Dave Pear's Blog

Happy Holidays, Football and Sports Concussion Establishment: 2012 Is the Year of the Tobacco-Style Lawsuit

Posted with the express consent of Irv Muchnick from his blog Concussion Inc.:

continue reading »

.
By John V. Hogan, Esq.

.
The new CBA contains a provision that on its face appears to be of benefit to some retired NFL players receiving Total and Permanent disability benefits under the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan. Article 61, Section 2 (a) (i) provides that a player will be permitted to receive up to $30,000 per year of earned (i.e. “work”) income without affecting his disability benefits. Presumably this was enacted to allow guys to be paid some appearance fees or earnings from card signings and other events without jeopardizing their “total disability” eligibility.
.

continue reading »

.
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Friday afternoon, NFLPA Disability Board Representative Sam McCullum wrote back to disability attorney John Hogan as part of our heated discussion on retired players’ Disability Benefits and their rights under ERISA law. (Click HERE to go back to that earlier post and be sure to read all the comments that are still coming in on that post.) We’re posting both of their letters here to continue an open review of how disability decisions are currently being made for retired players and how ERISA guidelines are not being applied. This is a must-read for any of you who have applied or plan on applying for your earned Disability Benefits.
.
And before a few of you go off on us again for bringing the ghost of Gene Upshaw back into this fray, this is a direct reference to his original quote from an interview with The Washington Post’s Micheal Leahy in 2008. All too many retired players (even the late Johnny Unitas) lost their benefits because of this long-standing misinterpretation of the law. And that, my friends, is NOT bitterness – it’s reciting History. Those who do not follow or understand History are bound to make the same mistakes over and over again.
.

From Page 26: The Washington Post Magazine February 3, 2008) – Super Bowl Sunday

continue reading »

This is your Disability Board. This is your Disability Board at work.
.
Former Seattle Seahawk Sam McCullum has declared himself as Dave Duerson’s replacement on the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle Disability Board. And he’s not shy to talk about it. McCullum’s been sending out his thoughts on disability and entitlement to the local chapter of the NFLPA and it’s inflamed (a mild way to put it!) a lot of retirees to say the least. Here are some clips from his latest e-mails (EDITOR’S NOTE: our highlights in RED):
.
“I can tell you this that the NFLPA and the league were in negotiations yesterday to finalize a number of open issues. I spoke to the folks about the benefits that are still pending, and was told I would learn a lot more at the meeting I will attending starting Wednesday. So time permitting I will send out an update on Friday.
.
continue reading »

NY Daily News: Jimmie Giles

Attorney John Hogan has been representing retired Tampa Bay Buccaneer Jimmie Giles to have his status changed from inactive Total & Permanent (T&P) Disability to more evident Football Degenerative T & P Disability. As with Dave’s case, Jimmie had already qualified for and was receiving Social Security Disability (also difficult to qualify for but nonetheless fair and rules-based). According to an earlier amendment to the Plan, Jimmie’s SS Disability qualified him at the very least for a new re-evaluation and reclassification with little fanfare. You can read Jimmie’s story in an earlier New York Daily News story from Wayne Coffey by clicking HERE.

continue reading »

By now, many of you have now been receiving your letters about another new “joint-venture” program between the NFL and the NFLPA from their Player Care Foundation. This one’s for a “Neurological Care Program Benefit.” We’ve already been receiving a lot of comments (putting it mildly) from our readers.

.

continue reading »

Reality vs. PR Fantasy: Now we know why those fantasy football games and Electronic Arts Madden Football are so profitable: They exist in a fantasy world where the players never get old and they never really get injured. You can make up new rules as you go and the best part of all? You never have to really pay the players. No salaries, no disability benefits, no pensions! And like in the fantasy games – if not for the GLA Class Action lawsuit – most of the real players featured in those fantasy games would never have received any compensation when their fantasy versions and stats were used. The NFL AND the NFLPA both seem to believe that the real world runs in much the same way: Retired players leave the game and they no longer exist. Out of sight, out of mind.

.

continue reading »

Just a quick update on two recent cases which clearly show that the NFL disability Plan (the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Retirement Plan) needs significant reform as they continue to abuse ERISA laws, due process and the retired players to whom they owe a fiduciary duty of care:

.

continue reading »

Some of you still remember those Congressional Hearings from last year into the NFL and NFLPA’s disability mess. During those hearings, Gene Upshaw had the details from private disability application hearings for 9 retired players’ cases (Dave’s case was one of them) publicly posted on the NFLPA’s website is that infamous White Paper. As soon as we discovered what they had done, we wrote about it and it was taken down very quickly (click HERE and HERE to read those earlier posts). It was just another dirty-tricks-as-usual tactic to get even with some of the players who spoke up during those hearings. You would think that would have been the end of it. But it was only recently that we happened to be reviewing the Congressional Judiciary Committee’s final report on their website that we discovered one of the Exhibits under the NFL hearings (Exhibit A) contained the same information from the NFLPA’s original White Paper, including all that personal disability data for each of those 9 retired players’ hearings! (Below is a screenshot of the earlier page with Exhibit A available.)

continue reading »

Our good friend and player advocate, disability attorney John Hogan, was able to attend that Symposium held at the Baltimore School of Law on Thursday. Here are his notes from that day:

Notes from

continue reading »

Well, here it is: John Hogan’s proposed NFLPA Disability Plan that he would have liked to have presented to Commissioner Goodell and all of the players present at the Oct. 8th Dallas meeting (click HERE to read about what happened). (And John Hogan’s website is HERE).

continue reading »