Dave Pear's Blog

I feel for the “terror” today’s players must be facing regarding a work stoppage. (To read the Sporting News article ‘NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith: ‘A lot of players are terrified’ about a work stoppage’ – Click HERE.) Luckily, I was able to support myself and family these last 28 years on the $65,000 plus partial playoff money (another $14,000) I made while a member of San Francisco 49′ers team in ’81. Shoot, if I wasn’t such an economically suave 23-year old when I was injured, I never would have survived the next 7 brain surgeries over the years. (The fact I had to sue for Workers Comp to get brain surgeries #2 and #3 paid did help keep the creditors at bay for a while.)

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I can remember times when I had $3.85/day to eat on during the late 80′s. I had 4 emergency VP Shunt brain surgeries in one 10-month period while I was back in school full time trying to finish my biology degree, bouncing in bars at night for $10/hr, swinging a hammer during the day in between classes as a general contractor and carpenter, and working as a live-in counselor at a Crisis Intervention Shelter for runaway youths (Diogenese Youth Services in Sacramento). I did two 28 hour shifts/week living in the home with up to 6 runaway youths at a time, while manning a 24 hr/day hotline. I was paid for 24 hours/shift as they thought you could get 4 hours sleep per night some how. All this for $150/shift, and I was thankful I could pay the bills doing something to help others. That $300/week made the difference between eating or not. I was forced to quit that job during the 1987 four-brain-surgery-run, as I couldn’t remember where I parked my truck, much less be responsible for living with and counseling 6 at-risk youths at one time. Luckily, the anger management issues I developed from the brain surgeries where looked upon as an asset when pursuing bouncing jobs and I was able to demand a premium wage.

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Today’s players need to wake up, give back to the community and thank God and the older guys for paving the way for their lucrative careers, instead of whining when they aren’t guaranteed more than last years players. BEFORE they ever even step on the field!

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The NFL doesn’t seem to care about their active players and they despise the retired players! All they offer is lip service to serious, life-changing head injuries. Unless a player is carried off the field on national TV, it’s almost impossible for a retired player to access his earned disability benefits. And his Union is nowhere to be seen when it comes to representing him. The NFL disability system has been illegal and it violates ERISA Law as well as their own plan document!

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell continues to come up with ridiculous and meaningless benefits that offer little or nothing in an effort to continue misleading Congress. However, judging from his performance last month in Washington DC, this scheme doesn’t seem to be working any more. Maxine Waters told Roger Goodell, “It is time to remove the antitrust exemption from the NFL.”

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I was watching this recent discussion (3:37) from FOX Sports on concussions – Terry Bradshaw says it all:

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ABC’s Martin Bashir and Roxanna Sherwood did a piece on NFL brain concussions on Friday night’s NIGHTLINE. From their post online:

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“Football players are getting bigger. The game is getting faster. Now, the chorus of concern is getting louder. At least four recent studies have raised serious questions about the impact of pro football on the brains of players. But are they being driven mad by the game?

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Fellow Retirees:

I have spent this past week researching several areas of contention. My work is not yet complete but I’ll keep you all abreast of what I find as fact. Here are a few highlights that I want to share with all of you and I’ll follow up with more details:

Our Union, the NFLPA, is now claiming that they know the current Disability System is broken and needs to be fixed. That they’re finally making that admission is good. What’s bad is they claim they have taken steps to fix it with these new adjustments to the Disability Plan. First of all, they did nothing until former players went before a Congressional Committee to bring attention to the issues and then that was followed up by a bombardment of e-mails to our Senators and Congressmen. Your pressure forced their hand. I was then told by an NFLPA official that, “Gene has wanted for years to help the Retiree who had to take his Pension early but couldn’t get Disability because of the NFLPA rule.”

The fact is that last Fall, Gene Upshaw made the statement that he could do nothing about the Retiree who took his Pension early and now was disabled because it was “the law.” Double talk or apparently “The Law” was amended. I was also told by a Union Rep – as many of you have been – that the “Pensions” will not move as there is just not enough money. Another crock, as most of you have now seen the MLB vs NFL Pension comparisons.

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