Money, money, money, money

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

One week ago, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith – and a contingent of union representatives, including former Saints’ and current Browns’ LB Scott Fujita, Saints QB Drew Brees and newly-elected NFLPA President Domonique Foxworth – met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials. Fujita and Brees are members of the NFLPA’s executive committee.

Among the topics discussed was possible disciplinary action against players who participated in the bounty scheme.

Following the meeting, Brees told NFL.com, “We didn’t get any meaningful evidence, or any meaningful truth or facts” regarding the bounties. NFLPA assistant executive director George Atallah, in fact, has described the bounty scandal as an “alleged pay-to-injure scheme.”

It seems that both Brees and Atallah remain skeptical about the existence of a bounty system. Yet the union admitted receiving an audio tape in which coach Gregg Williams is heard explicitly extolling players under his charge to injure certain players on the San Francisco 49ers. Moreover, Williams even identified specific areas of the body (e.g., ACL, head, neck) to target. The NFL’s investigation has resulted in the suspension of Rams’ defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, as well as Saints’ GM Mickey Loomis, head coach Sean Payton, and assistant coach Joe Vitt and probable disciplinary action against 22 to 27 players involved in the bounty system.

Still, the union continues to protect the active players who are believed to have participated in the scheme.

In fact, the NFLPA has already retained outside counsel to represent players in any litigation related to bounties. The outside counsel – Richard C. Smith, a partner with Fulbright and Jaworski LLP in Washington, D.C. – was also part of the NFLPA contingent that met with NFL officials last week, as were the union’s General Counsel Richard Berthelsen and Assistant General Counsel Heather McPhee.

As the NFL’s Jeff Pash observed during a discussion with the Associated Press on Friday, the union represents all active players – yet by protecting those who participated in the bounty system, the NFLPA fails to represent the players who were the targets of bounties and/or were injured by bounty-incentivized hits. Pash is right on point. And quite frankly, if I’m a dues-paying member of a union and I’m deliberately injured by another union member – and the union protects that member – I’m angry.

According to Pash, the NFLPA has not shared the Williams tape or any other information on bounties with the league. Moreover, Pash said that although the NFL has invited “a number of players who we think have information” to speak with NFL officials, the players have thus far been unwilling to do so. “We remain open to hearing their views and their knowledge,” Pash told the AP. “The players know what went on in the locker room in a way that we don’t know.”

Again, Pash is right on.

As for Brees, maybe he’s simply trying to protect his teammates on the defensive side of the ball – and certainly with his general manager, head coach and interim head coach suspended for all or part of the season, I’m guessing he’s unwilling to see any further disruption to the team.

Still, it’s difficult to comprehend how he could turn his back on Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner, Cam Newton, Brett Favre and others who were targeted by Williams’ “incentives”. Football is a physically challenging game in and of itself. Add bounties that reward players for injuring opponents and the probability of injury is greatly multiplied.

While injuries are difficult for players to cope with, the burden on families is as great or greater. I’ve seen what wives like Sylvia Mackey and Mary Hilgenberg and Kay Morris and Suzie Heywood – and too many others – have endured.

That’s why the NFLPA’s stand on the bounty scandal is indefensible. And that’s why the union’s failure to act on behalf of the 320 widows who were excluded from the Legacy Benefit is inexcusable.

Under the current terms of the CBA, these widows – whose husbands died before the CBA was enacted on August 4, 2011 – are not eligible for the Legacy Benefit even though each woman’s husband chose the pension option that would continue after his death.

Rather than working with the league, which has already promised to rectify the situation, the NFLPA has instead insisted that the NFL pay the entire cost of including the widows. While the union has refused to contribute $5.8 million (its 49% share of the estimated $12 million cost) to extend the Legacy Benefit to the widows of 320 retired players, it had no problem spending $44 million for an insurance policy that provided active players $200,000 each if the 2011 season had been cancelled.

Is it possible that the NFLPA – the union John Mackey devoted so much of his time and talent to – just doesn’t care about Mackey’s widow Sylvia, who spent the last decade caring for her husband during his descent into dementia?

Or is there a more strategic reason why the NFLPA is ignoring the widows’ plight? Is it possible that the union is hoping to bargain with the league – opening the door to further investigation of the bounties and disciplinary action against players, in return for the league picking up the whole cost of including the widows in the Legacy Benefit?

Regardless of motive, in the NFLPA’s refusal to help the widows, its failure to protect player safety, and its insistence on putting the legal needs of active players before the moral needs of past, present and future players, union officials have made their priorities clear: money comes first.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal

Posted in brett favre, bruce laird, collective bargaining agreement, Fourth & Goal, National Football League Players Association, peyton manning, roger goodell | 4 Comments

Open Letter to the Widows of 320 of Our Teammates

Posted on April 16, 2012 by

It’s hard for me and my fellow members of the NFLPA former players’ Baltimore chapter to know what you all must be feeling. On or around February 1, 2012, you learned that although your husband wanted you protected – he wanted his pension to continue following his death – and although he did protect you, you are not eligible for the Legacy Benefit. Why? Because your husband died prior to August 4, 2011.

As president of the Fourth & Goal Foundation, I can tell you that we have lobbied the NFLPA, the NFLAA, and the NFL on your behalf for months. I have personally called and written to league officials, as well as members of the NFLPA’s former players’ board and the NFLAA’s board. Only the league has answered our appeals on your behalf.

Fourth & Goal board member Sylvia Mackey has also personally contacted league officials as well as NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. Again, the league responded immediately. Yet it was one month before De Smith responded – and he simply punted the issue, calling on to the league to cover the approximate $12 million cost of extending the Legacy Benefit to you. Sylvia’s remarks at an NFLAA Super Bowl press conference were overshadowed by the focus on questions about the NFLAA’s financial instability. Although she also addressed the NFLPA’s former players’ convention, no resolution was offered or adopted on your behalf.

Although NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he will get it fixed – and league officials have reiterated that statement – neither the Commissioner nor the league can do it alone.

The Legacy Benefit was included as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, negotiated between the NFL and the NFLPA as an additional benefit for former players who retired prior to 1993. Any change, alteration or enhancement to the CBA must be agreed upon and shared by both the union and the league.

Nothing – no letters, no phone calls, no recruiting other widows to the effort, no press coverage – will right this wrong until and unless De Smith works with Roger Goodell to make it right.

During my 12-year NFL career, my teammates and I had each others’ backs. Nearly 30 years after we retired, many of those relationships endure today. It’s extremely disappointing that the NFLPA former players’ board members — and, for that matter, the NFLAA leadership and board members — don’t have your back.

I encourage you to join with Fourth & Goal in urging De Smith and NFLPA’s leaders to stand with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league in extending the Legacy Benefit to you, just as your husband intended.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal Foundation
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego Chargers, 1982-1983

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Where’s the Outrage?

Posted on April 5, 2012 by

According to Sports Business Journal, the NFLPA spent $44 million for a “lockout insurance” policy that would have paid NFL players $200,000 each if the 2011 season had been cancelled.

More than $6 million was spent on outside lawyers.

Yet the requests to extend the Legacy Benefit to 320 widows of former NFL players was punted to the league. The NFLPA has refused to contribute less than $6 million to cover the widows.

Moreover, at the recent NFLPA former players’ convention, no resolution was put forth by the former players’ board. In fact, the issue wasn’t even discussed.

Where’s the outrage?

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal

Posted in nfl, nfl retirees, nflpa, sports business, sports business journal | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Maxie Baughan on Tom McHale

Posted on April 4, 2012 by

I had many rewarding experiences during my football career, many of which are documented in NFL Films and in highlight videos. As I look back, I have to say that one of the most gratifying roles I experiences was this one: I was Tom McHale’s coach at Cornell University.

Tom was a rare breed – he put education ahead of athletics. After two years at the University of Maryland, Tom gave up his athletic scholarship and transferred to Cornell, where he enrolled in the university’s outstanding hotel school and captained Cornell’s Division I-AA football team.

At 6’4 and 240 pounds, Tom towered over many of our players at Cornell. His level of talent elevated the ability of his teammates. Our opponents often focused on him, freeing other defensive linemen to make plays. And despite the attention opponents paid to Tom, he achieved AP Division I-AA First Team and All-Ivy honors in 1986. He was also runner-up for Ivy League Player of the Year the same year.

Those of you who’ve coached know the challenges coaches face, particularly in dealing with off-the-field issues. In college – even in the Ivy League – players sometimes skipped class, failed courses, broke curfew, or got themselves in difficult personal situations. Tom was never one of those players.

He was responsible. He was dedicated. He was steady. He was a leader.

Tom went on to a nine-year career in the NFL, playing for the Buccaneers, Eagles and Dolphins from 1987 to 1995. After he retired, he opened several successful restaurants in Florida.

In 2008, Tom died of an accidental drug overdose and in 2009, we learned that he was one of the casualties of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Sports medicine has come a long way since I played football at Georgia Tech and in the NFL. We know now that concussions are a serious matter. We know much more about treating concussions and about preventing concussions. And we know better how to protect players.

Lately some folks have questioned whether NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was right to suspend team officials and coaches for turning a blind eye to a bounty system that placed a price on players’ heads.

They’re wrong.

I can tell you that Roger Goodell is the only league or union official who has tackled the issues. Others ignored evidence that concussions had consequences. Others denied disability benefits for injured players. Others blamed players themselves for their fate. Roger Goodell acted.

I commend the Commissioner for taking decisive action. To date, nearly 25 former NFL players have lost their lives to CTE. As far as I’m concerned, if there’s anything we can do to prevent other athletes from suffering the fate of Tom McHale, I’m all for it.

Maxie Baughan
Board member, Fourth & Goal
Philadelphia Eagles, 1960 – 1965
Los Angeles Rams, 1966 – 1970
Washington Redskins, 1974
Defensive Coordinator, Baltimore Colts, 1975 – 1979
Defensive Coordinator, Detroit Lions, 1980 – 1982
Head Football Coach, Cornell University, 1983 – 1989
Linebackers Coach, Minnesota Vikings, 1990 – 1991
Linebackers Coach, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1992 – 1995
Linebackers Coach, Baltimore Ravens, 1996 – 1998

More about Tom McHale

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NFL widows call on union to work with league to extend Legacy Benefit

Posted on April 2, 2012 by

The recent Collective Bargaining Agreement between the National Football League (NFL) and the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) included a new Legacy Benefit for retired NFL players receiving pensions. The Legacy Benefit is an additional $620 million designated in the CBA to go toward pension increases for those players who retired prior to 1993. However, the CBA excluded some 320 widows of retirees who died prior to 11:59 p.m. on August 3, 2011, when the agreement went into effect.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell immediately assured Fourth & Goal that the situation will be rectified; however, any amendment to the CBA agreement requires the union’s agreement. Although the NFLPA purports to support retired players and includes the term, “Past, Present and Future” in its missives, Executive Director DeMaurice Smith and his leadership team are instead demanding that the league assume the estimated $12 million cost to extend the Legacy Benefit to the excluded widows.

John Unitas’ widow is among those left out of the Legacy Benefit. Unitas, a Hall of Fame QB and 18-year NFL veteran, died in 2001 at age 69.

“John worked diligently to protect not only himself and his family, but also his teammates and their families,” said Sandra Unitas. “He chose the pension option that would continue following his death, to ensure that I would be covered. Yet despite John’s taking these steps, despite his contributions to the league and the union, I am excluded from the Legacy Benefit.”  

Mrs. Unitas is not alone.

Ginny Concannon is another of the widows overlooked in the Legacy Benefit is Ginny Concannon, whose husband Jack quarterbacked the Eagles, Bears, Packers and Lions between 1964 and 1975. Concannon died of a heart attack in 2005, at age 62 in 2005.

“It’s disappointing that NFL pioneers’ widows must challenge the union to stand up for what is right,” said Mrs. Concannon. “My husband Jack – along with his friend and teammate Brian Piccolo and his Bears’ teammates – would have wanted to be remembered.”

The union has repeatedly said it will continue to stand for retired players. Yet the NFLPA punted the forgotten widows’ issue to the NFL and fell back on its tried-and-true argument – that current players have already contributed millions to retired players. Fourth & Goal reminds the NFLPA of the thousands of retired players who dug the well from which generations of active players have drunk. We urge the NFLPA to work with the NFL to immediately expand the Legacy Benefit to include the 320 widows. 

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Posted in Uncategorized

Here’s one suggestion for Saints’ Benson to restore team image

Posted on March 26, 2012 by

By Clark Judge | Senior NFL Columnist
CBS Sports
March 23, 2012

The New Orleans Saints and owner Tom Benson just lost their head coach for one season and their general manager for eight games, were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and must forfeit a couple of high draft picks. But there’s one piece of unresolved business I’d like to address, and that’s the money Benson saves by not having to pay guys like coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt.

My guess is that it’s somewhere in the $7 million to $8 million range, and my suggestion is to put it to good use — with the emphasis on good.

I apologize if this sounds like dogpiling, but that’s what happens when your football team is involved in a historic breach of conduct. Anyway, I’d like to think that maybe, just maybe, Benson would consider turning those suspensions into something positive — like donating money to a players’ foundation or charities, reducing tickets for this season’s games, something — and former player Bruce Laird has a suggestion if he does.

Laird is the president of the Fourth-and-Goal Foundation, an organization dedicated to representing retired players, advocating the improvement of their pension and disability benefits and raising funds for immediate players in need. And he’s the guy who Friday called on Benson to consider giving some of the money saved with the suspensions of salaries for coaches, staff and players (if that happens) to the NFL’s Player Care Foundation to assist the injured.

It makes sense to me. I mean, if you ran an organization that was involved in a scandal where your coaches paid players to hurt opponents, wouldn’t you want to demonstrate concern for the injured? I understand Benson’s franchise just suffered an enormous setback, but there’s a lot of money that will be saved — and donating a portion of it toward injured players would accomplish two things: 1) Help them and 2) polish a tarnished Saints’ image.

“This all started back when the great John Mackey (former Baltimore tight end) had dementia and organizations like Fourth-and-Goal and Gridiron Greats started to bring it the attention of both the league and the union,” said Laird. “My understanding with the Player Care Foundation is that there are now close to 120 players in the ’88 Plan’ (a program to help retired players with dementia). So, with a billion-dollar institution, why not put the money to use?

“Why save it? Continue the Player Care Foundation and maybe start giving grants to organizations such as Fourth-and-Goal and Gridiron Greats to help retired players in need. It’s the right thing to do. And if you keep talking about the right thing eventually it gets done. They owe it to the retired player community with a situation like this.”

Of course, it’s always difficult to tell someone how to spend his money. Benson doesn’t owe anybody anything. He has the right to do what he wants with the money he’s not paying Payton, Loomis and Vitt. But you’d like to think he’d consider reaching out to someone — with retired and injured players a logical choice — to demonstrate he’s as concerned about player safety as commissioner Roger Goodell.

“We firmly believe you have to give back,” Laird said. “Retired players can’t sit there with their hands out. They’re going to need the help of the league.”

That’s where Benson comes in. Sooner or later, the New Orleans Saints must restore a damaged reputation, and this is a perfect place to start. Saints’ coaches ran a program that paid players to hurt opponents, and the organization was penalized severely. But this isn’t a penalty I’m talking about. This is a goodwill gesture. It’s found money that could be put to good use.

And at just the right time.

“We’re talking about player safety,” said Laird, “and that’s been paramount the last couple of years with the commissioner and with the players’ union. This is a heinous situation, and I would say this to someone like Drew Brees, who said he needed an explanation: ‘Why don’t you ask your wife how she and your children would feel if you were the man who had the bounty on him and was taken off on a stretcher?’ “

Maybe Tom Benson should think about it, too.

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized

NFL Commissioner’s actions re: bounties

Posted on March 23, 2012 by

Two days ago, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell took the unprecedented step of suspending St. Louis Rams’ defensive coordinator Gregg Williams indefinitely, New Orleans Saints’ head coach Sean Payton for the season, Saints’ general manager Mickey Loomis for eight games, Saints’ assistant coach Joe Vitt for six games; fining Loomis $500,000, Vitt $100,000, and the Saints’ organization $500,000; and rescinding the team’s second-round draft choices in 2012 and 2013. The Commissioner acted in response to the bounty system that rewarded players for vicious hits that knocked opponents out of games.

Some have questioned the wisdom of the NFL’s rule changes, fines, suspensions and other measures to improve player safety. Some have charged that these efforts are reducing the game to flag football.  We would argue that these steps and others taken by Commissioner Goodell and the NFL will protect future generations of NFL players, as well as the youth, high school and college football players who emulate their NFL idols.

In more than seven years since Fourth & Goal began its advocacy and fundraising efforts on behalf of retired players, we’ve witnessed the carnage. We’ve met men who are struggling with dementia, Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, ALS and other ailments now linked to head trauma. We’ve talked with the wives and children who are trying to support – emotionally, physically and financially – their husbands and fathers. We’ve raised tens of thousands of dollars to help these families. And we’ve held numerous meetings and discussions with Commissioner Goodell and his staff to help shed light on the issues, enact the Player Care Foundation and other remedies to assist retired players, and bring about change.

Football is indeed a physical game, but it is also a game of strategy and skill. There is no room in the game for vicious hits, for head stomping and spearing, for bounties. There is room for integrity. We stand with Commissioner Goodell in his efforts to improve player safety. And we encourage the New Orleans Saints – and any other organization determined to have condoned bounties – to donate the salaries of suspended players and coaches to the NFL’s Player Care Foundation to care for those injured.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal Foundation
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego Chargers, 1982-1983

Posted in baltimore colts, bruce laird, Fourth & Goal | 2 Comments