Giants legend George Martin taking a stand for the needs and future of retired NFL players

By Jerry Izenberg/Columnist Emeritus Feb. 4, 2010

George Martin Taking a Stand for NFL Alumni

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — This town, this week, this game is lousy with money. But the Nile green tint of the Atlantic Ocean just yards from the Convention Center that serves as central command for an army of pencils, cameras, microphones and tape recorders that have hit the beach here for Super Bowl XLIV, pales when measured against the dollars that fuel the entire operation. 

They fuel the league. They fuel the players. And right now, from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, they fuel the hotels, restaurants and businesses that make up the Gold Coast. Clearly, nobody ever went broke hosting a Super Bowl, and it is light years since George Halas and Tim Mara had to wonder about paying their electric bills. 

But Wednesday, upstairs in the Convention Center, inside room 305, the last advocates of The Army of the Forgotten assembled to pull aside the veil that shrouds their constituency. They met in defense of the world that never cashed in on the pro football boom, that had to fight for whatever it got, and it is determined to defend the less fortunate among them. 

The NFL Alumni Association has a new president. For 14 years George Martin was the emotional soul of the Football Giants locker room. For 10 of those years he was the captain. For two of those years he was president of the NFL Players’ Association. 

He walked a picket line for 57 days. He does not understand what went wrong with the NFL Players’ Association — the quasi-union that represents the active players and ignores the shameful plight of a number of retired players when it should know better. 

The alumni group Martin now heads is comprised solely of retired NFL players. They are the only constituency and the only voters. Wednesday, Martin announced an alliance between his group and the Morehouse University School of Medicine to deal with, among other things, the dementia that may be caused in later life by concussions sustained on the field. It will do research. It will pioneer treatment. It will work on mental health. 

It is an idea whose time should have come sooner. 

But Wednesday’s session went far beyond it. Martin laid bare the anger of his constituency toward the union that represented them when they played and has done nothing but heap humiliation on them since they retired. 

Martin had a message for that union. Its previous executive director was the late Gene Upshaw, a former player who should have known better. His successor is a non-player named DeMaurice Smith, who has no interest in the alumni. Perhaps because they can’t vote in the NFLPA election. 

Martin says he has tried several times to meet with Smith but receives no response. Wednesday, in his speech, Martin addressed the following to Smith: 

 “I suggest as a first step you begin by respecting the men who built the very building in which you now reside. To effectively lead, you must first have the willingness to listen.” 

“On behalf of the 3,000 members who once played in the NFL, I propose that instead of meaningless press releases you sit down and engage in dialogue.” 

“The NFL Alumni do not want to participate in monetary negotiations. We just want you to work with our members for the benefits they need. If the Commissioner of Football can meet with us, why can’t you?”  

For years, so many who played this game and built it into America’s Sunday showpiece have medical needs that have been neglected and have had to rely on other former players to help them. The NFLPA will not even talk to them. 

That “union’s” first president was John Mackey, a brilliant tight end who played for the Colts when they were in Baltimore. His performance defined the position. His self-sacrifice helped make the union. He wound up as a dementia victim. Bruce Laird, a retired teammate and successful businessman, was so angered by the NFLPA’s callous indifference, he sought to get help for Mackey and others like him. He formed a group called “Fourth and Goal.” 

Wednesday, he had this to say about the union and Upshaw and Upshaw’s successor: 

“Twice I sent him (Upshaw) certified letters. I never heard from him, not once. You send a certified letter to somebody in America and he gets it. But he wasn’t interested. John Mackey made the association Upshaw headed happen. But Upshaw wasn’t interested. Now the association still isn’t interested and there are so many of our group with physical problems.”  

You would think that Upshaw, a brilliant player who put in hard time in the NFL trenches, would have done something. How and why would he ignore this problem? 

“I’ll tell you why,” Laird said. “There was a simple reason. Picket his house. Call a press conference. None of it mattered. He did it because — like Pharaoh — he could.”  

“Nothing changed. The NFL Alumni will keep this before the public.” 

And it damned well should. 

Jerry Izenberg, The Star-Ledger’s columnist emeritus, is one of only three daily newspaper columnists to have covered every Super Bowl. That gives him 43 more appearances at the big game than the New Orleans Saints, who will finally step onto center stage next Sunday for Super Bowl XLIV against the Indianapolis Colts.