Posted with the express consent of Evan Weiner: THE BUSINESS AND POLITICS OF SPORTS .
NFL and NFLPA’s labor woes may not be over yet
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Tuesday, 02 August 2011 BY EVAN WEINER NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM . The National Football League owners have a labor agreement with the present members of the reconstituted National Football League Players Association but it appears that the league still has problems with the players association’s stance on not helping out former players with their medical needs years after their last game in the league. The league apparently informed Carl Eller’s legal team on Friday that the-then decertified National Football League Players Association decided not to take a $500 million offer over ten-years to get retirees life football medical benefits and an uptick in pensions as part of the recently completed collective bargaining agreement. . continue reading »
All these new expensive commercials from the NFLPA about Let Us Play and Let It Air. All retired players want is to finally get paid what they’re long overdue: Fair pensions and access to their earned disability benefits. .
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Thanks to all who participated in creating this great commercial! The ad features Steve Smith, Conrad Dobler, Wayne Hawkins (thanks, Sharon), Brent and Gina Boyd and Dave Pear among many. .
There are certain similarities between the warriors who become football players and the warriors who serve the needs of the military. In a sense, football is organized war, whereas “real” war is disorganized. Of course, retired soldiers have the VA, an understaffed organization that makes the process for applying for benefits a labyrinth of complications because the more obstacles they can throw up at the retired soldier, the longer the VA can delay providing the benefits a retired soldier is entitled to, the less the VA has to pay out in the long term. Does this sound vaguely familiar to retired football players?
The third and final part of Dr. Stoller’s work with Wayne Hawkins and HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy). Dr. Stoller’s post talks about how a big industry – the big multinational pharmaceutical companies – have managed to keep HBOT hidden from the public and left out of qualification for Medicare reimbursement. Wait – does that sound like another coverup we know about? Nah!
Sometimes you just have to shake your head and laugh when a situation gets so ridiculous and absolutely everyone else can see it except the very people who should be able to see it. Yesterday, Dr. Ken Stoller submitted the first part of his series on HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy) and how the treatment for George Visger and Wayne Hawkins has been progressing. When you read Part II today, you’ll realize that Dr. Stoller is now also getting a taste of the typical bureaucratic runaround that retired players have been encountering for years.
Wayne Hawkins has been fighting a losing battle with dementia and his wife, Sharon, finally got him in to the Amen Clinic recently. When she read Larry Kaminski’s recent post about his visit, Sharon sent us an e-mail about Wayne’s visit. She graciously allowed us to share this with all of you. Our thoughts are with you and Wayne, Sharon!
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.
We’ve been staying in touch with Sharon Hawkins after posting the documentation on her husband, Wayne Hawkins’ denial of Benefits from the NFLPA. In recent years, Wayne has been battling dementia, brought on by concussions from his 11+ years playing in the NFL.
Sharon has just informed us that Wayne has been in the hospital for the past 3 days with renal failure and heart problems. A large number of players may well have had better quality of life in their retirement years if the NFLPA and the NFL had managed to look after their own – even just a little – by spending just a little of the billions that have gone through their hands over the years. We understand that Sharon – like so many NFL wives – has been struggling to make ends meet even as she continues to be Wayne’s primary caregiver over the years.
Sharon Hawkins applied on behalf of her husband, Wayne Hawkins, for disability benefits under the recent program that closed on July 31, 2008. (Read about the original application by clicking HERE,)
The National Football League owners have a labor agreement with the present members of the reconstituted National Football League Players Association but it appears that the league still has problems with the players association’s stance on not helping out former players with their medical needs years after their last game in the league. The league apparently informed Carl Eller’s legal team on Friday that the-then decertified National Football League Players Association decided not to take a $500 million offer over ten-years to get retirees life football medical benefits and an uptick in pensions as part of the recently completed collective bargaining agreement.
“A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake.”
