We recently got our hands on a list of some of the NFL and NFLPA’s assets as reported on their tax returns dating back from 2009. Like the earlier LM-2′s that the NFLPA is required to file annually with the Dept. of Labor each year, there are some very interesting items in this list. We’ve redlined some of the most interesting – and sometimes glaring – “assets,” many of which will need some explanation or serious investigation. (EDITOR’S NOTE: We believe our sources to be reliable and as always, if there’s anything in this document that needs correction, we would certainly invite the NFL and the NFLPA to open their books and correct us.)
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Of course, how could any list be controversial if it didn’t include Gene Upshaw? First item on the list is the Gene Upshaw NFL Player Health Reimbursement Account Plan Trust (?!!), with escalating assets of $194,238,969 in 2008, up from $75,3003,713 in 2007. We can assume that based on this kind of growth that the fund probably broke $250 million in 2010! That’s a quarter of a BILLION dollars, folks! And the fund was obviously in place years before Upshaw left the building in 2009. Just exactly what IS the Player Health Reimbursement Plan and has anyone out there received any benefits from this fund? Or is it someone’s idea of a piggy bank that the $16 million came from for his estate? With assets like these sitting around, we’re questioning why they claimed to be out of cash to pay all the retired players with one check for their GLA Players Inc. lawsuit settlement.
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Also interesting to note is that in 2009, the NFL Alumni Charities disclosed that they had no assets to report, yet as far back as 2003, their NFL Alumni Dire Need Charitable Trust had $1,230,857 in assets and it dropped to a paltry $131,702 in 2008! Yet the NFL Youth Football Fund (!) has seen its assets bounce from as high as $85,844,079 in 2007 to the last reported assets of $49,630,178 in 2009 – not pocket change. The NFL and the Union certainly seem more generous to everyone else EXCEPT their own retired players, especially when you contrast those generous assets to what was in the NFL Player Care Foundation coffers in 2009: $150,353! Now we understand why players like Dave were only reimbursed a few hundred dollars after his $50,000+ hip replacement surgery. In spite of all the press and fanfare about this great new program when it was first announced, they didn’t have enough to actually pay much out to anyone. It’s probably safe to assume that they paid more in salaries and management fees for the funds and pensions than they actually held and distributed to the players themselves!
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One final point: Is it just us or are the NFL Employee Reciprocal Flexible Benefits Plan Trusts for most of the teams listed woefully underfunded?
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Here’s the list so far uploaded to Scribd for easier viewing and to make it downloadable. You can click on the FULL SCREEN button to enlarge it for easier navigation (hit the ESC key to close). You can also click the DOWNLOAD button to save a PDF copy for printing and reading later:
NFL NFLPA Assets up to 2009 with Highlights
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And About Those NFL Concussion Studies…
Here’s why we’re so excited about Dr. Amen’s offer to provide free brain scans which will be included in his upcoming study of football concussions. Many of you guys have already signed up but if you haven’t done so already, click HERE to read that earlier post and sign up right away – this offer is currently limited to the first 100 players to join the study!
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Over the years, the NFL has continued to do lip service about all those studies they’re supposed to have been conducting on brain concussions and injuries that most players sustain over their careers. But just like the calls for an open audit of their books, few people seem to have been privy to all of the the studies that they’re supposed to have collected. In the past, we’ve also pointed out that among other “studies”, the NFL apparently also has actuarial numbers on all of the players that were provided by a subsidiary of AON Corp. headquartered in Chicago. Some of the principals in AON Corp. also happened to be owners of the Chicago Bears – read some of those earlier posts by clicking HERE. You’ll be directed to a series of earlier posts on AON’s relationship to the NFL – including this one at the top – just keep scrolling down to the other posts below. Among other things, those actuarial numbers have been used to calculate just how much they hold back from you for your surviving spouse policy on your retirement benefits (And who has actually seen their paperwork for THAT policy? Isn’t all of that called a Conflict of Interest in any other business?).
Amen Clinic Offering Free Brain Scans for Independent Study on NFL Brain Injuries!
Here’s your personal invitation from Dr. Kristen Willeumier from the Amen Clinics to arrange an appointment to receive your free brain scan for their new study specifically focused on NFL football players’ concussions. NOTE: This study is completely independent of the NFL and the NFLPA.
Burning Down the House that Gene Upshaw Built
A few months ago, the media reported that newly-elected NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith had returned to D.C. from another road trip meeting with active players, only to find his office engulfed in flames. (Read that post from June HERE.) Apparently someone had left a candle burning in an adjacent bathroom late at night while the new boss was away… (?!!!) It seems that a lot of old Gene Upshaw memorabilia may have been damaged or destroyed in the fire.
It’s here! The 2008 NFLPA LM-2!
Getting our hands on the NFLPA’s 2007 LM-2 financial report to the US Dept. of Labor was as close as we can get to a forensic audit of how the Union spent (or misspent) everyone’s money (read that post from last February about 2007′s LM-2 HERE). And once again, it took a while to find it and even longer to download (crashed my browser a few times) and save as a PDF file (crashed a couple of times again!). But now we have all 810 pages of this file and it was around 5 Meg of data. Then we also had to break it up into smaller sections so the special document viewer wouldn’t choke on it. So at last, here it is!
This Just In: Inquiring Minds Want to Know!
The Associated Press just received a copy of a letter from four members of Congress asking the Department of Labor to monitor the NFL Players’ Association’s search for a new executive director. From Forbes’ website:
“We would like to ensure the integrity of the search process and that the process is transparent, fair and compliant with all applicable Department of Labor rules and regulations, and the NFLPA Constitution rules and by-laws,” they wrote in the letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
As most of you now know, Bernie Parrish played a key role in the successful players’ litigation against the NFLPA and Players Inc. in San Francisco. Around the same time, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced what appeared to be a groundbreaking tour to NFL host cities to hear about what the retired players truly want to see happen for them. Unfortunately, as we soon discovered, it’s been nothing more than a transparent PR scam to generate the illusion that they’re actually doing something. While Goodell shows up dragging along his personal entourage that includes the like of Harold Henderson (general counsel) and the NFL PR flaks, the players themselves are told that they can’t bring anyone to the meetings. No counsel, no doctors, not even caregivers or spouses. So disability experts like John Hogan were not even allowed to attend that first meeting in Dallas (he was uninvited by the likes of Harold Henderson AFTER he was invited and flew there at his own expense). (Click HERE and HERE and HERE to read about that first meeting and the fallout after.) And it goes on. The second meeting in Chicago was even worse; it was announced with short notice, few retired players showed up and their stories were all the same. And oh yes – no one was allowed into the “meeting” except retired players.
Now there’s another meeting scheduled for Baltimore on December 11th at 6:30 at the Doubletree Hotel. And yep – absolutely no one allowed to attend except retired players. So if you’re a retired player – dead or alive – you’re invited to show up and speak your mind!