backward before he could break the plane of the goal line. “The Stop” is regarded as “The Best Thing Witnessed On TV Ever.” He was a member of the San Francisco 49ers Super Bowl XVI and Super Bowl XIX winning teams.
.
Dan currently teaches Physical Education at Sutter Middle School in Sacramento. He also teaches people of all ages in being healthy and fit.
.
Here are George and Dan telling the audience about the reality of their lives after football with an emphasis on the long-term effects of concussions and the failed disability process and system that the NFL and the NFLPA continue to impose on its retired employees.
.

IFV Conference – Dan Bunz and George Visger from Jennifer Thibeaux on Vimeo.

continue reading »

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.)

continue reading »

Sharon Hawkins applied on behalf of her husband, Wayne Hawkins, for disability benefits under the recent program that closed on July 31, 2008. (Read about the original application by clicking HERE,)

Cryptically, Wayne got disqualified. Again.

continue reading »