2009 Retired Players Summit
Click HERE to send us your information
In recent months much has been going on in the Cause of Retired Players. Some has been adversarial in Federal Court, some behind the scenes, and some in front of the U.S. Congress.
Different Gentlemen have stepped forward and formed Groups that have actually been raising money and giving much needed help to some former players who have found themselves in dire need with nowhere else to turn. Some of the men who formed these Groups have, because of other commitments in their lives, been primarily concerned in raising financial aid for some of our Brothers who are in very painful and difficult situations, sometimes out of their own pockets and at sacrifice to their other life obligations.
Others have taken on a more aggressive tact and have worked for reform and change in a system that just hasn’t seemed fair to Retired Players.Without pointing any finger you know that there are improvements needed.When our retirement and benefits programs are compared to Major League Baseball’s and the NBA’s there really is no comparison at all.We are in the ancient ages and someone else has always defined what we deserve and are entitled too.
Like me, most of you probably dreamed of belonging to the Fraternity of professional football when you were a kid. It wasn’t about the money.If the truth be told most of you would have played for free as long as you knew that “they” would fix your leg or arm if you broke. We saw the way that professional Prize Fighters were treated after their days in the ring were over but never dream that we would someday be discarded and reduced to begging for a crumb here and there.We did not grasp the unfairness of only playing, on average, three and one half years but not qualifying for our pension unless we played four or five years.We, like the young players today, did not see the irony of living, on average, less than fifty-four years but having to wait until we reach fifty five years of age in order to draw our full pension. As of last year fewer than 500 disabled men out of close to then thousand who played had qualified for disability. This is obviously a system and order that does not fairly serve the average man who plays the Game.
There have been some good men who have tried to improve the System but they have been unsuccessful, for whatever reasons. Consequently some of the Advocates who are outside of the Conventional System in the fight for Retired Player rights have been working very hard to organize a meeting made up of former players from,different parts of the country, different teams, different ages, with different positions and suggestions.These Advocates are unpaid and have spent their own money to force and encourage change in our situation.I am mentioning just a few of these men but please know that there are others as well. The meeting will be scheduled for sometime after the first of the year in one of the Airline Hub cities so that as many of us can attend as possible.Because of tight finances, health restrictions, family and professional obligations and in many of our lives I realize that everyone will not be able to physically be there.We want you there so we plan on doing everything possible to make it possible.We are not meeting to argue and we are not meeting to attack anyone.We are meeting to show that we can organize even though we do not all agree on all issues.
Please register your support for this meeting, whether you can attend or not, by e-mailing your Name, Team, and City/State to the Advocate who is sending this to you. That Advocate will enter you on our Master List of players seeking change. Click HERE to send us your information
