Tuesday, February 7, 2012
6:00 p.m. – Heavy hors d’oeurves
7:00 p.m. – Meeting
Tark’s Grill
Greenspring Station
2360 West Joppa Road
Lutherville, MD 21093

Space is limited! R.S.V.P. by emailing baltimorecoltsalumni at msn.com

I wanted to submit some comments — in response to the NFL Alumni press conference at the Super Bowl:

1.  It would appear those gentlemen were paid to attend (or at least their expenses were taken care of) and they get to stay and party in Indy for a few days.  Pretty good gig!

2.  Who got the Alumni’s allotment of Super Bowl tickets this year?

3.  The way the Alumni governance was set up is that George Martin reports to the Board of Directors.  They set policy.  Martin carries it out.  Tom Nowatzke’s statement clearly indicates that Martin acted outside of the Association’s ethical guidelines in hiring family for Alumni activities.  The fact that he did this, without their permission, and the fact that they “took him to the woodshed” for it, helps to corroborate the type of problem that the FoxSports report pointed out.  It is all the worse because the Atlanta Alumni chapter was deactivated over two years ago for the same type of behavior.

4.  I did not hear the entirety of Jeff Nixon’s comments, and I hope that they were not taken out of context; but what was reported clearly indicates that the Alumni is not happy with all of the retired player lawsuits against the NFL.  Jeff knows better than most – because I worked closely with him to try to get the advocacy side of the Association up and running – that the single biggest barrier to that effort was a perception on the part of many retired players that the Alumni was nothing but a League set-up as they went into the CBA.  Jeff, and myself, and others, did all we could to counter the notion that if you joined the Alumni, you would not be able to sue the NFL.  His comments – taken solely as reported – completely nullify that effort.

5.  While these members of the Board of Directors (there are many more than the five who spoke on his behalf – where are the others?) clearly and unequivocally voiced their support for Martin, it does not appear that the press conference did anything to rebut the problems and issues raised in the original Fox Sports article, and, as set forth above, may have actually caused more damage.

 Law Offices of John V. Hogan
1325 Satellite Blvd.
Suite 1002
Suwanee, GA  30024
678-584-9005
www.johnvhogan.com

INDIANAPOLIS

Sylvia Mackey read from her notes written on a sheet torn off a yellow legal pad, although she shed it to ask her final question of NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith.

“What did we do wrong?” said Mackey as she questioned the union her late husband, Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, once headed at a news conference on Thursday.

Widows like Sylvia Mackey only recently learned that they aren’t eligible for the NFL’s legacy fund, a $620 million pool of money carved out by the NFL and the NFLPA for retired players under the new collective bargaining agreement. John Mackey, who battled dementia in his later years, died July 6, 2011, at age 69. Had his death come a month later when the CBA was ratified, Sylvia Mackey would have seen the benefits of the legacy fund.

“The one thing that I have to say with all due respect is that you’re wrong about is D. Smith and nobody on this dais made a decision to not include somebody,” Smith said. “It’s a new benefit. To say that (the NFLPA) and the National Football League made a decision to exclude Sylvia Mackey or anybody similarly situated, I hope you know that none of us who fought so hard made a decision to exclude someone.”

Smith said it would cost an additional $28 million to include the widows in the added legacy fund benefits, which gives at least $108 per month to retired players for each credited season for players who retired before 1993; the agreement also made $600 per month the minimum for the pension.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is expected to address the issue at news conference on Friday.

Smith said it would be “fantastic” if the league stepped in and made up the difference, although he didn’t rule out an agreement that would take some of the money allotted toward the legacy fund to help the excluded widows out.

For the widow of former Minnesota Vikings great Wally Hilgenberg, the last few days since learning of the exclusion have been trying.

“Oh, I just started to cry,” Mary Hilgenberg told FOXSports.com. “I thought it was all settled. I was told, ‘You’ll be covered.’ Then we find out that, no, we aren’t covered. I don’t know who is responsible.”

Mackey and Hilgenberg are among five former NFL players who retired before the 1993 season diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disorder that arises after repetitive trauma. CTE — which can only currently be diagnosed post-mortem — is associated with memory loss, loss of impulse control, paranoia and depression.

“We want to be equal like all the other wives,” said Hilgenberg, who would have seen an additional $1,728 per month since her husband played 16 years in the NFL. “It’s not about the money. It’s about respect. This is almost like they spit on our husbands’ graves.”

Former tight end Jim McFarland was actually in on some of the CBA discussions as a member of the NFLPA Former Players Executive Committee and even he was taken aback by the exclusion of the widows under the legacy plan.

“When we left the negotiations on July 25th (2011), an agreement on the legacy fund had been reached,” McFarland told FOXSports.com. “There was only a paragraph or two because only the money had been calculated at that point. Then more negotiations occurred and the language was changed.”

NFLPA president NFLPA Kevin Mawae said the union’s decision to decertify as a union — a tactic used during the lockout so some of the league’s star players could sue the league — is at least partially to blame for the process that led to the widows’ exclusion.

“During a great deal of the negotiating process, we weren’t allowed to talk about who was going to get what,” Mawae said. “First, you talk in terms of dollars. Then, you start discussing where the money is going to go. You can’t bring everybody in. We don’t talk about who is going to get excluded. It’s how you get the most people involved. At no time was there any discussions like, `Let’s include everybody, but … “

Sylvia Mackey exited the conference room — where she also spoke as part of the NFL Alumni Association news conference earlier in the day — upbeat.

“Whatever man has written, he can undo,” Mackey said.

INDIANAPOLIS — On Wednesday night, a small army of gawkers of all ages got the word that Tim Tebow was having dinner, so they slammed their way into the foyer of a restaurant called Palomino and jammed the doorway, hoping he’d have to walk past them to leave.

It was just another manic moment in the life of the Super Bowl stalkers. Cell phone/cameras at the ready, they seek out dozens of NFL players here on a busman’s holiday during Super Bowl week. The aura of hero worship fills the air, emanating from star-trackers of all ages. Their number includes a lot of aggressive females and, oh, to be young and one of Sunday’s heroes.

Put the emphasis on young.

The young live in the glory of a string of 100-yard moments.

But in this glorious and often brutal business, the dues often get paid later.

Sylvia Mackey sits on the end of a semicircle of yesterday’s heroes. She is there for a news conference hosted by the NFL Alumni Association. Among the board members flanking her are Harry Carson, whom the old Giants players still call captain; Andre Tippett, who learned his football in Newark and went on to play for the Patriots; Ron Jaworski, and about 10 other familiar names.

A relatively new agreement involving the NFL and the NFL Players Association increases benefits to certain retired players or their surviving spouses by an additional $12,000 a year.

To qualify for any NFL pension in that group a retired player needs three years and four additional games of service. But the spousal survival payment’s new raise does not go to a woman whose husband died before Aug. 8, 2011.

And that’s why Sylvia Mackey was there yesterday — to speak for all the spouses whose husbands did not live long enough for their widows to qualify for the raise under this ludicrous, arbitrary ruling.

A case in point:

Wally Hilgenberg played 16 years as an All-Pro center for the Minnesota Vikings. He was a starter on all four of their Super Bowl teams. He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — or Lou Gehrig’s disease — many medical authorities felt was exacerbated by his football career.

But he died Sept. 23, 2008. When his widow, Mary, found out that because of the date of death she was ineligible for the survivor’s raise, she told Sylvia Mackey:

“All those years he played. All he gave to that game. And now they just spit on his grave.”

They write Mackey often, these widows, because she is going through it herself, because she understands what it means to be a caregiver and because she has become their spokesperson through the NFL Alumni Association.

Her husband, John, was an NFL legend when he played for the Baltimore Colts. He remade the idea of what a prototypical tight end should be. But he was more than just a player. His role in the NFL Players Association stands alone as leading the fight that created the current free-agent rule. He was a Hall of Fame player, a labor leader for those who came after him and, in short, an ironic example of how the game he desperately loved in the end robbed him of the strength that had distinguished him.

He slipped first into Alzheimer’s disease and then into dementia. Sylvia Mackey and their children became his primary caregivers.

He spent his last four years in an assisted-living facility; the cost of Mackey’s care far exceeded his pension of less than $2,500 a month. His story eventually led the league and the players union to establish the “88 Plan”— named after his uniform number — providing $88,000 a year for nursing home care and up to $50,000 annually for adult day care for retired players suffering from brain damage.

And then he slipped away forever before the new legends cutoff date. Sylvia had to begin a second career, as a flight attendant. She was then 56 years old.

In a recent letter to one of the group she calls “my ladies,” she wrote:

“I have sent e-mails to everyone; the NFL, the NFLPA, because I believe we are due an answer (about the cutoff date). I have heard from nobody at either group. When I write these letters I start shaking and sometimes I cry. I am devastated. It’s just as important about the principle off this thing as the money.

“How could they do this? Who are they anyway? I want one of THEM to look me in the eye and explain to me so it makes sense. I am not stupid. Why do some beneficiaries deserve the increase and some do not? What a horrific, insensitive mistake.”

Yesterday, after the news conference, she said:

“We (the wives) know they made a choice. We know they loved the game and we understand that. But we know they cared so much about us. John took a smaller pension so that it would continue after he passed away. He had three choices, but he wanted the one that gave me and our children the most money.

“And now because he died too soon … now because of an arbitrary date … well …”

She’s right. This is about more than money. Ask yourself why suddenly — very suddenly — the league is properly demonstrating a fear of concussions, etc.

It was wrong to fix that arbitrary date when you are dealing with research, cause and effect, and what they can lead to.

She is absolutely right.

http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2012/02/izenberg_at_super_bowl_john_ma.html#comments

Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Tark’s Grill
Greenspring Station
2360 West Joppa Road
Lutherville, MD 21093

R.S.V.P. by Monday, February 5, by emailing baltimorecoltsalumni at msn.com

Thursday, February 2, 2012
In this image take from video shot on Wednesday, Jan. 25,… In this image take from video shot on Wednesday, Jan. 25,… FILE – In this Nov. 14, 1983, file photo, Dallas Cowboys … In this image take from video shot on Wednesday, Jan. 25,… More…

(02-02) 08:01 PST (AP) –

The helmet-to-helmet shot knocked Tony Dorsett out cold in the second quarter of a 1984 Cowboys-Eagles game, the hardest hit he ever took during his Hall of Fame NFL career.

“It was like a freight train hitting a Volkswagen,” Dorsett says now.

“Did they know it was a concussion?” he asks rhetorically during an interview with The Associated Press. “They thought I was half-dead.”

And yet, he says, after being examined in the locker room — a light shined in his eyes; queries such as who sat next to him on the Cowboys’ bus ride to the stadium — Dorsett returned to the field and gained 99 yards in the second half. Mainly, he says, by running plays the wrong way, because he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to do.

“That ain’t the first time I was knocked out or been dazed over the course of my career, and now I’m suffering for it,” the 57-year-old former tailback says. “And the NFL is trying to deny it.”

Dorsett traces several health problems to concussions during a career that lasted from 1977-88, and he has joined more than 300 former players — including three other members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and at least 32 first- or second-team All-Pro selections — in suing the NFL, its teams and, in some cases, helmet maker Riddell. More should have been done in the past to warn about the dangers of concussions, their lawyers argue, and more can be done now and in the future to help retired players deal with mental and physical problems they attribute to their days in the NFL.

In interviews conducted by the AP over the past two months with a dozen plaintiffs, what emerged was, at best, a depiction of a culture of indifference on the part of the league and its teams toward concussions and other injuries. At worst, there was a strong sense of a willful disregard for players’ well-being.

“It’s not about whether players understood you could get a concussion playing football. It’s about the negligence of care, post-concussion, that occurred,” says Kyle Turley, an offensive lineman for the Saints, Rams and Chiefs who was the No. 7 overall pick in the 1998 draft and an All-Pro in 2000.

Players complain that they carried owners to their profits, in an industry that now has more than $9 billion in annual revenues, without the safety nets of guaranteed contracts or lifetime medical insurance.

“Yeah, I understand you paid me to do this, but still yet, I put my life on the line for you, I put my health on the line,” Dorsett says. “And yet when the time comes, you turn your back on me? That’s not right. That’s not the American way.”

Head injuries are a major topic of conversation every day of the NFL season. With the Super Bowl as a global stage, the NFL will air a one-minute TV commercial during Sunday’s game highlighting rules changes through the years that have made the sport safer.

The owners of the teams playing for the Lombardi Trophy in Indianapolis — Bob Kraft of the New England Patriots and John Mara of the New York Giants — acknowledge the issue’s significance.

“There’s more of a focus on it now, without question, and I think that’s a good thing, and I think it’ll continue to be a focus. Because none of us want to put players in perilous situations like that,” Mara says. “I don’t want to see guys that are on this team, 20 years from now, with debilitating injuries, no matter what they are.”

Says Kraft: “We know this is a physical game, and when people play the game, they know it comes with certain risks. We have tried to stay ahead of it.”

The most accomplished and best-known plaintiff in the flurry of lawsuits — a star for the Cowboys after winning the 1976 Heisman Trophy at Pittsburgh — Dorsett agreed to two interviews with the AP, one over the telephone and one at his suburban Dallas home.

“I don’t want to get to the point where it turns into dementia, Alzheimer’s. I don’t want that,” says Dorsett, who ran for 12,739 yards, the eighth-highest total in league history. He is, in that moment, sad and deflated — in others, pumped up and angry, fists flying to punctuate his words. “There’s no doubt in my mind that … what I went through as a football player is taking an effect on me today. There’s no ifs ands or buts about that. I’m just hoping and praying I can find a way to cut it off at the pass.”

He spreads two pages’ worth of brain scans on his coffee table and says doctors told him that red regions in the color-coded scan mean he is not getting enough oxygen in the left lobe of his brain, the part associated with organization and memory. He already forgets people’s names or why he walked into a room or where he’s heading while driving on the highway, and fears his memory issues are getting worse.

Dorsett’s had surgery on both his knees, and problems with his left arm and right wrist. He says then-Cowboys coach Tom Landry once told him he could play despite a broken bone in his back. Not even the flak jacket Dorsett says he wore beneath his jersey could bring relief, the injury so painful that “tears would just start flowing out of my eyes, profusely and uncontrollably” during practices.

“They would see me and just point to the training room. `Go to the training room, get some ice and heat and come on back out here,’” Dorsett says.

And during games?

“They were hitting me, and I’d be squealing like a pig,” Dorsett says, imitating the guttural sound. “It was so bad that the other team was telling our coaches, `Get him out of the game.’ You know that something’s wrong then. And like a fool, I stayed as long as I could. They’re going to our sideline, telling our coaches, `Get him out of the game!’ … You know it’s bad when the opposition feels sorry for you.”

Other players describe an off-camera NFL that is darker than the carefully scripted show presented during Super Bowl week. Their recollections, based on playing careers that touched every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s, include:

_ “Midnight snack” buffets at a team hotel the night before games that would consist not only of food and drink, but also painkillers so that, as Rory Graves, an Oakland Raiders offensive lineman from 1988-91, puts it, “The next day, you feel like a kid. You could run into a car — no pain! You didn’t feel nothing.”

_ Cans of beer tucked into airplane seat pockets before players would board, so they’d have something at the ready to wash down the prescription drugs such as the painkiller Vicodin (commonly called “footballs” by players because of their oblong shape) or the muscle relaxant Flexeril (“home plates” because they’re pentagons) disbursed freely by someone coming down the aisle on team flights. “We took those drugs because we wanted to play, but there was nobody stopping us,” Turley says. “We’re young. We’re 10 feet tall. Nothing can harm us. If you’re giving it to us, we’re going to take it.”

_ Widespread and regular use of Toradol, a medicine intended for pain relief, generally after an operation, and a central part of one of the lawsuits that says the drug could put someone with a head injury at increased risk. “If it wasn’t torn or it wasn’t broken, to me, Toradol fixed it and allowed me to keep going. I was so used to using it that I wanted to make it a weekly ritual to make sure that if I did get hurt, I wouldn’t have to be taken out of the game,” says Joe Horn, who estimated he got four or five concussions during a career in which he caught more than 600 passes for the Chiefs, Saints and Falcons from 1996-2007. “To be honest with you, we were kind of — what’s the word for it? — addicted. But I always thought it was OK; the NFL doctors were giving it to us.”

_ Being scorned by teammates or coaches if unable to return to a game because of injury, and a seeming total dismissal, particularly in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, of the notion that head trauma could cause significant problems, immediately or long term. “Get back out there” was a phrase repeated by the ex-players, citing words they heard during practices or games. As Joe Harris, a linebacker with five teams from 1977-82, says: “I know I had nine or 10 concussions, because I played through them. A lot of times, I’m out there and I was dazed, and I heard guys say, `He’s knocked out, and he don’t even know it.’ And then you talk to your coach, and they bring out smelling salts. `Give him a hit of that, and put him back out on the field.’ And they show you fingers, and you say it’s three when it’s two. And they say, `Get back out there. Just hit the one in the middle.’”

_ A day-to-day, post-football existence that is difficult because of, for some, depression, dementia, migraine headaches, memory lapses, along with balky hips and knees and shoulders. “My body hurts all the time,” says Mark Duper, who caught more than 500 passes as a wide receiver with Dan Marino’s Miami Dolphins from 1982-92. Duper is more concerned, though, about the ringing in his ears, the loss of memory, “having a conversation and, all of a sudden, I just forget what I’m talking about.”

“I try not to take medicine. I don’t want to be a zombie,” Duper adds. “What little left I’ve got in my brain, I want to keep it normal.”

Dorsett describes making the trek to the annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony and being saddened by once-hearty men deteriorating before his eyes.

“Bodies that were just mangled, just beat up. Twisted up. Hit with arthritis and the knuckles and the bones, the twisted bones. It’s `Wow!’ It’s very enlightening to see that,” he says, wincing at the images he describes. “And then when you hear that these guys don’t have insurance, that the league won’t give them insurance, that the league is saying that it didn’t happen on their clock. That’s bull.”

Citing the pending litigation, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league would not comment on players’ specific allegations and referred to a written statement initially released in December: “The NFL has long made player safety a priority and continues to do so. Any allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players has no merit. It stands in contrast to the league’s actions to better protect players and advance the science and medical understanding of the management and treatment of concussions.”

Jack Yeo, who works at a public relations firm representing Riddell, said the equipment company does not comment on legal matters.

As public as the plight of current players is, former players say their stories aren’t widely known.

“Fans don’t know. They have no clue. And you think the NFL is going to tell them? No,” says Ronnie Lippett, a Patriots cornerback from 1983-91. “I’m just so happy that the senators and congressmen and congresswomen took notice of how they have been cheating us. And that’s the only reason (players are) getting the help that we’re getting now. And it’s only been in the last two years that anything has started to change.”

Soon after a House hearing in October 2009, when lawmakers grilled Commissioner Roger Goodell about the league’s concussion policies and the connection between injuries on the playing field and later brain diseases, the NFL made several changes. Those included revamping return-to-play guidelines and changing the co-chairmen of its committee on concussions — a panel, originally formed in 1994, that one pending suit against the league describes as “part of the NFL’s scheme to deceive Congress, the players and the public at large.”

The league finds itself continually changing its concussion protocols, most recently after Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy returned to a December game despite not being checked for a head injury following an against-the-rules hit to the helmet. The league put certified athletic trainers in booths above the field to watch for injuries and added video feeds on sidelines to make it easier to track dangerous hits immediately.

But players like Dorsett and Duper, who played long before that greater awareness and vigilance, didn’t have such safeguards.

“They weren’t as cautious back then. We played with concussions. I didn’t know what a concussion was, really, when I was playing football. We got hit, we got up,” Duper says. “I can remember times when I got hit, and I went back out on the field, and I couldn’t remember the plays. I guess that’s what a concussion is, the `Eeeeeeeeeeee!’ you’d hear. And you woke up and you’d see stars. I remember those things. And I played with it.”

Says Barry Brown, a linebacker and tight end for three teams from 1966-70: “When you know you’ve got a concussion, and they put you back in the game, it’s abuse.”

That attitude extended beyond head injuries, according to the plaintiffs the AP interviewed.

“The game of football and the money that was out there — they wanted the best players in the games, no matter what. If he was 80 percent well or 75 percent, they believed that he, the starter, was better than the second guy behind him, and they’d rather have a less-percentage guy. They didn’t protect us at all,” Lippett says. “I took shots in my foot, in my shoulders, in my ribs. They had to know of the ramifications of going back out there with different injuries. The money aspect of it just forced them to not pay attention.”

Mara, the Giants’ owner, says he can’t speak for other teams, but insists his medical staff takes “any kind of injury seriously.”

“They don’t let players go back on the field unless they feel they can do so without risk, particularly with head injuries,” says Mara, whose family founded the Giants in 1925. “Our trainer, Ronnie Barnes, has been with us forever. You ask any of our players, or former players, whether he put their interests first or the team’s interests first, and I think you’d find a pretty strong consensus that he always put the players’ interests first. I can’t speak to other organizations.”

Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie’s father, Steve, also played for New York, as well as New England, during his 1984-95 career. The elder DeOssie was approached about signing on as a plaintiff against the NFL but hasn’t because, he says, “I’m not 100 percent sure if my concussions have affected me.”

“You accept the responsibility and you accept the idea that you’re in a dangerous profession, but you also expect certain levels of care and professionalism on the other side. And I think it’s a lot better now than it ever was before,” says Steve DeOssie. “Whether it’s through public pressure, or whether it’s their own desire, they’ve gone a long way to make it right, which is a good thing.”

Players have differing motives for suing their former employers, and the 20 or so lawsuits against the NFL seek varying remedies, although lawyers are reluctant to discuss specific monetary damages. At least one suit, for example, asked that the NFL and Riddell fund a medical monitoring program that would test players over the years to see whether they wind up with problems that stem from concussions.

“I just want to make sure there is some recognition given to the fact that, 10 years from now, if I come down with something … that I have some kind of recourse,” says Cedric Brown, a safety for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1976-84. “I don’t want to end up, 10 years from now, being a vegetable, and you’ve got nowhere to go.”

Asked what advice he’d give current players, Brown says: “First thing is, wear every pad. … And pay attention to your body. When you get to be 50 or 60, those little injuries you have now, guess what? They’re coming back.”

Dorsett acknowledges he’s not familiar with details of the lawsuit that includes him among the plaintiffs. He was approached about joining other former players, and he agreed, figuring his name would call attention to the issues of mistreatment he sees as being at the heart of the case.

“I’ll stand up on a mountaintop,” Dorsett says, “and tell the world it’s not right.”

Ask Dorsett what outcome he hopes for, and he speaks about money and principles.

“The owners need to own up to it, own up to what the game does to human lives. There’s a zillion football players in the same situation with their brains, their backs, their knees. Come on. They just need to own up to it, and do something about it. They’ve got money they can put in funds to take care of guys when they need to help,” Dorsett says. “We need health insurance for life. Paid by the NFL. No question in my mind, we definitely need that.”

According to the NFL Players Association, full lifetime medical insurance was not sought by current and former union leadership because such a plan would cost an estimated $50 million a year and the current U.S. health care laws should cover most players with pre-existing conditions.

“Until the public realizes what’s going on and how many players — there’s guys in the Hall of Fame; in the Hall of Fame! — that were making $300, $400, $500 a month with no health insurance. Again, what is that? That is sad. That is sad,” says Dennis Harrah, a Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman from 1975-87 and an All-Pro in 1986. “They’re just fallen heroes. You take care of fallen heroes. Somehow, some way.”

For now, the lawsuits are still in the initial, procedural stages. On Tuesday, at least four, including one in which former Chicago Bears Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon is a plaintiff, were consolidated in a Philadelphia court.

Harrah, like most of the former players interviewed by the AP, isn’t all that optimistic about a quick resolution. “They’re just waiting until we die,” he says of the NFL. “They’re just waiting for us old guys until we pass — to quit complaining, and we die.”

That same sense of resentment and despair permeates Dorsett’s words as he raises his voice and shakes his head.

“They use you up. No matter what the circumstances are, it’s all about winning games, football games, regardless. And they don’t care, because they figure, you know, `We got, you know, replacement factories,’ which are colleges. And there’s going to be somebody else to eventually come along and fill that void,” he says. “So they just put you out there, and feed you to the wolves. And if you make it through, fine. If you don’t, that’s fine.

“Management, ownership, as far as injuries are concerned, I think in some regards they wish they could just look the other way.”

___

AP National Writer Nancy Armour reported from Chicago and Indianapolis; AP Pro Football Writer Howard Fendrich reported from Washington, D.C., and Indianapolis; AP National Writer Martha Irvine reported from Frisco, Texas. AP researcher Judith Ausuebel contributed to this report from New York.

Here’s a special edition of The Voice, featuring profiles of John Unitas, Elvin Bethea, Conrad Dobler and Dwight Harrison. Published by Hausfeld LLP & Zelle Hofmann for retired NFL players.

That concept of team carried over into many players’ retired lives and, in fact, was a driving force behind the former Baltimore Colts’ creation of Fourth & Goal. In the past seven years, we’ve not only advocated for improved pension and disability benefits, we’ve also raised funds to immediately assist retired players, their wives and widows, and their children in need.

The National Football League was founded on this concept of team – and certainly the practice of sharing television revenue among teams is evidence of that.

Thus, it was extremely disappointing to learn that the Legacy Benefit will not benefit the widows of those teammates who died prior to August 4, 2011, when the CBA was signed/went into effect. Not even those widows whose husbands opted to extend pension benefits after death will see an increase. The union, which in recent years has purported to represent retired players, failed to negotiate on behalf of the wives of deceased players. NFL Alumni did not even participate in the talks. And the league inexplicably signed off on a deal that effectively prohibits widows from a pension increase.

Consider, for example, John Mackey. The first president of the National Football Players Association following the merger of the NFL and AFL, Mackey led the fight for free agency, put his football career on the line for the cause, did more than perhaps anyone else to improve player benefits, and spent his last years in the fog of dementia that robbed him of his post-football career, his memories, his relationships. Yet despite Mackey’s contributions to the league, the union and both active and retired players, his widow Sylvia will not benefit from the Legacy Benefit. At 69 years old, John died far too young and, when he passed away on July 6, just four weeks too soon for his widow to receive the Legacy Benefit.

The future widows of those of us who’ve held off dying until after August 4 are in luck — they’re eligible for the Legacy Benefit.

Particularly when research indicates that a retired NFL player often has a shorter life span than the general public, when we’ve lost far too many teammates far too soon, when we’ve prided ourselves on being a team, how can we not care for our widows? How can we allow this to happen?

Will you stand with Fourth & Goal in calling for the union and the league to amend the CBA to ensure that our teammates’ eligible widows indeed see a pension increase from the Legacy Benefit?

We — and they — win and lose as a team

Jimmie Giles is a physical shell of the strapping tight end who reached four Pro Bowls in 13 NFL seasons.

The former Tampa Bay Buccaneer standout’s back problems are so severe he has undergone 20 epidural treatments. Doctors fear additional procedures could affect the integrity of Giles’ spinal fluid.

His efforts to avoid major back surgery have coincided with a struggle between the NFL and its players association about health benefits for former players — an issue seized upon by the NFL Alumni Association two years ago when that group began trying to expand its reach from charitable causes to advocacy for the league’s retirees.

But, Giles said, just like the numbing injections he has received to alleviate pain, the NFLAA, under the leadership of former New York Giants great George Martin, has proved equally ineffective in finding a more permanent fix to the problems faced by Giles and some of his peers.

“I don’t know what George’s agenda was,” Giles, 57, recently told FOXSports.com. “If it was to help players, he hasn’t done a very good job.

“He has the commissioner’s ear. He could present things to (NFL Commissioner Roger) Goodell and let him know what’s truly happening to former players. He can show them that the NFL and NFLPA aren’t doing enough to help players who are dealing with disabilities.”

To exclusively blame Martin for the sparring that continues between ailing former players and the NFL about how best to handle post-football health care might not be fair. But a FOXSports.com investigation into Martin’s tenure as NFLAA president and executive director revealed the organization is foundering because of apparent mismanagement.

Among the problems:

• Already facing financial problems before Martin’s hiring in October 2009, the NFLAA continues to struggle despite having received more than $4 million in NFL loans. The most recent was a $1 million loan that kept the NFLAA solvent. Martin oversees the NFLAA’s finances despite having filed for personal bankruptcy three times.

• Some alumni chapters have fallen dormant, creating a trickle-down effect on outreach programs for former players that the NFLAA was supposed to help lead. At least one chapter is thinking about splitting from the NFLAA, which has required more financial support from the chapters and, according to one of them, been slow to distribute reimbursement checks from an NFLAA-controlled fund. The Seattle chapter recently canceled its annual golf tournament, which usually is its top fund-raiser.

• Martin has funneled NFLAA contracts to those close to him, which is a potential violation of the group’s ethics code. Martin’s actions include the donation of NFLAA-allocated Super Bowl tickets to his own nonprofit group run by his son, using the NFLAA brand to promote fund-raising for another Martin-affiliated charity (Journey for 9/11) and tapping an event-planning company run by his wife and daughter-in-law. Another NFLAA executive hired by Martin has entered into a business arrangement with a company controlled by her father.

More on that subject is available here.

Martin declined numerous FOXSports.com requests for a telephone or in-person interview. Via email, Martin defended his NFLAA stewardship and the strides made because of the group’s “tireless advocacy.”

“In its short existence in the modern era, the association has played a critical role in securing a number of important programs and benefits for retired NFL players,” Martin wrote.

Martin, 58, was selected to lead the NFLAA from a list of 140 candidates compiled by a headhunting firm. He was considered a strong candidate because of the public reputation he had built. The loquacious Martin aced a job interview that was conducted after the list was narrowed to about 30 candidates, Lee Nystrom, a former Green Bay Packers center and search-committee member, told FOXSports.com.

Not only was Martin a stalwart defensive end with the Giants (1975-88), he received the NFL Players Association’s highest honor — the Byron “Whizzer” White Award — for “demonstrating outstanding service to one’s team and community” in 1986.

Martin remained active in charitable causes post-football, including his heavily publicized Journey for 9/11 cross-country walk that helped raise about $3 million for New York City rescue workers who began to suffer from respiratory ailments. Martin’s online biography lists business experience with companies that included Tanagraphics and AXA Equitable.

Former Giants linebacker Harry Carson — a Hall of Fame player who cofounded a charity (Minority Athletes Networking) with Martin — campaigned for his former teammate to get the NFLAA job, Nystrom said.

Other retired players involved in the hiring process included Baltimore Colts defensive back Bruce Laird, New York Giants running back Randy Minniear and San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Ben Lynch.

Shortly after Martin accepted the position, Goodell had him speak on behalf of the NFLAA at a league owners meeting in October 2009.

“I think it’s a great development that George is now in place and running the organization,” Goodell said at a news conference. “I think he will do a terrific job.”

The final NFLAA candidates were supposed to go through a background check, but Nystrom said the committee never knew about Martin’s three bankruptcies. A document produced by headhunting firm Spencer Stuart backs that claim.

According to documents and federal tax records obtained by FOXSports.com, Martin has filed for two Chapter 11 reorganizations and one Chapter 7 liquidation since 1996. The most recent case was not closed until 2005.

In total, Martin sought protection from $416,450 of debt. Martin refused to address the reasons behind the bankruptcies.

“I will only reiterate that this matter is not relevant to (NFLAA) and my background was fully vetted prior to my being hired,” Martin wrote to FOXSports.com.

Without knowledge of Martin’s personal financial issues, the NFLAA gave Martin broad power under a contract offer tendered to him in October 2009. (Martin currently draws a $270,000 salary and is eligible for bonuses that can significantly increase his pay.) The offer sheet obtained by FOXSports.com stated that Martin “will oversee operations, member and partner communication, membership growth and charitable giving and community outreach strategies.” Martin was given “full financial accountability for the organization” as well as responsibility for planning and managing the annual budget.

Martin, though, has struggled to maneuver the organization through expansion of its original mission.

The NFLAA was created as a partnership between two separate groups involved with retired players (NFL Alumni and Fourth and Goal). NFL Alumni originally was formed in 1967 as a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based group seeking benefit packages for former players. Nine years later, NFL Alumni became a tax-exempt charity that focused on fund-raising for children and community charities. The group also operated a “dire need” fund for members with financial problems. That fund currently is overseen by a group of NFL owners.

The NFL Alumni’s 15-member board of directors voted to merge with the Fourth and Goal organization headed by Laird. The shift coincided with Frank Krauser’s retirement as NFL Alumni president/CEO in May 2009. Krauser was facing heat because NFL Alumni, according to its own 2009 documents, had allocated an “insufficient amount of funds” to the Dire Needs Trust created to serve as a bridge for applicants without enough money to cover medical costs.

The merger also came amid heavy NFL pressure for NFL Alumni to become an advocacy group for former players as collective-bargaining agreement negotiations began heating up with the NFLPA, which has its own programs for retirees. With more than 3,000 members at that point, the NFL Alumni Association had amassed by far the largest retired player roster of any organization.

Well aware that other advocacy groups and former players, on an individual basis, would seek representation in labor talks and the NFLPA’s own involvement with retired players, the NFL wanted affiliation with an association with which it could build close ties. Goodell said NFL owners “identified the NFL Alumni as the entity they wanted to get behind.”

Goodell also stressed that the NFLAA would be an independent organization, although the league has subsidized the group with funding since its involvement. The vision that the NFLAA would eventually be able to repay the league loans and become self-sustaining hasn’t come to pass.

The NFLAA had $861,520 in cash and short-term investments when Martin took over in 2009. It was in the red at the end of November 2011 and would have fallen more than $1 million in debt by February, internal NFLAA documents show, had the NFL not stepped in with more funding. A document obtained by FOXSports.com details the $2.35 million loans the NFLAA will have received from May 2011 through June 2012, although it does not take into account the most recent $1 million loan made in December, according to a source with knowledge of the transfer. (NFL officials have declined to offer specifics about their financial support of the NFLAA.) The NFLAA also received a $1 million loan soon after its new mandate to aid retired players was launched in 2009.

League affiliation of any sort is a strong point of contention among some retirees who strongly believe the NFL isn’t looking out for their best interests despite the money being funneled toward addressing former player issues.

“As a matter of public record, the NFL has provided funding,” Martin said. “While the funding provided by the NFL was essential in the formation of the association, the NFL has never had or exerted influence over the operations of the organization. The association is overseen exclusively by former NFL players, making it the only established organization that is solely accountable to, managed by and operated in support of retired players.”

The NFL and NFLPA allocated $1 billion in additional benefits toward retired player needs in the new 10-year CBA approved in July 2011. Of that, $620 million is earmarked for a “legacy fund’ that includes pension boosts for qualified retirees, particularly those who played before 1993 without the backing of a CBA. The NFLAA claims it was “instrumental” in pushing for that increase.

Martin was one of more than a half-dozen leaders of retired player groups who met with the league about how the $620 million would be distributed. Martin, though, never became a prominent figure in last summer’s labor talks despite repeated efforts to land a spot at the negotiating table.

Although the program was founded by the NFL, the NFLAA has taken credit for spearheading efforts that established a long-term care insurance program with more than 1,200 applications approved for former players and their wives. Martin wrote that the Transamerica NFL Retiree Long Term Care Insurance Program also has created a streamlined approval process to make everything easier.

However, Nystrom and other former players interviewed by FOXSports.com have seen no evidence of such aid to former players.

Laird and attorney John Hogan, who filed lawsuits on behalf of Giles and other players whose medical claims were denied by the NFL and NFLPA, said they pitched Martin in July 2010 about having the NFLAA provide members with detailed information about how to apply for benefits. Laird and Hogan said that, despite Martin’s initial interest, such an initiative and a proposed disability advisory committee never materialized.

“He loved it,” Laird said of Martin. “He asked John to get attorneys across the country involved to help these former players. Then nothing. Weeks then months went by and nothing ever happened.”

Martin called the efforts by Laird and Hogan “valuable,” but the NFLAA decided it was more advantageous to lobby for more benefits in the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

Among his accomplishments, Martin points to the NFL Alumni Career and Business program, which, he said, has been accessed by more than 50 retired players. The NFLAA also recently completed an “NFL 12 days of Christmas” initiative where some disadvantaged veterans received up to $1,000 from the dire needs fund.

Martin said the NFLAA has further aided retirees, although he refused to offer specific examples citing the group’s privacy policy.

No matter what Martin has accomplished, Nystrom said there are some retirees who will feel it isn’t enough. That is based upon the belief the NFL and NFLPA owes them big for building the game into an industry now generating more than $10 billion in annual revenue with an even rosier financial outlook.

“I’m not sure that’s a battle that can be won,” said Nystrom, 60, who spent two seasons (1972-73) with the Packers. “No matter how much money you throw at it, it will never be enough for certain people.”

Nystrom cites the fact that about half of the NFL’s roughly 13,000 retired players are vested (four credited seasons before 1993; three credited seasons after 1993).

“When you give a dollar to a non-vested player, you are taking a dollar away from the vested player,” Nystrom said. “There’s just no good answer.”

The fact that Martin appears to have used his NFLAA office to benefit family members and his outside charity endeavors adds further fuel to the fire. Retired players advocate Dave Pear already was critical of Martin’s job performance before told about his potential conflict of interest.

“George Martin hasn’t done squat except take care of himself and those around him,” said Pear, a former Oakland Raiders defensive lineman who has undergone almost a dozen surgeries since he retired after the 1981 Super Bowl.

Another major concern for Martin: declining NFLAA membership. There were 3,015 former NFL players enrolled in 2010, a drop of 747 members from 2006. Martin told FOXSports.com that membership stands at “3,500 retired NFL players,” although several people close to the NFLAA who were interviewed by FOXSports.com questioned that total.

One of those players no longer part of NFLAA membership is retired quarterback Dan Pastorini. He has refused to sign a “group licensing agreement” (GLA) that would allow the NFLAA to market his image. The NFLAA has cited the GLA and need for mass number of retirees, especially prominent former players, to sign the agreement as a critical part of its fund-raising plan for financial independence from the NFL.

“I was kind of shocked by that,” Pastorini told FOXSports.com. “I wanted to pay my dues, even though I don’t agree with a lot of things Martin is trying to do. I still wanted to remain a member in good standing. What’s his motivation? Maybe you have to look at who’s paying his salary: the NFL.”

Martin wrote that the NFLAA has reached out to Pastorini and said agreeing to the GLA is not required. He added the organization has altered the website to make that clarification.

Although exact membership dues totals were not available for 2011, the NFLAA collected $80,432 in dues from May 2011 through September 2011, according to a document sent to the board of directors in November and obtained by FOXSports.com. The NFLAA had projected to raise $137,820 during that same period.

Multiple sources confirmed to FOXSports.com that the lower totals are the result of a dip in the membership of about 1,000. With the $100 annual membership fee, that translates to a loss of $100,000.

In the organization’s 2010 fourth-quarter report issued that November, Martin claimed that “close to 500 (new) players” each year become NFL Alumni members. But the NFLAA acknowledged membership problems in a business plan sent to its local chapters in early 2011. An internal document obtained by FOXSports.com states, “There has been a noticeable and steady decline over the past four years.”

Not all documents obtained showed grim financial forecasts.

An accounting firm (Rothstein Kass) that audited the NFLAA’s finances produced a review showing the group would nearly triple its revenue to $5.89 million in 2011. Large spikes in membership dues and revenue made from golf tournaments and Super Bowl-related events were projected.

The true numbers are hardly as rosy.

A spreadsheet sent to board members in early November 2011 details losses of $151,685 from May through September. The organization projects an overall loss of $1.37 million for 2011 — a figure that would have been more than double were it not for NFL assistance.

The NFLAA doesn’t expect an immediate change in fortune, as it projects losses of $798,271 in the first six months of 2012. The NFL has made another $1 million loan in recent weeks that is basically keeping the organization afloat.

“Our commitment to retired players includes loans, grants or commitments of funding, to several organizations that provide programs and services to former NFL players,” the NFL wrote in a statement to FOXSports.com. “Those groups include the NFL Player Care Foundation, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Gay Culverhouse Player Outreach Program, Mike Ditka’s Gridiron Greats, the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine, the NFL Players Association, and the NFL Alumni Association. The operations of these organizations are overseen by their own boards. We review our funding commitments and make adjustments as necessary.”

The organization would have effectively gone broke last month, according to the document. By the end of November 2011, the cash balance in NFLAA accounts was projected to dip into negative territory by about $256,748. (It had reported $313,888 in cash in September and was projected to have $116,978 cash on hand in October.) By June 2012, the NFLAA had predicted, it would be $1,118,365 in debt before the most recent NFL loan infusion.

Other Internal NFLAA documents obtained by FOXSports.com acknowledged those revenue streams — including the GLA licensing and arranging speeches for former players — haven’t come to fruition, and NFL loans are being used to subsidize operations. The NFLAA’s financial problems have continued despite an 8 percent reduction in workforce in 2010, according to last year’s fourth-quarter report. There currently are 12 full-time NFLAA employees.

The NFLAA’s expenses — which include everything from staging golf tournaments to salaries — were projected at $5.39 million for 2011. That’s $1,862,537 more than the expenses from 2009, according to the most recent IRS tax form available.

NFLAA revenue — minus the money from the NFL — was projected at just $245,715 more in 2011 than in 2009.

“The NFL Alumni Association has yet to establish a revenue stream outside of the draw-down of those funds from the (NFL) loan,” the internal report stated.

According to minutes published online from a May 2011 meeting of the NFLAA’s Southern California chapter (18), each chapter is required to pay a $5,000 fee.

“Nothing comes back to the local chapters,” the minutes state. “The NFLAA has borrowed $2.5 million from the owners to continue to function. This loan has to be paid back starting in 2014.”

Nystrom said such demands, coupled with the NFLAA’s crumbling finances, have him thinking about removing the Minnesota chapter from the NFLAA’s umbrella. About five years ago, the NFLAA assumed control of the banking activities for each chapter. Monies raised, mostly through golf tournaments, were deposited into an account controlled by the NFLAA. In turn, those chapters would request payments to fund local charities and pay expenses.

In recent months, Nystrom said, checks have been slow to arrive despite numerous requests.

“The money is supposed to be kept in a separate account, but some of us are worried what will become of the fund if there’s a bankruptcy (involving the NFLAA)” Nystrom said.

Further troubles are emanating from the NFLAA’s new headquarters in Newark, NJ. The group lists 24 local chapters, but some are currently dormant. That has made reaching retired players all the more difficult.

In 2010, under a program touted by Martin to FOXSports.com, the NFLAA partnered with the Morehouse School of Medicine to assist former players seeking medical care. The NFLAA agreed to supply logistical support from each chapter to notify retirees and get them to seminars.

Morehouse had conducted 14 presentations around the nation through mid-November. Morehouse spokesman Chris Thrasher said they had to go it alone in a few cities already.

“Obviously, one of our main goals was to get as many former players as we can get to these events,” Thrasher said. “When there is no chapter or active chapter, it makes things more difficult. It’s then up to us to reach out to these guys. We try to find the movers and shakers in the area so they can get in contact with the former players.”

Speakers from the NFLAA-affiliated Gay Culverhouse Players Outreach Program and NFL Player Care foundation attended the NFLAA’s Southern California chapter meeting in May. The online minutes describe the turnout of NFLAA members as “disappointing” and list ways of trying to increase membership, such as organizing parties and a get-together at a Major League Baseball game.

Disappointment also best describes how Giles feels toward the NFLAA.

“I went to George Martin when he first started and I said, `George, I need your help,’ ” Giles said. “I never heard back from him. If you are there to help people, help people — even if it’s just one guy at a time.”
 

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/NFLAA-president-George-Martin-investigation-financial-questions-012412