Dave Pear's Blog

Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:
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THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS
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BY EVAN WEINER
COMMENTARY
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The NFL job audition includes making the “suicide squad” rather than the special teams squad
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May 11, 2013
Examiner
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The National Football League is open for business again. Players are on the field showing coaches that they can indeed play football even though the season is months away. The players showcasing their talents aren’t the normal, everyday players. No – these guys on the field are young guys trying to catch the eye of a coach and make a team and it doesn’t matter if they are first round draft picks or free agents hoping to just get to a training camp in July.
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Not much is said about the long term health of these guys; they are just anxious to play football. Another one-time former football player, George Sauer, Jr. passed away at 69 years of age this week from congestive heart failure and Alzheimer’s disease. There may be some unintentional irony in Sauer’s passing from Alzheimer’s disease as he walked away from the New York Jets and the National Football League after the 1970 season because he found pro football dehumanizing and it “both glorifies and destroys bodies” as he described in a 1983 article in the New York Times.
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Sauer was a wide receiver.
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The young guys trying to impress the coaches in all likelihood never heard of George Sauer. But they probably know Tedy Bruschi who played for the New England Patriots (1996 – 2008) and is now a football commentator on ESPN.
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First, some news and the intro: Retired players lost Round 1 in their battle to wrest control of their pensions and benefits away from the NFLPA. In her final motion filed last week in Minnesota court, Judge Nelson dismissed the Eller et al lawsuit brought against the NFLPA, Tom Brady and Mike Vrabel. That said, much of the motion left several issues open that will allow Hausfeld LLP and Zelle Hofmann to file an appeal shortly. What continues to be unclear is how the NFLPA could actually declare that they had negotiated retired players benefits when they were decertified as Union during the lockout last year. Magically, retired players benefits were negotiated in the short period after the Union recertified and then announced the shiny new CBA they had finalized. Got that? More analysis on this development in a future post.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Dave has been talking with Bette Schwager over the past few weeks about her treatment (or mistreatment) at the hands of the NFLPA and the Players Assistance Trust (PAT). We asked her to write the story in her own words so that our readers can understand just a little of the senseless treatment she and her family have been put through by the NFLPA and their so-called assistance programs this past year. Bette’s husband, Bruce, had played football at the Merchant Marine Academy before being drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in 1955. The Cardinals refused to take him off their reserve list even as he went in to service with the Navy from 1956 – 1958. So Bruce became another one of the pre-’93 players (pre-’72!) who was actually on the roster and vested with enough years but never granted vesting. You can read the full story from Alan Schwarz in his June 2011 New York Times article – click HERE. We’ve also posted a copy of the 2-page Release Letter that the NFLPA tried to get Bette to sign after Bruce passed away before he was to be evicted from his dementia care facility because the NFLPA stopped paying his bill. After you read Bette’s story and the Release Letter, you’ll understand why we’ve been cautioning everyone to be extremely careful of signing anything from these people without close scrutiny and advice. continue reading »

EDITOR’S NOTE: 9:30 PM PST – Judy Battista’s story just posted on the New York Times – Click HERE to read this breaking story.
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On Friday afternoon, a small group of us were informed about the details a conference call that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had with the attorneys and a small team of retired players from the Eller class action lawsuit. All of us were shocked to hear the news that there was an additional $500 million offered to the retirees that had gone undisclosed to them. From what we understand so far, the money would supposedly be earmarked for “charities, medical research, etc.” and then “managed” under the auspices of the PA. We’ll continue confirm and report more details as the story breaks over the next few days.
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In the meantime, we want to talk a little about how the Internet and social networks have changed the world of communications for better and for worse. We’ve watched an entire revolution take place in Egypt with the fall of the Mubarek regime that started with social network Twitter. And that revolution continues to spread across the Middle East. But social networks like Twitter can also be used to spread gossip and misinformation. And that also seems to happen more often than people may imagine. Fortunately, there’s also a good side to that as well. Leaving a trail of crumbs behind you is not exactly a smart strategy.
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Well, the floodgates are opening wider and wider. Sports Legacy Institute and Boston University held a press conference this past Monday to announce their findings on the late Dave Duerson’s brain examination. To no one’s surprise, they discovered the presence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in his brain.
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Former NFL player Dave Duerson found to have had brain damage

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Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner:

THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS
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Holy cow! You’d think we never went into the off-season already. Or maybe we just had to wait until Super Bowl was over to get more media attention. But the coverage on concussions has become a loud theme everywhere, especially following the suicide of Dave Duerson last week. Duerson had left instructions with his family to ensure that his brain was donated to the Sports Legacy Institute to look for the presence and extent of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), the marker for dementia and other brain problems. We had published a critical post on the NFLPA’s three representatives on the 6-member Board for the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle Retired NFL Players Retirement Plan, of which Duerson was a long-standing member. (You can read that May 2010 post by clicking HERE.)
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The New York Times‘ Alan Schwarz had two recent articles focusing on Duerson’s death and CTE:

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We’re starting the year with a lot of coverage on concussions. Our previous post pointed out the conflict-of-interest in selecting one brand of helmets over another primarily based more on sponsorship fees than actual protection statistics. The New York Times’ Alan Schwarz wrote another detailed look at the helmet industry, its lack of real standards and oversight, as well as a shocking inside look at the business of used helmets. Those of you with sons who play high school football may want to watch these chilling videos a couple of times to let it sink in. (And the kid never even led with his head!)

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Click to enlarge

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Slowly but surely, Congress is getting their heads and hands wrapped around the issue of concussions and their long-term damage. On Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010, Congressman George Miller (D-CA) held a House Education and Labor Committee hearing to begin to work out legislation to address the issue of concussions in school athletic programs. Did we even know that an estimated 400,000 concussions happened in high school sports just in the years 2005 – 2008 alone?

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(The Official NFL Concussion Poster is on the left and on the right, what it might have looked like when Dr. No was still chair of the “Mild” Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. Click on the posters to enlarge for viewing and printing.)

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Alan Schwarz from the New York Times covered the new NFL concussion policy and those fancy new posters that they’re going to be hanging up in the lockers from now on.

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Alexander Hamilton US Customs House

With the growing firestorm from DeMaurice Smith’s recent comments about retired players’ relations, we forgot to mention that the Congressional Judiciary Committee held a Forum this past Monday (May 24th) in New York City on Key Issues Related to the Identification and Prevention of Head Injuries in Football. Among the people speaking were Dr. H. Hunt Batjer and Dr. Richard Elenbogen, the two newly-appointed co-chairs of the NFL’s “Mild” Traumatic Brain Injury Committee – er, wait – they changed it to the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee! So what happened to concussions and brain injuries? Did they just magically disappear? We almost miss Dr. No!

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NPR’s Tell Me More with host, Michel Martin, interviewed Dr. Eleanor Perfetto and Brent Boyd this morning. Dr. Perfetto recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of her husband, Ralph Wentzel, who played lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers from 1966 – 1973; her lawsuit is the first workers’ compensation claim for dementia resulting from brain injuries incurred while playing football. Ralph Wentzel is now living in an assisted living facility with severe dementia. The NFL’s Plan 88 is covering his assisted living costs ($88,000 a year). Brent Boyd was an offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings and was diagnosed with early onset dementia 4 years ago. (Brent’s website is HERE.)

Dr. Eleanor Perfetto

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Last week, the NFL announced the appointment of two doctors to their newly-renamed NFL Head, Neck and Spine Medical Committee (formerly co-chaired by Dr. No Ira Casson as the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury – MTBI – Committee). Here’s a clip from the New York Times’ Alan Schwarz:

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