Not A Young Colt
By ALAN GREENBERG
Courant Staff Writer
March 12 2006
The Indianapolis Colts' media guide does not list Doug Goodwin on the franchise's all-time roster.
Goodwin, a running back and special teams performer, was a fringe player in his brief tenure with the 1968 Baltimore Colts, who dominated the NFL with a 13-1 record before being stunned by Joe Namath and the Jets 16-7 in Super Bowl III. The Colts moved to
Tom Matte, a former Colts first-round draft choice who played running back for
"Gene Upshaw does not want us to participate," said Matte, echoing the complaint of dozens of NFL old-timers, whose deeds laid the groundwork for today's NFL, the most popular and profitable sports league in the world.
Upshaw says the league, which three years ago dramatically increased former players' pensions, is now paying its former players nearly $5 million a month in benefits, including disability payments. At the same time, the league's profits have been growing exponentially.
Based solely on the NFL's new TV contracts, which will bring $24 billion over the next eight years, paying former players $60 million a year in benefits represents only 2 percent of that annual $3 billion in TV revenue. And that 2 percent figure drops considerably when you add in the several billion dollars in ticket sales the league's 32 mostly sold-out stadiums bring in annually. Nor does it include hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing fees.
What the NFL has done for its old-timers sounds impressive, on a percentage basis. Most recently, in 2002, the majority of the 1,400 eligible players - they must have played at least four full seasons - who played before 1977 had their minimum pension credit virtually doubled to $200 a month for each season played. But even a 100 percent raise seems insignificant when it comes off such a meager base, especially compared with the league's skyrocketing revenue - from $975 million in 1989 to $5.7 billion in 2005.
Matte's and many old-timers' biggest gripe is that the NFL's medical plan drops former players five years after they retire. Major League Baseball has a far richer pension plan and easier eligibility requirements (43 days on a major league roster).
"Brooks Robinson gets $120,000 a year and I get $1,500 a month," Matte said, referring to the Orioles' Hall of Fame third baseman.
Generally, there is no comparison between the medical problems of former Major League Baseball players and those of former NFL players, who play a violent sport that leaves many of them crippled in late middle age, with physical and emotional problems that often don't arise until well after they retire.
"In football, you don't know what's going to happen to your body five years down the line," said Matte, 66, who has had three knee operations, two foot operations, needs a third stomach surgery (for bleeding ulcers) and has had appendicitis and a cancerous growth removed from his nose.
"I've nearly died seven times," said Matte, who lives in the
Former Giants owner Wellington Mara, who died in October, was a big proponent of the Dire Need Fund, a six-year-old program for former players that is financed by NFL owners. His son John, vice president and CEO of the Giants, realizes the financial plight of the old-timers.
"I think that we in the NFL need to do more to help these guys," Mara said. "There is enough money out there. I am just not sure it is enough of a priority for many of the owners - particularly those who have not been in the league for long."
Matte, who said he received a $4,000 signing bonus and $10,000 salary when he was the Colts' No.1 pick in 1961, hasn't let his medical problems sideline him.
"I've got six different jobs [broadcasting, public speaking and marketing work]," he said. "I'm still working my ass off."
And Matte readily acknowledges that he's one of the fortunate ones. His former teammate, Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, 64, suffers from dementia. Matte said that he and a bunch of former Colts, including Hall of Famers such as Gino Marchetti, Art Donovan and Lenny Moore, recently signed autographs for eight hours to raise $30,000 for Mackey, a past president of the players association. Matte and other former players suspect that Mackey's Hall of Fame enshrinement was delayed for years - he was inducted in 1992, 20 years after he retired - because of Mackey's union leadership.
"He was one of the strongest guys I ever played with," Matte said. "And now he's a lost little lamb."
Matte estimates that if the players association made a one-time payment of about $120 million, it would double the benefits of the players who played before 1993. Not that he's expecting it to happen under Upshaw. Matte says that Upshaw recently sent a letter to former Colts defensive end Ordell Braase in which Upshaw, whose playing days ended after the 1981 season, wrote, "I don't represent the older players."
Upshaw, a Hall of Fame guard with the Raiders who retired in 1981, upset a lot of former NFL players in January when he was quoted in The Charlotte Observer as saying, "The bottom line is, I don't work for them. They don't hire me, and they can't fire me. They can complain about me all day long. They can have their opinion. But the active players have the vote. That's who pays my salary."
Upshaw, who has been president of the players association since 1987, makes more than $3 million a year. He has said he won't ask the current players to contribute more. He labeled former players who view their increased pension benefits as woefully insufficient "ungrateful."
In a world where many major companies are doing all they can to escape their pension obligations, the average Joe may not have much sympathy for pro athletes of yesteryear, whom the general public often perceives to have it made. The plight of NFL old-timers, although exacerbated by the toll their sport has taken on their bodies, is not unique. When former Minneapolis Lakers center George Mikan, the NBA's first great big man, died last year, he was so impoverished that his family said it would have trouble paying for his funeral.
Shaquille O'Neal, recognizing that Mikan and men like him laid the foundation that allowed today's NBA players to become obscenely rich, paid for Mikan's funeral.
The plight of receiver Charley Ferguson, a teammate of Goodwin's who played for the Browns, Vikings and Bills in 1961-70, is typical of the old-timers.
"I have nine years [service] in the NFL," said Ferguson, 66, who started taking his pension at age 45, "and I receive $155.45 per month."
"We're not bad-mouthing the [current] players," Matte said, "but we need to have a crusade to embarrass the league and the owners. We built this game for you guys. Why can't you throw us a few crumbs?"
http://www.courant.com/sports/football/hc-matte0312.artmar12,0,611880.story?coll=hc-headlines-football
Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant
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