Current players no longer have to deal with the following:
1) AstroTurf
2) the “wedge”
3) head slap
4) head to head contact
5) hits to the quarterback
6) “bump and run”
7) chop block
8 ) horse collar and neck tie tackles
9) contact for the long snapper
10) 4-6 weeks of “doubles” in training camp…w/pads
11) $99.00 per week total for preseason, training, and games
12) $1,500.00 to the winner of the Pro Bowl…loser got $1,250.00
13) No compensation for use of image
Current players are well compensated for games, off season workouts, the use of their image…..and $500 million in annual benefit costs for players vested in the Second Career Savings Plan, Annuity Plan, Health Reimbursement Account, Tuition Assistance, Performance Based Pay, five years of free medical after retiring…and the list goes on.
This didn’t just happen. They are more than well compensated because of the players that came before them that are the foundation of the league. They are watched closely when a concussion is suspected, while we were sent right back into the game. Former players have died to make it safer for current players. Sure, we played the game because we loved it but we didn’t risk our health to make this generation of players wealthy.
I am honored to be a Pro Football Hall of Famer, class of 2003. At the inductions every year I get to enjoy the company of the great players of the game. Some don’t even get $200.00 per month in their pensions. We have a fund for destitute Hall of Famers. This is wrong. Other sports have chosen to give dignity and respect to their retired players by giving them a livable pension. The MLB, the NBA, and the NHL have raised pensions for retired players and yet the NFL remains the most lucrative league in the world with sub-poverty pensions for retired players.
Vested retired players have earned a livable pension and should receive compensation yearly at least equal to the minimum amount current players get yearly for the use of their images. Why shouldn’t a vested retired player receive $10,000 a year per season played in the NFL? This would give dignity to retired players and take the burden from their families for their care as they age. Put a stop to the “delay, deny, and hope they die” tactics that have gone on too long.
Help us. We certainly helped owners and player alike. The league was built on our backs. With 9 Billion + dollars……… figure it out.
Make it right,
Joe D
HOF 2003
Well said Joe. Time for the recipients on both sides of the fence) of the benefits of the dues paid by the former players pay a few of their own. Time is a wasting and the older guys are dying while the millionaires and billionaires fiddle….kind of reminds one of Nero.
It’s about time someone spoke up for the PRE 93 players!!! Take care of the MAKER’s of the GAME. TOM MATTE BALTIMORE COLTS.
well written Joe
I tried to post a long message but ‘something happened’ so I will keep this one short.
First: Way to go Joe D.
Something happened along the way in our society the last 20 years (It’s all me first, me second, me third, me fourth…) For God’s sake current players YOU will be in the same situation as us in 20+ years. Use your right-brain and visualize what it is like to be unable to get out of bed without shooting pain down you legs and have to try to make a living (most people think that if you played pro football, you are rich and getting a great pension). Laughable.
Back in 1987 we helped out the pre-69ers with pension money. We were making decent money. I was just a role-player like most of the players who will be voting on this thing are. Back then saying I wanted our pension and medical increased it was like having leprocy (the call was ‘free agency’! ‘free agency’!). Well some benefitted by that but very few for the remainder of my years in the league.
Visualize yourself 20 years from now – money gone (and it wasn’t all bad investment and wasting it). Feel what it will be like for you when you are scrambling to make a mortgage payment, pay for your childrens’ schooling and sucking up to a client so he can feel important so you can get some scraps off of his table. Economic depressions like the one we are in (yes, it is a depression, 48,000,000 on food stamps?) will come again.
See yourself trying to get out of bed with shooting pain down you legs, getting in your old car, flying ‘coach’ to get to a meeting in another state. Trying not to feel like a failure b/c you were always taught to ‘tough it out’. Crap happens, I don’t care how much money you make, you can lose it all.
Then, 20 years from now when you are broke and there is a collective bargaining agreement coming up and the players have signed $500 million contracts seem to not even notice you. It will happen. When I retired 20 years ago I saw nothing but great things happening to me because I was always ‘successful’ in football and I could apply it to other areas. It hurts to get up, to drive more than 2 hours and to fly ‘coach’ (not to mention all the alarms set off by the metal detectors trying to get to a flight. And God forbid if you get into a car wreck and YOUR insurance company says all of your injuries came from football, even though they had to use the ‘jaws of life’ to extract you(minor hyperbole)
If you get a chance to coach, teach the children/young men about ‘humanity’. Because this narcissistic society that we have now will leave you with nothing except broken bones, torn tendons, nerve pain and a shortened life. God help you that your family can understand and not see you as a ‘loser’, ‘has-been’, ‘incapable’.
I am rambling, anyway… make sure the people representing you represent YOU. And don’t go along with the flow, because there comes a time to make a stand, for yourselves and your families. Sure as shat, if you are lucky enough to make it to ‘old age’ (50+ for us) it would be nice to have some sort of pension besides a car payment. God Bless You.
JF
PS. I know there are many people suffering worse than I (Japan, Iraq, Libya, etc). I just hope to try to influence when I can.
Fahnhorst, So well said, and represented…..a few months ago, there was a poll that was e-mailed to me, and it asked..”If pre-1993, players were to receive $1000/mo increase in their pension would that be enough”? or something along those lines….I mentioned, that at least its a starting point, but why not just bring it up to current MLB, NBA, or NHL levels.? better yet, make it easy, $10,000 for every year….(i.e.) player plays 10 years, $100,000, less taxes, of course, and the player has roughly 65 or 70 k , per year, he won”t be wealthy, but he can provide, and do the things fathers, grandfathers, are supposed to do , instead of at some point ..”in the near” future, looking for his kids, family to bail him out or put him away…proverbial drop in the bucket with NFL revenues sky rocketing… just a thought..
Joe, well done. I am honored to have you for a good friend. Never give up your fight.
Joe D. , Thank You for your heartfelt and well-written article. Folks, we are talking about “Destitute Hall of Famers”. Imagine the condition of the many role players as Jeff so ably describes above.
My feelings are that unless we gather in force in a Public Demonstration, for example on the Congressional Hill, and force the media to expose the condition of Former Players both financially and physically to the American Public, will we be able to humiliate these greedy Owners and our self – centered Union into considering us for a reasonable piece of the $9.5 Million ‘un-audited’ annual income of the NFL.
Personal Regards,
Frederick “Rick” Hayes
Thanks, Joe maybe God is listen, Lets hope the present Player and Owners, Are not. lets keep the fight going.
Well said Joe D.! And all reasonable people in the league at this time would agree with Joe D.! Wallace Francis
Joe D,
Well said! The voice of those that laid the bricks and mortar expose truth and injustice little by little. Facts are facts. The NFL has been mistreating former players for decades. Our blood, sweat, tears and our voices have well fertilized the coming fruit. The rising tide of support in response to posts and comments like this shall expose the truth. The truth shall prevail. Let’s keep the full court press on.
WELL SAID JOED.I AM AN ORGINAL PATROIT 1960 TO 1967 and helped to make The patroits what they are today.BECAUSE,WITHOUT GUYS LIKE US IN THE 60′S THERE WOULD NOT BE AN AFC.
In this “me-me-me” generation Joe, I just don’t think that they get it.. I have spoken to current players and “our” concerns are just not a part of their world.. They don’t seem to realize that they are just one play away from being one of us and soon they all will be.. They see only to the tips of their noses..
Joe, good work, I hope that all is well with you and your family.
All great pionts. I also think that the salaries that were lost striking for the benifits you point out were signofovant
Joe D., you hit the nail on the head.
In 1965, when I came into the league, there were 14 teams, 33 players per team. As you said, we went thruough at least 6 weeks of training camps with 6 pre-season games at $6.00 per day. A lot of current players today wouldn’t be on an NFL team if it weren’t for the 32 teams and 53+ players per team. In super bowl V, we had 6 coaches, now there are 20+ coaches per team. The Super Bowl wasn’t heard of in 1965 with the playoff between fial 2 teams for the championship. The game has grown a tremendous amount oand can be attributed primarily to the people who came before these current players.
In 1967, JOhn Unitas was the first $100K paid salary in the NFL. Most of today’s players wouldn’t dress for practice for $100K per year.
Great Job Joe!
To Joe and Jim F. and the others who echoed their eloquent words,
You are all right….We all loved the game we played,but that game turned out to be brutal both physically and mentally as we grew older. There really isn’t anything to turn to for most of us. Is this situation that difficult to comprehend ? Aren’t we just talking about honesty, integrity,and character on the part of the contempory players and owners. This is all about caring for those who came before you. If the owners and players (minus the negotiators) were really trying to improve the game (and themselves) what a great opportunity for them and for us. Thank you for the game and for the great people who played it………..Jim Otis
At what point will we, as NFL Retired Players, decide to become a team again. Joe D has stood on the hill telling everyone who will listen of the inequities in this system. Where are the rest of the Hall of Fame teammates? All of us know HOF Players…. Do they not join Joe because the just dont want the fuss? Raising money for distitute Hall of Fame Players? Are you kidding me? In the Adderley vs the NFLPA trial evidence showed that authorities of the NFLPA sold the rights to the NFL Hall of Fame Players Images to Electronic Arts. The NFLPA authority who worked this sale said in an email that EA really owes him for getting the HOF for a “bargain basement price”. Do you realize that some of the same litigators who worked for the NFLPA, who knew of the images being scrambled, who were complicit in stealing from it’s members, are the same litigators and officers that are bargaining for the new CBA. How comfortable do feel about them looking out for the best interest of their Retired Players community. If we want to effect change in a very real way all of you that go to this website need to make sure that every NFL Retired Player understands the issues. I am dazzled at the lack of understanding of the issues that directly effect NFL Retired Players. If you dont know ask Jeff, ask me or ask the many advocates who fight the fight. Make sure your Retired Players know the issues. Then pick up the phone and call your Congressmen….Tell them that they granted the NFL Anti Trust exemptions that have made them the most successful Sports business in the history. Tell them that they, Congress, has the same ability to force them to take care of their Retired Players body of men who are crippled, unemployed and fighting to remember who their kids are. I have been lobbying Congress and following a note to Cong. Lamar Smith, head of the House Judiciciary Com., I received a call from his lead Council. What I found out after talking with him was that the Congressman had no idea that the CBA had any effect on it’s Retired Membership. He had no idea that the Tax payers of the US were footing the bill for the damage done to our bodies through medicare, medicaid and Social Security. I spent an hour with this man explaining that Congress does and should intervene based on their past of granting the NFL these Anti Trust freedoms. Again, they know about the fight between the NFL/NFLPA but are oblivious to the Old Players. The Great Hall of Fame Players that all of us know need to be our teammates again. Also, pick up the phone and tell your Congressmen that they have an obligation to help correct the wrong they helped create.
I suggest that Jeff or Joe or somebody put together a National press release.
If this press release could come from the HOF players that played prior to 93 that would give it some serious credibility and some strong representation. The press release would admonish both the NFL and the NFLPA for allowing this lockout to happen.
The Billionaires vs Millionaires is the door opener but the real story can be the awful pensions and the state of the pre93′s who made this game/business.
Let’s make our own “bullet points” and get it to every sportswriter in every town we live in. Let us STOP waiting for the scraps that may or may not come out of a new CBA. Let’s get the word out in articles, interviews, and letters to the editors, etc. The only one on Jeff and Dave Pears site are former players. Tony made a great point that no one know what’s really going on. They will if we use what connections and influence we still have in our local towns we live in. And don’t forget the cities we all played in. Call up the sports personalities and tell them you have a great story to tell them.
In my opinion, that is how we put the spotlight on the plight of the pre93ers.
What do you think?????
As ALWAYS, Jeff, Joe D. tells it like it is. Unfortunately, we kind of find ourselves in a similar situation as we were in during our playing days. That is, being at the mercy of the moral fiber and common decency of the owners……..on top of that, we find that the current players and the owners are all alike. If not for men like you and Joe rallying and educating the troops, while raising the public awareness, we would really be in a world of hurt. The funny thing is that all we are asking for is a “bone”. Here is hoping that they throw us one.
I think it would be a shame and a dishonor to all former and current players if we don’t emphasis the need to recognize the immediate necessity to have a respectable pension and health benefit structure in place to sustain the needs of all existing retiries. I truely appreciate the efforts of Freeman McNeil and Reggie White for stepping out of their boxes and representing all NFL players.
I appreciate Joe’s comments. I too would love to see a ground swell of support for the thoughts and ideas he expressed! Personally, I started a crusade many years ago (circa1984-85) and in the early to mid 1990′s even made enough impact to have then current NFLPA Director Gene Upshaw, send one of his henchmen to Houston to reprimand me and my efforts. During that time I had sent Gene proposals/suggestions to equalize the playing field and make every vested player equal in starting pay with kickers for every year they played. My suggestion at that time was that any vested player should start with $3000-$5000 per month base. Then $500/per year for each year played. The basis for this was the obvious insanity that we had so many different levels of vesting and players were not being treated equally….the point being that if you were vested it should not matter what year you played, thereby leveling the playing field! I also suggested that the thing we needed in addition to raising pensions was health care. That would have been the correct move to deal with the tremendous health issues that have developed as it would have provided preventive care! I was even instrumental in starting a chapter in our town in order to do something other than have golf tournaments. Substantive things like player issues. Needless to say that did not go over well in D.C. and I was given the status of troublemaker and sentenced to “players Siberia”. The only way we are going to get our due is to rattle sabers. Unfortunately we played the game for the love of it and even though we were ground breakers, we have not been successful in getting benefits for ourselves because we trusted our own and never felt we would be discarded. It is great to see the players finally speak up and out! We need more HOF’ ers and high profilers to do likewise.
Woody Campbell
Way to tell it like it is Joe D!! You have always have been a great leader for past player negotiations with owners and still at it…Thanks for your continued committed leadership!
Hey Joe,
You are doing a great job of letting us know the facts, with that in mind, it was evident that the momentum achieved in the previous years HOF induction when the Retired Players “Quality of Life” issues were highlighted by the Hall of Fame crew; this years ceremony contained zero comments and that is suspicious by the very nature of the new CBA coming do. Please do all that you can to get those Hall Of Fame Players to “Suit Up” ONE MORE TIME…..with the understanding that for them to be in the HOF they needed the other 10 and the bench to get there! The pro-football endeavor is a TEAM sport and no one man stands alone; the same thing can be said in the “after life” and it’s gonna take those with the notoriety and all of the members of the “Retired Players of Pro Football” to suit up ONE MORE TIME and be inducted into the ultimate Hall Of Fame devoted to a better life for all of us that are left!
Joe, thanks for all of your efforts. You are right on target. I played 1960 to 1968. I am glad that I found another job after football. Luckily I receive a pension from that company. If my family had to live on the NFL pension, we would be below the poverty level!! Let’s get some of that “billionaire” money.
Great for Joe stepping up and telling it like it is and like it was! However he forgot several other debilitating “legal”tactics used when we played. Remember the crack back block where many safeties had their knees damaged, or the line clip when offensive linemen legally clipped DT’s and DE’s. Who can forget those crazy suicide team coverage guys who use to break the wedge feet first. And when you staggered back to the sidelines concussed, there standing were our team physicians briefly glancing into our eyes and giving us the green light to keep playing. Oh, yes, as a rookie in the old AFL we received no compensation for playing in exhibition games. Our demands will NOT be swept under the carpet as in CBA’s past.
Joe D. Congratulations on a very provacative article that has generated over 25 responses. Joe is obviously well respected. He is intelligent and well spoken. He is a Hall of Famer!
So what happens now?
Where is our petition? What about setting up a site for all of our guys and friends to sign up representing the “What happened” “The What has happened” the illegal tactics utilized by our very representatives to deny T&P disability to their own, the incestuous alignment of cronies in the very organization that represents us hiring the likes of the Groom Law Group to do their dirty work and pay millions to do it. These happenings are not our imagination and have been written about. These things need to come to light again in “the complete works on the NFLPA”. Idi-A-Gene and his dictatorship effectively eliminated the Pre-93′ers from benefiting from the 50-60 years of persistent striving to make things better for All of Us. What’s Right is Right! The Anti-Trust Laws is so Righteously Named……They certainly have betrayed the trust of the Retired Players that ultimately accomplished their GOAL…..only to be left out…..THESE GUYS CAN MAKE IT RIGHT BUT WE HAVE TO COME AT THEM AS A UNITED GROUP WITH THE LIST OF SHAMEFUL ACTS THAT HAVE BEEN PERPETRATED AGAINST OUR GROUP AND THE RESULT THAT IS DEMONSTRATED BY THE CARNAGE LEFT IN THE WAKE OF THE GAME.
Thanks Joe and all the other folks who took the time to offer comments.
As I understand the facts there are approximately 3,100 retired players currently drawing a pension. It is also my understanding that there are approximately 300 retired NFL players who die each year. That is 10% who will have been let down by the inactivity.
Lee Folkins