Dave Pear's Blog

OK – so here we go again. We posted Dan Pastorini’s story about wanting to opt out of the NFL Alumni’s Group Licensing Agreement (click HERE to read that earlier post). On their membership page online, the GLA was automatically attached as a part of the membership process with no option to opt-out of the agreement in order to join the Alumni. Dan pointed that out to the rest of us. And that’s when the knives came out.
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Look, we don’t care who said what and exactly what the details may have been between Dan Pastorini and George Martin. And quite frankly, like most people, WHO REALLY CARES?!! But then two Alumni members, David Carter, President of the Houston Chapter, and Rod Smith, Carolinas Chapter President – both members on the Alumni Board of Directors apparently – decided to give a detailed He-Said-He-Said version of what transpired between Pastorini and Martin. And then Jeff Nixon decided to jump in on the Alumni blog and make it personal with Dave and me. Again. We only hope they’re paying you well over at the Alumni now, Jeff…
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Here’s the real issue and this is what we’re absolutely 110% in agreement with Dan Pastorini: Attaching a completely unrelated and unsolicited Licensing Agreement to what’s supposed to be nothing more than a simple membership enrollment is just plain wrong! In fact, it’s downright sneaky, unethical and it actually violates consumer law!
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Jeff Nixon decided to call Dan Thursday and Dan shared that conversation with us on Friday:
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“Jeff Nixon told me that George had admitted ‘He may have made a mistake’ in tying the GLA to their membership enrollment.”
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“If I almost missed it when I was signing up, then I wonder how many other players had already missed that GLA footnote? And that was my point! It was all a matter of principle.” Dan said. “As a matter of fact, if George is finally coming out and admitting that it was a mistake in adding the contract and they’re now planning on removing that hook, what about all the guys who have already inadvertently signed their GLA? I think the Alumni needs to invalidate all those copies of the GLA that they’ve acquired through their membership forms and then offer their GLA to its members separately. It’s not me I’m concerned about now. It’s any of the other guys who have already been locked into this GLA without their full knowledge or consent.”

Just sign here...

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Dave -
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After reading over the NFL Alumni’s Group Licensing Agreement, I decided to notify them that I couldn’t – and wouldn’t – accept their GLA which has developed virtually no revenue whatsoever for retired players. In fact, it looks to be clearly designed to impact and damage the Dryer v. NFL lawsuit on behalf of all retired players. Next thing you know, I’m being told by George Martin himself that I could no longer be a member of the NFL Alumni!
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I’d like to suggest that other retired players might not want to be NFL Alumni members …unless they want to support the NFL’s ongoing poor treatment of retired players. We don’t want to be paying for George’s new Escalade and we sure don’t want another repeat of Gene Upshaw’s GLA “One-for-You-and-One-Million-for-Me” deals. (Click on Dan’s membership cancellation to enlarge for easier reading.)
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Dan Pastorini
Oilers, Rams, Raiders & Eagles
1971 – 1984
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Dan sent us some additional clarification on his Alumni membership:
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I tried to pay my dues online but it wouldn’t let me unless I checked the GLA box! I then e-mailed them and asked why I couldn’t join without agreeing to the GLA. They informed me I could send a check. Then I got George’s e-mail stating I was no longer a member.
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Dan
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We uploaded a copy of the NFL Alumni GLA to Scribd for viewing and printing and to make it downloadable. You can also click the Fullscreen button on the left side of the menu to enlarge it for easier navigation (hit the ESC key to close)
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NFL Alumni Group Licensing Agreement
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Like many of you, Dave has recently received his new membership package from the NFLPA, complete with a slick new “Union Membership” tag/card. This new card re-affirms the NFLPA’s affiliation with the AFL/CIO and the Federation of Professional Athletes. And we also checked into the new Drunk Driver Protection Program with a toll-free number to call to for a limo to avoid getting penalized by Roger Goodell for bad behavior (non-emergency use by retired players is also available – for a measly $85 an hour!). And, of course, the NFL School of Legends logo is there as the new replacement program for that failed Group Licensing Agreement from Gene Upshaw. All these fantastic new programs and the NFLPA still gets absolutely no respect from the retired players. What’s a poor Union to do?

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Whew! It looks like the end is finally in sight. This past Tuesday, Oct. 12th, Judge Alsup signed the official order to release the remaining proceeds from the GLA Players Inc. lawsuit, along with an amended order allowing McKool Smith to be reimbursed for their inadvertent partial payment of a Garden City Group invoice. Here’s a little shocker from the final order: 76 of the 200+ missing players were actually located using Social Security information and forms were sent to them to fill out and return in the court-ordered 4-week window. But only 32 of those players managed to return their paperwork before the deadline while three other “missing” players contacted the class attorneys on their own in the meantime. So they’ll also be included in the final disbursement. And two widows of players who passed away while all of this was going on will also be included in the final payout.

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Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve received a huge volume of e-mails for all sorts of remarkable deals that range from new licensing deals to medical miracles to more golf outings (that’s in addition to all the get-rich-quick schemes and Nigerian scam deals!). Among the most common e-mails of late have been those “recruitment” sites that ask all retired players to sign up for a licensing deal immediately. Lots of talk and absolutely no substance on just exactly what they intend to do once they have your name on that licensing agreement. They don’t tell you exactly how they intend to represent you or what to expect in terms of payment. Just sign up to be included and we’ll take care of the details later. The worst part? They don’t disclose any information whatsoever on what their cut will be. Some of the retired players in our network have inquired about this new deal and we want to describe a real-life scenario and let you make your own minds up.

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Dr. NO!

Lead story for Friday morning: NFLPA Executive Director DeMaruice Smith calls for ouster of Dr. No. – Ira Casson. New York Times‘ Alan Schwarz writes:

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Our last post talked about Richard Berthelsen’s courtroom denial (read it HERE) with crafting the NFLPA’s Group Licensing Agreements (GLAs). Here’s another little piece of history for all of you that Dave just dug up from his files. Dave was still living in Bradenton, Florida back in 1993 when he forgot to mail in the renewal for his membership with the NFLPA. Back then, it was $50 a year and they sure made a heavy-handed pitch to make sure everyone renewed. And in 1993, guess who was General Counsel for the NFLPA under Gene Upshaw? Richard Berthelsen (unless he lied on his biographical material on the Sports Lawyers Association website). Wonder who wrote those nifty and lucrative GLAs back then?

And we quote: “We have a group licensing program which could result in licensing fees for our retired players. More that 1500 members have given us their group licensing rights to date.” Wowee! Everyone sure made a lot of money from that deal, didn’t they?

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