Dave Pear's Blog

Here’s the entire half-hour Nightly Business Report episode hosted by Rick Horrow, broadcast on Seattle’s KCTS9 this past Monday evening, as discussed by Clyde Werner in yesterday’s post. It’s an incredibly revealing insight on the intricate business side of the Super Bowl and how the NFL continues to squeeze every penny of possible revenue from this global franchise. (Click on the PLAY > arrow to view and you can enlarge it to full screen by clicking the enlarge icon in the lower right corner when the video starts.)

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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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A lot of you out there probably still remember Gay Culverhouse’s passionate testimony in front of Congress last October. (You can read her testimony by clicking HERE.) During the time Gay Culverhouse was President of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, she witnessed firsthand many of the things that teams and team doctors do in treating their employees: the players. Dr. Culverhouse has been taking up the cause for retired players’ rights in their generally next-to-impossible process to apply for disability and pension benefits. After she began to realize the scope of this problem, Dr. Culverhouse recently started a new nonprofit organization – Gay Culverhouse Players’ Outreach Program – to provide assistance to any and all players who either need assistance in applying for their benefits or who have been turned down for benefits. (Click HERE to access their website.)

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More momentum on the concussion front as the brain injury story continues to makes its way upstream into the mainstream media. This seems to be one story that’s becoming harder and harder for the NFL to suppress or spin – Thank you, Doctor No!

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Frank Deford continues to point out the long-running imbalance between current and retired disabled players’ benefits (or lack thereof) in the NFL. Deford discussed the intricacies of the NFLPA/Players Inc. trial on HBO’s Real Sports in January (click HERE read about that show).

In his latest piece, There’s No Love in the NFL, Deford discusses the callous indifference of the NFL and most of its current players to its old warriors.

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Jeff Nixon was originally scheduled to be interviewed in September on NPR as part of a story on the trial just as it was starting. But with Gene Upshaw’s timely departure from the scene, the trial was postponed until Monday, Oct. 20, 2008.

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NPR interviewed Michael Leahy right after his piece came out in the Sunday Washington Post, The Pain Game, previously posted on this blog. From NPR’s site:

“Dozens of former pro football players say the NFL and the NFL players union should do more to help with pension and disability payments after their years of playing through pain and injury. Michael Leahy of the Washington Post tells the story of retired Super Bowl champion Dave Pear, who is disabled.”

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