NFLPA Diverting Attention Away from the $100 Million Dollar Question

Don't pay any attention to that man (NFLPA) behind the curtain!

The Executive Director of the NFL Alumni, George Martin recently sent an email to the NFLPA Executive Director, DeMaurice Smith stating “We appreciate that the owners months ago initiated a proposal to significantly increase pensions for retired players immediately in the current deal for 2010. This would get help to retired players this year even without the NFL and NFLPA agreeing to a new deal whether in spirit or in principle. I am told this increase would be $100 million starting out. This would be tremendous for retired players. I hope the union will consider this proposal, as it will benefit retired players immediately, while not impacting their task of negotiating a new long term labor agreement for active players”    

Instead of considering the proposal, DeMaurice Smith and at least nine retired NFL players — including Charles Mann and Jean Fugett, who were meeting with Smith in the union’s HQs — issued the following statement:     

“Individual owners and teams have spent exactly nothing on retired player benefits. In fact, until the NFLPA and the Retired Players Association pushed them this year, they have even denied the long term consequences of concussions suffered while playing football. We have asked George Martin to ask the NFL, ‘Why?’     

What a masterful job of diverting attention away from the $100 Million Dollar question!       

Fourth & Goal has already addressed the false accusation that “individual owners and teams have spent exactly nothing on retired player benefits.” The Pension Plan and the Disability Plan are absolutely, positively funded by the owners. You can read it in Article 3 –Contributions - of the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan.  For the past 50 years, active players have successfully negotiated CBA’s that set aside money for these 2 Plans. To deny that truth, is to deny the hard work and efforts of the men that fought the owners, went on strike and in some cases lost their jobs because of their union activities.   Additionally, the NFL Alliance, which is represented by the NFL owners,  NFLPA, Hall of Fame and the NFL Alumni Association, collectively fund the Joint Replacement, Discount Prescription Drug Benefit, Life Insurance, Assisted Living Benefits, Medicare Benefit and Spine Treatment Benefit programs.       

Now, can we once and for all please put that Big Lie to rest.      

The second part of their diversionary tactic; The accusation that ‘until the NFLPA and the Retired Players Association pushed them this year, they have even denied the long term consequences of concussions suffered while playing football. We have asked George Martin to ask the NFL, ‘Why?’      

The key words in this sentence, which are underlined above, are this year.  Where the hell was our union for the past 20 years on this issue? Oh, that’s right, Gene Upshaw was in command. And what did he have to say about the issue?  In a 2007 interview Gene said “I think we’re just a reflection of society. I don’t want to take that next leap to say, you know, football caused dementia. I just don’t believe that.”     

Why would the owners take the union seriously when, for the past 20 years, the NFLPA has never really made this a serious issue……. until now.  They are only doing this now, because of the pressure certain retired players put on the Union and the Owners.  It wasn’t until Bruce Laird and the Baltimore Retired Player Chapter “shamed them” into creating the 88 Plan that ANYTHING was done to help retired players who were suffering from head traumas they incurred while playing in the NFL.      

So, who has the most powerful incentive to make changes to help both active and retired players regarding the concussion/disability issue? You would think it would be the Union, seeing as how they say they represent retired players.  But what have they done through the current CBA negotiating process to help us? Your guess is as good as mine.  It’s not the owners that Jean Fugett and Charles Mann need to point fingers at….it’s the NFLPA!  The NFLPA is the only group that negotiates with the owners. If  we don’t get what we want through the collective bargaining process, we can’t blame the owners and we surely can’t blame George Martin.  If the active players don’t like what is being offered by owners they can go on strike like we did in 1982 and 1987.  Does anyone really believe that active players would go on strike to help retired player’s over concussion and disability issues?  Nine retired players at the NFLPA are drinking the “D’ Smith Kool Aid and it must have more than sugar in it.            

What is really happening here?      

The NFLPA is trying to divert attention away from the $100 Million Dollar Question.  And why? Because the money for this retired player Pension increase would probably come out of the 60% Cap money that is used for salaries and benefits for active players and retired players.  Active players would have to make an unselfish decision to give retired players an increase in their pensions instead of increasing their own salaries and benefits.       

One proposal to pay for the increase in retired player pensions – and offset the cost and any reduction in current player salaries and benefits – has already been brought up in the negotiations.  See the posting here at Fourth & Goal entitled “NFL and NFLPA negotiations on Retired Player Money Linked to Rookie Wage Scale.”      

The idea of a rookie wage scale was intially shot down by DeMaurice Smith when he first took over at the NFLPA. He said that the popular issue of controlling salaries for top draft picks wasn’t even an issue of concern for the union and that “It might be an issue to drive a wedge between rookies and vets. But I know one thing, it’s not a player issue”.       

It might not be an active player issue, but it is a retired player issue.      

Matthew Stafford received a $41.7 Million signing bonus before setting one foot on an NFL football field last year. Under the proposed Rookie Wage Cap, a lot of that money would have gone to the older generation of retired players that shed their blood, sweat and tears to help the NFL get to where it is today.  $41.7 million! That’s just one player and almost half the money that the owners are proposing to set aside in an IMMEDIATE INCREASE in retired player pensions. If the NFLPA can’t get behind this proposal then they need to take these words off the cover of the NFLPA Constitution “We the National Football League Players Association pay homage to our predecessors for their courage, sacrifice and vision” and while they’re at it, they can drop the word “Past” in their overused and unfulfilled slogan “Past, Present and Future”.