We’ve been at the Independent Retired Football Players Summit at the South Point Resort & Casino in Las Vegas since Thursday and it’s not just the weather that’s been getting hot!
We’ve been blogging directly from the conference room as the speakers come up and plan on getting the PowerPoint presentations and video online as quickly as possible. We managed to lock in the domain name FootballSummit.com (click that link to check out that site) so you can follow the Summit as it breaks live.
And here’s a copy of the Program with the schedule and biographies etc. on Speakers. You can enlarge it for easier reading by clicking on the enlarge button in the upper right corner of the Scribd menu (or you can download it by clicking on More and then selecting Save Document):
To those folks who are pulling against the upcoming Independent Retired Players Summit, many of whom are with the NFLPA Golf Tournament down in Palm Springs, you don’t have to call anyone to see how it is coming along. I will bring you up to speed now.
We have already exceeded the number of retired attendees that we started out hoping for. More are still coming in every day. We haven’t waived a registration Fee that we never had and we’re not offering those who are attending the Summit any coupons or a gift of a membership fee to any organization because there’s no group or organization for them to purchase a membership from. Attending Advocates are, of course, free to make any presentation that they would like to. We are not requiring any Advocate to agree with any other on any matter. What the Retired Players feel and think are what is most important to me.
If the NFLPA would have offered to make the adjustments that the Independent Advocates and Summit Coordinators have FORCED them to make, all of us could well have been meeting in Palm Springs (or Las Vegas). It would certainly have been a “fired up” meeting but perhaps we could have all been together.
The NFLPA never gave a damn about any of us attending their Meeting in years past. They held it as far away as they could and charged fees that made it impossible for most of us to attend while they used our money to pay for their “favored ones” to go to Puerto Rico! Are you kidding me? We come along and organize a Summit to give Players an opportunity and an option and they are suddenly begging and fighting to get folks to attend their Gathering.
There are many Retired Players, Widows and Wives who have just plain had enough. They’re the backbone of our Summit. The old way of doing things hasn’t worked and it’s not going to work. All of the same old faces are still there at the NFLPA. When Al Capone went to prison and died did the Chicago Mob die along with him? Nope! All of the same old faces were still there. I don’t have to accuse anyone of criminal behavior because that has already been found to be a fact in a Federal Court in San Francisco.
We’ve been asked many times over the past few weeks about the status of the Independent Summit for NFL Retired Players. It can now be announced that it will take place in Las Vegas on May 28 – 31. Those involved in helping to organize this effort to get all of us together as an Independent Group of NFL Retired Players include me, Tony Davis, Joe DeLamielleure, Dave Pear, Disability Attorney John Hogan, Jeff Nixon, Ben Lynch, Marvin Cobb, Bob Grant, Abner Haynes and Bruce Laird. There are a lot more NFL Retired Players who have assisted in multiple ways with this effort and too many to mention in this announcement. Many of these men have helped by consulting with us. We communicate almost daily and are working to make sure that this event will provide a new direction for NFL Retired Players. What also must be mentioned is that others have been asked to be a part of the organizational process but have chosen not to participate.
Getting any group of people together is difficult. Dealing with the issues of the NFL Retired Players made it even more difficult but we’ve been able to work through many issues and personal feelings to come to a consensus on how to assist this movement. We’ve had our differences in getting here but have chosen to listen to all involved so that any decisions we make are well-informed, educated and thought out. We agree that no advocate group will be uninvited. Every man who put on the NFL or AFL uniform is welcome. Any and all NFL Groups, including the Alliance and Gridiron Greats are invited. And – last but not least – every wife or caregiver of any NFL Retired Player is an honored invitee.
This group of men who have organized this Summit have done this because the NFL and the NFLPA Retired Players organizations have consistently made it clear that assisting the NFL Retired Players is not their priority. They have explained in no uncertain terms to NFL Retired Players that we do not have a vote. There’s already been a great deal of work done on behalf of the NFL Retired Players, to continue to lobby a variety of different entities that can affect the changes for a new Pension and new Disability Plan.
We chose to do this because we felt, along with thousands of you, that we need a Voice in these matters and the Union that is supposed to represent us, gives us no voice. We chose Las Vegas because of the incredible Hotel rates offered to us and Las Vegas – as a domestic travel destination – may now be the cheapest in the country during these tough economic times. Before the Summit, we hope to announce some significant changes that will positively affect NFL Retired Players. We look forward to overwhelming participation from all of you. In the meantime we appreciate your letters of support and ask you to help. Spread the word, get involved – these are issues that affect your families and through collective efforts we think we can make a difference.
