Fourth and Goal Unites

Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News covered this story from the New Orleans Saints this morning:

McAllister’s Deal Proves There’s No Loyalty in NFL

The next time you get sick of some player – Cowboys linebacker Greg Ellis comes to mind – grousing about his contract, think about New Orleans running back Deuce McAllister.

The Saints all-time leading rusher, who accepted Reggie Bush and splitting his role without complaint, blew out his knee for the second time in three years last season while trying to help the Saints win a game.

His reward: The Saints restructured his contract.

The $1 million bonus he was supposed to receive has been converted to incentives. If he fully recovers, he’ll get the money that his contract originally said he was supposed to receive. If there are complications, then he won’t.

That’s why a player should do whatever they must do to get paid. Hold out? Fine. Force a trade? That’s OK, too.

There is no loyalty in the NFL. A contract means nothing in the NFL. It’s a year-to-year deal. That’s how management treats it, and that’s how players should, too.

By the way, have you heard the moral outrage over McAllister’s contract? Of course not. People seem to always hold employees to a higher standard than companies.

AFTER MAKING SEVERAL CALLS TO CONFIRM THE NEW DISABILITY PROCESS SOMETHING REALLY SURFACED

WHERE IN THE HELL WAS THE NFLPA DISABILITY PLAN PEOPLE ON THIS ISSUE?

WHY DID THEY NOT WORK AT GETTING THIS INFO OUT TO RETIRED PLAYERS?

HOW DID GETTING THIS INFORMATION OUT TO THE RETIRED PLAYERS BECOME THE RETIRED PLAYERS RESPONSIBILITY?

AGAIN, WHERE IS OUR RETIRED PLAYERS STEERING COMMITTEE AND WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY DOING ON OUR BEHALF…………….

·         “Is the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Pension Plan “over-funded”? That is, does it have surplus assets that can be used to increase the pensions of retired playersover-funded”? That is, does it have surplus assets that can be used to increase the pensions of retired players?

No. Even without the CBA increase, the liabilities of the Pension Plan for benefits already earned by retired and current players exceed the assets of the Plan. There is no surplus. As of April 1, 2006, the actuarial liability of the Pension Plan was $1.034 billion, which was $71 million, or about 7%, more than the market value of its assets. A pension plan with assets to cover 93% of its obligations is healthy and well within the range of funding required by recently enacted federal pension legislation, but this shortfall will grow considerably when the burden of new benefits for retired players (recently negotiated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement extension) is added. The increased benefits, and a new 88 Plan for retired players with dementia, will be funded by about $250 million of owner contributions over the next six years.

The NFL Player Pension Fund is sometimes compared to the pension fund for Major League Baseball players, often without all of the facts being presented. A future FAQ will deal with this comparison in more detail, but the NFL Player Pension is much better funded (that is more of its obligations are covered by its assets). The baseball players’ pension plan was under-funded as of April, 2004 (the latest public filing) by $904 million, and its assets were only 60.7% of its obligations on that date.

·         Inadequate funding creates a risk that retirees may have their benefits reduced. This is a major problem in the steel, airline, and automobile industries. The NFLPA is committed to full funding of the Pension Plan as soon as possible; so that decades from now retired NFL players will be assured of receiving the pension benefits they have been promised. How does collective bargaining in the NFL work?

Collective bargaining in the NFL is the process by which the representatives of the players and the representatives of the owners/clubs negotiate a legally-binding agreement (called the Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA) which governs the employment relationship between players, on the one hand, and the clubs and league, on the other, and covers compensation, working conditions, and benefits. Under federal labor law, the NFL Players Association is the exclusive bargaining representative for players. The lead negotiator for the NFLPA is its Executive Director, Gene Upshaw. The NFL owners and clubs are represented for bargaining purposes by the NFL Management Council, whose chairman is Harold Henderson. Henderson is appointed by the NFL Commissioner.

Labor law requires the NFLPA and NFL Management Council to bargain in good faith over working conditions, benefits, and compensation affecting the bargaining unit of players. The bargaining unit is composed of professional football players employed, or who are seeking to be employed, by a member club of the NFL. Retired players are not part of the bargaining unit and, therefore, the NFL Management Council is not legally obligated to bargain in good faith over any improvements in already-earned player pension benefits.

Despite this fact, in every negotiation during the past 25 years, active players have spent their leverage at the bargaining table to insist that benefits be increased for players retired from football. The chart below illustrates this commitment by present players to past players throughout the era of Gene Upshaw’s leadership of the NFLPA.

Dear Harry:

I just read the email you sent to retired players regarding your 2006

HOF induction speech and other issues and I want you to know how proud

the retired players are that you used the HOF platform to draw

attention to the plight of former players. You mentioned that you read

something me and Sam Huff had written prior to the 2006 Hall of Fame

induction ceremony that it helped inspire you to use a part of your

induction speech to bring attention to the situation.

As I said then, and I’ll say again:

……….”For the Hall of Famer that has the courage to make

statements like these in front of the whole world, they will forever

be remembered by their peers, their fans and their family as a hero

who thought more about others than they thought about themselves.”

Harry, you will always be remembered for the courage it took to be the

first to speak out on these issues at the HOF Induction Ceremony! It

was not the politically correct thing to do, but it was the right

thing to do……. and it has inspired many more to join in the

efforts to help the retired players that worked so hard to make the

NFL and the NFLPA what they are today. Hopefully, some future

inductees will follow in your footsteps and use the power of that

special moment to honor the sacrafices of a largely forgotten

generation of football players.

The momentum that has been generated by our ability to communicate

over the Internet has helped immensly, but it will never replace the

power that comes from speaking to a live audience in front of the

whole world. Your speech was an insipration to all retired players and

has motivated many former players that might not have spoken up in the

past. The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more

followers and that will be part of your legacy. President John Quincy

Adams said “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more,

do more and become more, you are a leader.”

You took a day that was set aside to honor you…….. and also used

it to honor those that came before you. Your actions have pushed us

all to work harder. Thank you for your continuing efforts through the

Alliance, to help those that came before you.

“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on

the shoulder of Giants” (and colts, bears, eagles, panthers, ravens,

broncos, dolphins, rams, etc.) – Issac Newton

Jeff Nixon

Buffalo Bills Alumni