Dave Pear's Blog

NFLPA Lawyers Door

It seems that the NFLPA was under the rule of lawyers for decades when departed Executive Director Gene Upshaw ran the place. We’ve covered many of the lawyers inside over the past couple of years. And current Executive Director DeMaurice Smith recently alluded to the conflict of interest posed by the Groom Law Group with regard to the players’ pension plans; they wrote the plan and they represented BOTH the NFLPA AND the NFL when it came to defending the plan. (Click HERE to see the Super Bowl announcement.)

.

Then you have Jeffrey Kessler who fought against the retired players in the Parrish GLA lawsuit by representing the NFLPA (who’s SUPPOSED to be representing the retired players’ interests – got that?!) and then turns around to represent the Union in the recent American Needle antitrust case in the Supreme Court. You also have CAA superagent Tom Condon who makes the big bucks representing many of the active players in their contracts with the League while also supposedly looking after retired players’ interests by serving for years as one of the 3 NFLPA representatives on the Disability Committee (most applicants get turned down for full benefits). And last but not least, you have NFLPA General Counsel, Richard Berthelsen, who’s been there as long as the wallpaper advising Upshaw over the years.

Gene Berthelsen

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Moran vs. NFLPA and NFL Players Inc.

Does the NFLPA think the same way about you?

.

Valerie Thomas

Former NFLPA Director of Human Resources Mary Moran is at WAR against the NFLPA and she is taking no prisoners. In August 2009 Moran filed a $4 million lawsuit that claimed sex discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination of her employment in violation of public policy because she participated in a DOL Office of Labor Fraud and Racketeering investigation of the NFLPA. Moran claimed that the actions of NFLPA management created serious and troubling ethical concerns for her. General Counsel Richard Berthelsen called Mary Moran “a necessary casualty.”

.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

In our last post – Valerie Thomas: Life Under Upshaw – former NFLPA Research Analyst and Paralegal Valerie Thomas discussed her years of abuse and violation of her employee’s rights under the heavy hand of departed Executive Director Gene Upshaw and his inner circle. Bob Grant had posted several questions to her in the comments section about the toll from her long battle with the NFLPA and how it has affected her and her family over the years. This is Part 2 of Valerie Thomas’ story.

.

We hope your legal team is reading this blog, Mr. Smith. You owe Valerie Thomas big time!

.

Bob’s Questions:

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Valerie Thomas

Dave,

.

Thank you for your earlier comment and for allowing me to be an active participant on your blog.

.

It’s hard to accept that a union whose efforts that you supported, including financially, would turn against you in your time of need: your  post-football career.

.

I know first-hand what it feels like to be ignored and it is even more dehumanizing to have been ignored while looking in the faces of the perpetrators on a daily basis. For example, my basic needs and rights to have access to my job were denied. When I reported to work, I was locked out with no key to get in the front door and no key to access the elevator. Once on the elevator, I couldn’t get off on the floor where I worked. Instead, I could only get off on the floor below mine and had to walk up a public stairwell. During the mornings, when I had to do business on other floors I had to walk up and down the public stairwells. I could not use the elevator like everyone else, including interns and temporary employees. At lunchtime and upon my return from lunch, I had to go through the same routine with no access to my floor and walk up a public stairwell (two sets of 12 stairs = 24 steps each way). In the afternoons, if I had to do business on other floors, I had to walk up and down the public stairwells. NFLPA management and its legal representatives harassed, intimidated and retaliated against me; they dared me to protect my rights and when I did, they then cheated and stole my livelihood and my family’s legacy.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

We keep thinking about that old saying, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Or how about “Different day, same old $@&!”?

.

We have several recent news stories that seem to revolve around the same theme: Most football players are consistently and systematically screwed from cradle-to-grave. There really isn’t a gentle way to talk about it. It becomes clearer by the day and if it doesn’t make your blood boil, we don’t know what will. When that recent CBS Sports story came out on Conrad Dobler’s blunt interview about Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees, the typical comments from uninformed fans made their way online about those old retired players whining again about their plight. If retired players truly want to advance their cause, one of our goals has to include the re-education of generations of fans who still have a misconception of retired football players living the high life after they leave the game. If we need to do it one fan at a time, so be it.

.

The underlying theme that keeps surfacing in these recent stories simply reinforces something that we’ve been trying to point out to players and fans alike: EVERYONE involved in the football industry gets paid at every step of the way. Except the players themselves. Think of it this way: Do high school players get paid for playing? Nope? Do college players get paid? Nope. In fact, everyone else in college makes money from football except the players. The revenue from licensed merchandise is a megamillion dollar enterprise. Colleges get huge donations and public funding for those 50,000+ seat stadiums . They pay good coaches millions in salaries and bonuses (while most academic professors are lucky to pull down a low 6-figure salary). Heaven forbid that a college player receives a gift or money because he’ll probably get banned for life! And before you go on the usual rant we hear about “Oh but they get a college education on a scholarship” argument, the reality is that the majority of these guys wouldn’t be in college if they weren’t good at football (of course, there are always exceptions of players who actually went on to use what they learned in college). If they finally survive the injuries of college football and actually make it into the professional leagues, agents are right there with their hands in the players’ pockets to “help” them negotiate that contract with a professional team – for 3 – 5% of their contract, of course. Then most players retire with injuries from their generally short careers on the field, only to find that the disability fund that was supposed to be available to take care of them is virtually inaccessible but to a select few players because of a Byzantine – and some say illegal – (dis)qualification process set up to deny claims. Like we said: Almost everyone makes money from football.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

NOTE: See if your name is on the list at the end of this post!

Recently, some of the retired players received an announcement from the NFLPA’s offices about another very old settlement fund finally closing on Feb. 18, 2010. Dee Becker from the NFLPA sent out an announcement about this lawsuit that dates back to 1993 – Reggie White et al vs. NFL et al.

.

The lawsuit was significant in that it came in the days before free agency and the 1993 CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement). Several players were negotiating to move to different teams when their respective owners intervened behind the scenes in an effort to keep them from negotiating with other team owners. Imagine something like that happening today: Brett Favre wants to leave the Green Bay Packers and his agent starts discussions with the Minnesota Vikings. So the owner of the Packers just picks up the phone and calls the owner of the Vikings to dissuade him from doing so. The Packers get to keep Favre’s contract and then make Favre a low-ball offer or simply kick him to the curb with no place to go. And that’s the antitrust game in a nutshell. Unrestricted Free Agency and the CBA have become an integral part of players’ contracts today as a result of battles like Reggie White’s lawsuit. Unfortunately, it also allowed former NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw to pervert the process by negotiating the CBA for the full benefit of the active players while completely neglecting – and stealing from – the retired players. It was all about the money. Of course, it also meant that Superagents like Tom Condon (who just happened to have been sitting on the Disability Board for years and long rumored to have been the real power behind Upshaw’s throne) would get increasingly bigger pieces of those ridiculously sky-high salaries and bonuses that they’ve been negotiating for untested new rookies coming in every year since.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Dave Pear Oakland Raiders Superbowl XV - Former Teammate with Gene Upshaw

First of all: Bernie & Walt,

We’re sending out our check for $100 today!

.

Retired players will continue to sally forward as we relentlessly seek justice!

.

Since the new guy took over for Upshaw nearly a year ago, we’ve only seen two symbolic changes in our Union:

1. The NFLPA Dire Need Fund has been renamed, “The Gene Upshaw Dire Need Fund”;
2. The NFLPA has renamed their building address to “63 Upshaw Place.”

.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The Parrish vs. Players Inc. lawsuit presented an interesting conundrum for the NFLPA under Gene Upshaw; here they were, being sued by their own membership for not paying them royalties due after years of revenues generated from video games and trading cards and other licensed items. Yet they couldn’t allow themselves to notify their retired members that they were part of a class action against… them?!! Keep in mind that this was Upshaw’s NFLPA. It didn’t take long for new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith to quickly void Berthelsen and Kessler’s tired old arguments for another appeal and move the process to the settlement that’s close to being distributed today.  Do we have to remind anyone that if Gene Upshaw was still around, retired players would still be looking at another 3 – 5 years of appeals with no end in sight? (Actually, it appears that Yes – We DO Have to Remind Some People.) And all this happened within the first few months of change in the front office.

…

Let’s just say it one more time for the people at the back of the room: You know Gene Upshaw would have spent millions more of YOUR money fighting YOU over YOUR money for however long it took to beat you down.

…

And yet some people are still trying to point out what Gene Upshaw’s NFLPA DIDN’T do… He’s gone! Elvis has left the building! Get over it.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

President Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that read “The Buck Stops Here.” I always liked him when I was a kid because he was a plain and simple, straight-forward guy who was willing to take full responsibility for solving problems.

—

With Apologies to President Harry Truman

The NFL Owners should have signs on their desks that read The Buck STARTS Here because all of the monies generated by the Game start with them and flow through them. The advertisers pay them first and directly, as do the television industry and anyone else who uses the Game to promote their products and/or services.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So producing a film about life after football for many of the old warriors should speak volumes. The documentary Blood Equity has been out since 2007 and is available on DVD. We haven’t heard much more about it since it came out but noticed it was playing this weekend Laemmle Sunset 5 theater in West Hollywood (read the story HERE).

AAA

From the Blood Equity website:

(click HERE to go to their website)

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

First of all, we want to congratulate George Martin for his appointment as the Executive Director of the NFL Alumni Association; George was selected from a broad range of talented candidates with hats in the ring. George steps into this newly-created, salaried position at the Alumni. The choice was appropriate and George Martin is well-liked.

}}}

Today’s official NFL press announcement from the Associated Press also included the following warm-and-fuzzy-aw-shucks clip on retired players (really, who actually sits down and writes this crap?):

}}}

The owners also met with George Martin, who has been hired by the NFL Alumni Association, a group that plans to be the lone voice for retired players. Those players have had their representation fragmented by many groups, and Goodell believes working with one organization will be a positive development.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

…

…

Over the past couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of media coverage on the effects of brain injuries and concussions in football. We’ve seen two articles from Alan Schwarz of The New York Times, as well as stories from The Washington Post and The New York Daily News:

…

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

For the first time, the NFL and the NFLPA extended an invitation to “The Independent Retired Players” to attend and participate in a meeting called to discuss the problems that continue to plague Retirees. Bob Grant, an Independent Activist and Advocate for our cause, was asked to attend on behalf of the Retired Players.

…………

While much was left unaddressed at the end of this first meeting, many issues were brought into the discussion that were not a part of the original limited agenda announced by Harold Henderson (NFL Attorney), who chaired the meeting.

…………

Grant told the Attendees at the Meeting that the days of the NFL and the NFLPA with their “Insiders” making decisions for Retired Players without our direct participation have to end.

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

In January 2009, four Congressmen signed and sent a letter to the Department of Labor about concerns of the integrity of the NFLPA election process. At the behest of his daughter Mary, Congressman Jim Moran looked into the matter.

SPACE

According to a Sports Business Daily article in January 2009, Congressman Jim Moran was the first “Whistleblower.”

SPACE

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

It just finally really sank in that Gene Upshaw’s widow was apparently paid a $14 million lump sum directly out of the NFLPA’s bank account when he passed on to a new life (!). As a businessman, I started wondering why that money was paid directly out of the NFLPA’s coffers and not by an insurance policy that they should have had in place for a key employee like most normal businesses usually have? With any of the businesses I’ve started over the years, my investors typically sleep better knowing that there’s an insurance policy on my life to allow the Company to replace me as CEO in case something happens to me. And I also typically negotiate a separate policy that will provide for my family as part of the package. This happens in businesses across the country every day, regardless of whether they’re privately held or public companies. This is common business practice and I doubt if even Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, would argue with that.

In other words, even if a $14 million policy cost as much as $250,000 a year (which it wouldn’t), it would still have made prudent business sense rather than self-insuring such a large payout. At $250,000 a year, it still would have taken 56 years (!) to pay out $14 million in annual premiums so it would have been a no-brainer decision. You would think that with brilliant business advisors such as Richard Berthelsen and Mary Moran in the executive offices, someone would have stepped up and said, “Gee, we need to put an insurance policy on the Executive Director in case something happens to him.” Or “Gee – Gene wants a $14 million payout to his widow when he dies. Let’s get an insurance policy now!” So why didn’t that brilliant Human Resources Director Mary Moran – paid nearly $250,000 a year for her “smarts” – think of it instead of spending her time sneaking around the NFLPA offices pretending to be an important undercover snitch? And how likely is it that the master of legal obfuscation, Richard Berthelsen, didn’t have a hand in crafting the legal contract that handed $14 million to Gene Upshaw’s widow in one lump sum rather than having it covered by a simple insurance policy (that they likely couldn’t get)? As in all conspiracies, it always comes down to, “What did they know and when did they know it?”

We posted the 2008 LM-2 a while back (click HERE and HERE to read those posts) and discovered that the NFLPA had liability insurance that covered the $5 million+ cost of litigation in the Players Inc. trial. So most of Jeffrey Kessler’s legal fees were paid out of an insurance policy that was put in place just for that purpose. That’s why you have insurance.

This is all conjecture at this stage but a $14 million payout is simply that – a WHOLE lot of money. One thing that DOES come to mind is the possibility that Gene Upshaw either already KNEW he was ill (which would have automatically made him uninsurable) and didn’t disclose it to anyone outside of his inner circle. Which would also mean that several people would have been involved in covering up this deception to defraud the NFLPA membership out of $14 million. Or – worse yet – if the NFLPA basically self-insured Gene Upshaw without full and honest disclosure, would that make the payout fraudulent and reversible? And who should be held accountable? If it had been underwritten by any insurance company instead, I think we’d certainly see them conducting a very serious investigation before they paid Mrs. Upshaw one dime. And even though the retired players still have no vote in their own Union, ALL players should be demanding an open and transparent disclosure and review of  ANY agreement to pay out $14 million of YOUR money. With Executive Director DeMaurice Smith publicly instructing active players to start pinching pennies to prepare for a potential lockout next year, was paying out $14 million in cash a good example to set at a time like this?

continue reading »

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post