Over the past 25+ years, Dave and his fellow retired players have consistently emphasized the fiduciary responsibilities of their Union, the NFLPA, and its management to those retired members who have contributed to make the game what it is today. So it was a great leap forward from the Gene “I don’t work for them” Upshaw era just to hear new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith quoted yesterday at a press conference in New York from his first players’ meetings. The new Executive Director was quoted as saying that the NFLPA has a fiduciary duty to its retired players. continue reading »
Here we are coming in to a New Year and looking behind us at how much has happened in the past year. We’ve seen a recent flurry of comments and e-mails among a lot of the retired players discussing the current state of affairs within the NFLPA, not the least of which has been the disability benefits and the ongoing selection process for a new Executive Director. And the Commissioner keeps on rolling from city-to-city attempting to put on his dog-and-pony show about his compassionate concern for the disabled players. Wow! It’s been quite a year.
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On FOX Sports Sunday (October 12th show), Terry Bradshaw made the following comments about retired players and their union during the pre-game discussions:
“I’ve had it with the NFL and the Players Association. I’ve had it with their lip service towards hundreds of old-timers. We have so many older players out there – guys my age and older who made this league great – but there’s no money for the surgeries that they need to fix broken hips and to pay for artificial knees. Some old-timers simply need extra money just to keep their home and their families together. I know a lot of players from my era – Howie is too – who are reaching out and raising money. A lot of these former players are doing a better job than the league and the union are doing. There isn’t a better business in America than the NFL. We all love this game. Millions of you watch and pay for suites and tickets and TV packages and that’s why the NFL will gross over $7 billion dollars this season. This league is so wealthy that I know at least 10 billionaires who own teams, any of which could write a check to fix this. We love pro football so much that it’s about time, like Warren Beatty preached in that great football move, “Heaven Can Wait,” that the commissioner should yell, ‘Hey, let’s be the good guys, let’s take care of everyone.’ Take one percent of that $7 billion this year and next and there’s enough money to take care of every old player who needs it. Come on everybody, let’s be the good guys and do what’s right.”
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Like John, I also want to thank Tim Brown for helping to open up this dialog so everyone can discuss their opinions and ideas after the recent passing of Gene Upshaw. Hopefully, we can now look at things as a clean slate that each and every one of us can write on.
I can understand how you might perceive that the retired players are disrespecting the active players. And in a few cases you may be right. However, I would hope that you can understand their frustrations in watching young, untested rookies walk away with multimillion dollar contracts today after they broke their bodies for what certainly seems like pocket change these days to even the lowest-paid players.
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