Message to Gene Upshaw

Bruce Laird sent a message and the recent Charlotte Observer article to NFL Retired Players Association chapter presidents. NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw responded to Bruce's message with the same message he'd sent to Nick Buoniconti, posted earlier on this blog. Following is Bruce Laird's response to Gene Upshaw, sent via e-mail today:

Dear Gene:

I appreciate your responding to my message to fellow NFLPA Retired Players’ Chapter Presidents. I also appreciate – as do my fellow retirees – your efforts. You may remember, in fact, that when I addressed the NFLPA Retired Players’ Convention in Las Vegas two years ago about the plight of John Mackey and many other retired players who are suffering physical and financial hardship, I also praised the NFLPA Executive Committee for the tremendous strides the NFLPA has made since 1993 and beyond. Since then, I have continued to praise your efforts on behalf of the post-1993 players.

Those of us who retired prior to 1993 are extremely pleased that the modern players are reaping the rewards of your efforts. Benefits like severance pay, extended health coverage, 401(k), annuities, and player bonuses – just to name a few – will ensure the financial futures of the modern NFL players.

That being said, however, the pre-1993 players have not enjoyed similar benefits and as a result, many are facing debilitating financial crises that post-1993 players will never face:

• The “guaranteed pensions” you mentioned provide players who retire after 1998 with as much as $425 per month for each credited season. For those who retired prior to 1982, however, the “guaranteed pension” is just $200 per month for each credited season. For players like John Mackey, this “guaranteed pension” means less than $24,000 per year. What is particularly ironic about Mackey’s situation is that as President of the NFLPA he put his career on the line to gain the free agency rights that have escalated modern players’ salaries and benefits.
  

• Regarding the disability benefits you mentioned, The Wall Street Journal recently reported that “Although most NFL players suffer injuries of one sort or another during their careers, only 90 of the more than 7,000 former pro players covered by the NFL disability plan receive football disability benefits.” Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other publications have chronicled the challenges faced by the late John Unitas, the late Mike Webster and other retired NFL players in attempting to obtain disability benefits for football injuries. According to The Wall Street Journal, the NFL paid $14.5 million in disability benefits to retired players in 2004. In 2003, however, the NFL paid The Groom Law Group $3.1 million to defend the league against disability claims.
  

• At a time when so many retirees are in need, the NFLPA opted to donate monies from the Players Assistance Trust Fund to numerous charities rather than struggling retirees. I have reviewed the four years of touchbacks in my possession and not one states that the PAT fund is over-funded. Not one touchback states that the fiduciary responsibilities of a 501(c)(3) require that funds be distributed. Clearly that information could have – and should have – been disseminated to retired players. This abuse of the PAT Fund came to light only when the Baltimore Chapter of the NFLPA Retired Players Association discovered the donations, through Andre Collins and the Pension Board. Members of the Baltimore Chapter and hundreds of other retired players, who have donated funds to the PAT Fund in the belief that those funds were going to retired players in need, have to be extremely disappointed at this practice.

Moreover, the NFL and the NFLPA recently announced that each New Orleans Saints player will receive $40,000 – funded in part by the PAT Fund – for hardships incurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. With all due respect to those who have suffered hardships as a result of the hurricane, it’s difficult to imagine that $40,000 would have a significant impact on players making a minimum salary of $250,000. However, $40,000 would go a long way toward easing the financial burden and improving the standard of living of an NFL retiree like Herb Adderley, who receives a pension of just $125 a month.

• Although the severance package you mentioned is an outstanding benefit for retirees, it applies to only those who played after 1982. Those who retired prior to the 1982 season received no such severance package.

• The extended health care benefits provide health insurance for retired players for just five years after retirement. Football is perhaps the most violent of all professional sports. Studies commissioned by the NFLPA and others have shown that many of the physical and mental repercussions of football injuries appear long after players retire. For those who suffer the effects of football injuries beyond the five-year window of the health insurance benefits, those injuries are typically deemed pre-existing conditions and excluded from health insurance coverage – that is, if such players can even obtain health insurance. For those who receive minimum pensions, exorbitant health insurance premiums put health coverage out of reach.

• The NFLPA’s Retired Players’ Department serves a constituency that you now claim not to represent. If, as you stated, the NFLPA does not represent retired players, I’d appreciate your explaining why:

1. NFL retired players pay dues to the NFLPA and the NFLPA hosts a Retired Players Convention each year.

2. The NFLPA has an entire department devoted to retired players whom you contend are not members of the NFLPA.

3. Literature pertaining to the NFLPA Retired Players Department includes claims that the NFLPA’s goals and objectives include, among other things, increasing the future pension and benefits for all players and facilitating the development of a professional athletes’ retirement center.

4. The same literature boasts that through “the lobbying efforts of the retired players and negotiations by the active players,” pensions for retired players have been improved.

5. In response to numerous inquiries from retired players and the media, NFLPA staff members including Doug Allen and Andre Collins have repeatedly stated – privately and publicly, in the media – that you and the NFLPA represent us. In fact, in response to a question posed by Jim McFarland at a presidents’ chapter meeting in Baltimore in October, Doug Allen responded, “You do have that representative and he has been representing you and his name is Gene Upshaw.”

6. NFLPA communications directed to retired players – including your memo to Ordell Braase, et al – are addressed to “Retired Members of the NFL Players Association” or simply “Members.”

In your memo to Braase and other retired players, you described the $110 contribution as a “staggering gift” by active players to retired players. I would argue that the term “staggering gift” should be used instead to describe the efforts of John Mackey as NFLPA President, and those of the now-retired NFL players who went on strike – not once, but several times – to gain better salaries and benefits. Although I wasn’t a math major, it’s not difficult to figure out the percentage of the NFL’s new $24 billion television contract that the $110 million contribution represents. Again, while we appreciate the contribution, the retired players who retired prior to 1993 have been shortchanged. In addition to the monthly pension benefits previously cited – which clearly favor modern players – perhaps this illustration will cast the contribution in a different light. The $110 million contribution represents the minimum salaries of 366 players in 2005 – and 8,461 players in 1970.

The Detroit Free-Press recently reported that the NFL is “America’s richest sport,” thanks in large part to TV revenues worth more than $3.7 billion a year. Revenue from state-of-the-art stadiums built by cities across the country helped to inflate the NFL’s total revenues to $5.8 billion in 2005. The least valuable pro football team, the Minnesota Vikings, is worth an estimated $658 million. The National Football League is one of the healthiest businesses in the nation, and many of us – including you – have laid the groundwork for this bonanza. And many of us are not reaping the rewards of our efforts.

Even more disappointing than the league’s and the NFLPA’s failure to share the wealth with retired players is the feeling of hundreds of players that they have been betrayed by you and by the NFLPA. For years, we have been reminded that the NFLPA’s slogan is “Past, Present and Future” – referring, we understood, to past, present and future NFL players. For years, we have been assured that you are our advocate. Now we have incontrovertible evidence – your own words, in memos and in the Charlotte Observer article – that you have turned your back on your NFL teammates. This revelation begs the question, “Were all of the promises and assurances just a scam?”

Although you may feel that neither you nor the NFLPA have any legal obligation to improve benefits for retired players, we feel very strongly that you and the NFLPA – and the NFL – have a moral obligation to retired players. At a time when the NFL is amassing record-setting revenues – and at a time when the NFLPA is paying you a salary that is among the highest of any union official in the country – how can you, the NFLPA, and the NFL walk away from John Mackey, John Unitas, Mike Webster, Mercury Morris, Herb Adderley, and thousands of others?

Sincerely,

Bruce Laird

Cc: Andre Collins, Doug Allen, Dee Becker, Richard Bertelsen

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