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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Best Comeback of the Day
Typically, Mike Florio on ProFootballTalk (now owned by MSNBC Sports) tends to lean more anti-NFLPA in his posts. But today, when NFL mouthpiece Greg Aiello decided to knock the NFLPA for having their annual gathering in sunny Hawaii, Florio actually quipped back:
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Explaining NFL & NFLPA Accounting
Remember this one? When some of the rhetoric first started coming out about the NFL’s revenue-sharing with the NFLPA and the players, Commissioner Roger Goodell’s standard answer was that those generous owners were handing over almost 60% of their revenues to those greedy players. Recently, the League has been demanding a 20% reduction in salaries as well as no salary cap on the top end of rookies’ and older players’ contracts. And now it’s also becoming clear that the NFL’s idea of 60% has never really been 60% of gross but some convoluted accounting that ends up actually being closer to 52%. The League’s PR flaks and shills (aka attack dogs) have been trying to spin out the idea that the NFLPA needs to open their books even as they continue to dodge calls for an audit of their own numbers. We believe that transparency is needed from both sides of the fence but right now the fact that the NFLPA has to file annual LM-2′s with the Dept. of Labor makes the Union more open than 31 of the 32 teams in disclosure (the Green Bay Packers are the only publicly-owned team and therefore required to open their books annually). As common sense goes, the NFLPA’s numbers will never be completely accurate if the NFL hasn’t actually been paying its real share all these years.
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Independent Retired Players Meet with NFL & NFLPA
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.
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Valerie Thomas’ Report on NFLPA Staffing Expenses
NFLPA's Revolving Door
A Call for Transparency and Accountability continue reading »
Less Budget for Shredding This Year at NFLPA
A while ago, we discovered through the NFLPA’s 2007 LM-2 filing that they had spent $12,461 that year for document shredding, just ahead of the Players Inc. lawsuit. (Read that story by clicking HERE.) (We’re anxiously awaiting the release of the 2008 LM-2 to look for new spending goodies from last year.)
Like Father, Like Daughter
This just in: It’s now getting out that Congressman Jim Moran (D – Va) was the person responsible for outing Troy Vincent as the source that kicked off that recent Congressional inquiry into the Executive Director search process.
“According to Liz Mullen and Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal, Vincent spoke with at least two of the four Congressmen who sent a letter to former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.