Dave Pear's Blog

Posted with the express consent of Irv Muchnick from his blog Concussion Inc.:
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Published January 10th, 2012

Rep. Linda Sánchez

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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS

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24 March 2011
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BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
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Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins asked a question in a column written after the NFL lockout started on March 11. It was a simple query that the writer could not answer. “Where is it written that (NFL) owners are entitled to the lion’s share of revenues from structures we help build and support?”

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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS

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23 March 2011
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BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
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(New York, N. Y.) — Pat Matson has a very clear interest in the National Football League owners-National Football League Players Association or correctly the former National Football League Players Association as the players have decertified as a “union.” Matson was a player in both the American Football League with Denver and Cincinnati and when the American Football League-National Football League completed their merger in 1970, Matson moved to the NFL with Cincinnati.

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Matson was the Cincinnati Bengals player representative in the brief 1974 NFL strike. Matson is one of the players who have been left behind by the very players association where he was once a players representative and walked a picket line in 1974.

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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS

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Thursday, 17 March 2011
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BY EVAN WEINER
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
COMMENTARY
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As the National Football League hired lawyers and attorneys from the decertified National Football League Players Association game-planned for an April court date in Minneapolis where they will argue over what went wrong in their collective bargaining talks and why there is no new Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, Gene Atkins will go about his daily struggle at his Texas home.
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The 46-year-old Atkins has some better days than others but struggles with his concentration and focus and his constant headaches and pain. Doctors said he has permanent brain damage from playing football. Atkins was once of the most intimidating players on the New Orleans Saints, a safety who hit hard and wanted to put fear in offensive players.
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But that was a long time ago. Atkins last played for the Miami Dolphins in 1996 and then retired. His life soon unraveled. There was a domestic dispute involving his wife, an arrest, business failures, depression, constant headaches and by 2000, the thoughts of suicide. Atkins’ post-career problems seem to follow a pattern, a rather disturbing set of circumstances that is not all that unusual among ex-NFL players. He is living off the United States safety net of Social Security and Medicare despite his young age like other former NFL players, a safety net that might cost taxpayers a billion dollars for discarded, disabled players.
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Gentlemen:

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More keeps coming out on the touchy-feely meetings that Commissioner Goodell has been conducting with the “Alliance” in league cities across the country. The first meeting held in Dallas ended with Disability Attorney being invited – and then uninvited – by John Wooten (read about that HERE) and as revealed in a series of interesting e-mails that followed the meeting (read about that HERE). Then a dull second meeting in Chicago and a more interesting one last week in Baltimore. The spouses of several players with dementia confronted the Commissioner outside of the meeting room about being denied a voice in the process. And then the New York Times backed it up with the revelation that it was the Alliance who decided to close the meetings to everyone except retired players (read about that HERE and HERE).

Behind the scenes, there’s been a flurry of e-mails and phone calls between the retired players and some members of the “Alliance,” discussing and rationalizing the secret decision to keep the meetings closed. And lots and lots of backpedaling and finger-pointing. We’ve got one interesting exchange that came from Alliance member John Wooten trying once again to explain his way out of another ridiculous situation. Tony Davis’ response is first and Wooten’s e-mail follows at the end. Tony is expressing an opinion that the majority of retired players all seem to share. So why weren’t the other players even consulted before the Big Brother Alliance decided for them?

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Photo by Karsten Moran / For NFL.com

This is the stuff that champions are made of. After an exemplary life meeting incredible challenges, Reggie Williams is now facing what may be his greatest battle. Williams went up to New York in April from his home in Orlando for what he thought would be another short operation on his knee. Several surgeries and seven months later, he’s still stuck in New York fighting to save his leg from amputation as a result of massive post-op infections.

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We missed this piece from the New York Times’ George Vecsey from this past May titled Accepting the Costs of a Life in Football.

This is a great read! (Click HERE to go directly to the full article) It details the incredible story of Reggie Williams, who played a remarkable 14 years as a linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals. Reggie – like Conrad Dobler – has endured double knee replacement surgery over the years while still managing to live a rich and VERY full life.

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