NFLPA announces pension improvements

Care costs will help players such as Mackey
By Ken Murray
Baltimore Sun reporter

July 28, 2006

Back in May, while fretting over her husband's health-care costs and his advancing dementia, Sylvia Mackey wrote an impassioned letter to NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue seeking help.

Yesterday, the letter and her prayers were answered.

In conjunction with an announcement on pension improvements, the NFL Players Association said it will pay the cost of providing up to $88,000 per year for institutional care or up to $50,000 per year for in-home nursing care for retired players who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer's disease, regardless of age.

"I'm thrilled. This has changed my life," said Mackey, whose husband John was a Hall of Fame tight end for the Baltimore Colts from 1963 to 1971.

"When you think of down-the-road, having to put up $70,000 to $100,000 a year for a nursing home, or have a lawyer show you how to spend down to qualify for government programs ... not having to face that anymore is like putting dignity back in my life."

After John Mackey, 64, developed frontotemporal dementia, an affliction similar to Alzheimer's, Sylvia had to return to work at age 56 as a flight attendant to cover health-care costs. Mackey's monthly NFL pension of $1,950 didn't stretch far enough.

"Everybody with Alzheimer's or dementia reaches a point where they cannot be taken care of at home," Sylvia said. "When I saw what the costs are, I went to support group meetings and read everything I could. The realization is creeping up on me faster than I can believe."

In response to her poignant letter, Tagliabue assigned Mike Haynes, vice president of player and employee development in the NFL, to monitor the situation and offer help. More than that, Haynes, a Hall of Fame cornerback, was heartened by Sylvia Mackey's courage.

"She's such a courageous lady," Haynes said. "When the commissioner sent me the letter, I was so touched by her words and sincerity. I said to her I was glad the commissioner asked me to help. I felt honored to help John Mackey, one of my idols."

The dementia program will be called the Number 88 Plan in honor of Mackey, who wore No. 88 with the Colts. The league also will fund research into the disease.

Yesterday, Sylvia sang Tagliabue's praises, calling him a "wonderful man." She said as a result of the funding, "We're looking at not losing our home."

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, the pension upgrades will cost approximately $120 million per year, raising the annual cost of NFL player benefits to $700 million a year.

Those enhanced benefits, which become official after active players ratify the contract in September, include:

• The pensions of players who retired before 1982 will be raised by 25 percent -- or a minimum of $50 a month -- and by 10 percent for players retiring after 1982.

• Benefits for widows and survivors of a player who dies before his retirement benefits begin will triple.

• A Health Reimbursement Account will be created for current players for use when their NFL health insurance expires. The account could run as much as $300,000 to pay for medical expenses for a 12-year veteran.

"No question a 25 percent increase is significant for pre-1982 players," said Jean Fugett, who played for both the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins and is now the president of the steering committee for retired players. "Those are the guys who need help most. We need to thank current players for remembering us."

Said Stan White, a former linebacker and union leader with the Colts: "I'm very satisfied with what we got, considering we had no legal right to anything. What we're getting is based on a moral obligation that today's players feel toward the players who built the game into the cash cow it is now."

Not everyone was celebrating the announcement, however. Bruce Laird, a former Colt who led the Baltimore chapter of retired players' efforts to get increases, said in a statement he was proud of the effort, but was disappointed the increase was limited to 10 to 25 percent.

Laird also was concerned that his Baltimore chapter was told in a Tuesday night meeting with NFLPA executives that "negotiations were still pending."

Doug Allen, the union assistant executive director, said the union was awaiting approval from federal court in Minneapolis before making any announcements.

"It didn't surprise me the next day to find out we got court approval," Allen said. "All sorts of things could've blown up in the last minute. I don't want to go to somebody and say it's in concrete and then yank the rug out from under them."
ken.murray@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

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NFL improves player benefits

Announcement draws mixed reaction from retired players

CHARLES CHANDLER
cchandler@charlotteobserver.com
Charlotte Observer
Friday, July 28, 2006

Responding to months of sharp criticism from former players, the NFL and NFL Players Association on Thursday jointly announced a series of improved benefits for retired and current players.

The improvements, which are part of a recently extended collective bargaining agreement, will increase the pension benefits of retired players by 25 percent for seasons played before 1982 and 10 percent for years played in 1982 and after.

"The current players have great respect for the heritage of the NFL and the former players that have contributed to the league's success," NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw said in a news release.

Upshaw came under fire from retired players for comments he made to the Observer in a Jan. 16 article quoting 13 Hall of Famers saying the union and league weren't doing enough to help former players with financial and health problems.

In that article, Upshaw defended the union's record for negotiating improvements for retirees and said some ex-players were ungrateful. He noted that he legally represented current players, not former players.

"The bottom line is I don't work for them," Upshaw said at the time. "They don't hire me, and they can't fire me."

The remarks had a galvanizing impact on retired players. Some have discussed calling for an investigation of Upshaw.

Other components of upgrades announced Thursday:

• Tripling of benefits for widows and surviving children of players who die before their retirement benefits begin.

• A plan named for former Baltimore Colts tight end John Mackey to help with health care costs for retirees with dementia.

• Current players with at least five credited seasons who retire after this season will be eligible to up to $15,000 annual tuition assistance for up to three years.

• Addressing widespread concerns about post-football insurance needs, a health reimbursement account was established for current players.

Reaction by retirees to Thursday's announcement was mixed.

"I'm happy it's going to help, but it's not going to cure the problem," said Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer, a former Green Bay guard. "It's really just a start."
Kramer has been working to assist ailing former players independent of other retirees' ongoing dispute with the NFLPA.

He announced plans Thursday (www.jerrykramer.com) for a Jan. 29 fundraising auction of memorabilia being donated by former and current NFL stars.

Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure of Charlotte and former Cleveland Browns defensive back Bernie Parrish, both staunch union critics, said Thursday's announcement by the NFL and NFLPA wouldn't slow the movement by retired players to get better benefits.

"Upshaw's 25 percent increase announcement is an insult," said Parrish. "He means for it to be."

Said DeLamielleure, the former Bills and Browns guard: "The bottom line is we're getting 25 percent of nothing."

DeLamielleure was pleased by recent news that the Pro Football Hall of Fame will pay all expenses for members who want to attend annual induction ceremonies in Canton, Ohio.

The Observer reported in its Jan. 16 article that Hall of Famers were upset that aging ex-players with financial and health concerns had to pay their own way to Canton.

"We decided to assume the responsibility," said Hall of Fame spokesman Joe Horrigan. "It was just the right thing to do."
________________________________________
© 2006 Charlotte Observer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.charlotte.com

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Auction to raise money for pro football players down on luck

Thu, Jul. 27, 2006

GREG RISLING
Associated Press

ANAHEIM, Calif. - A weeklong auction will be held before the Super Bowl to raise money for retired professional football players who have fallen on hard times, former Green Bay Packers star Jerry Kramer announced Thursday.

Items from former football greats like Mike Ditka, Bart Starr and Fred Biletnikoff will go up for bid. The money will be placed in the Gridiron Greats Fund, a charitable trust that will help former players pay their medical bills and supplement meager pensions, Kramer said.

"There is a need, there is difficulty and there is pain," said Kramer, who played for the Packers from 1958 to 1968. "We can make a difference by helping out."
While raising money from donated memorabilia shouldn't be a problem, there is a major challenge for organizers. They have to not only locate the former players, but get them to agree to take help. Many times, former players are embarrassed by their hardships, organizers said.

"People know all these names but they don't know the straits they are in," said former Baltimore Colts kicker Jim O'Brien, 50, who joined Kramer for the announcement at the National Sports Collectors convention on Thursday.

"These guys paid the price, and helped build the league. It's time we helped them out," said O'Brien, who now lives in Thousand Oaks.

Kramer cited the case of former Pittsburgh Steelers center Mike Webster, who died in September 2002.

After leaving the NFL, Webster was tormented by debt, depression and poor health. He was homeless at times, and at one point lived in the Kansas City Chiefs' equipment room, where he worked briefly as an assistant strength and conditioning coach.

"He was too proud to have someone go to bat for him," Kramer said.

Some professional athletes make millions of dollars during their careers, but most did not - specially the older players, the men said. For example, Kramer, 70, earned $8,000 in his first year in the league. The year before he retired, he made about $27,000.

Kramer estimates as many as 400 former players, some who are in their 70s, get less than $400 a month from their NFL pensions. His pension has dropped to $158 in recent years, but the NFL added $200 a month for the single year he played prior to 1959.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in May that those who played prior to 1959 were not originally in the NFL pension plan, although they were added years ago. The league spends $5 million a month on retirement and disability benefits for more than 2,500 players, he said.

Many players from his era began drawing pensions at age 45, he said, only to see them drop dramatically when they turned 62 and became eligible for Social Security. A number of those players are without private medical insurance, he said.

The plan for the fund actually had its start on an airplane 25 years ago when Kramer lost his Super Bowl ring. He had a replica made, but in April, he found the original being auctioned online. He told the auction house and Mastro Auctions Inc. president Doug Allen pulled the auction, bought the ring from the seller and returned it to Kramer at no charge.

In May, he and Mastro teamed up to sell his replica ring. It brought nearly $23,000.

It was no accident Kramer chose Mastro to handle the Super Bowl week auction.

Kramer said he hopes that auction will raise between $1 million and $2 million.

Whatever the outcome, Kramer said he'd like to hold a Super Bowl week auction every year.

ON THE NET
http://www.jerrykramer.com
http://www.mastroauctions.com

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NFL & NFLPA AGREE TO IMPROVED PLAYER BENEFITS

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
280 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
(212) 450-2000 * FAX (212) 681-7573
WWW.NFLMedia.com
Joe Browne, Executive Vice President-Communications
Greg Aiello, Vice President-Public Relations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NFL-43 7/27/06


NFL & NFLPA AGREE TO IMPROVED PLAYER BENEFITS,
INCLUDING MAJOR PENSION INCREASES FOR RETIRED PLAYERS

The NFL and the NFL Players Association again have agreed to a series of improvements in NFL player benefits for retired and current players, including significant pension increases and other new benefits for retired players, the NFL and the NFLPA announced today.

The improvements are a part of the recently extended NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement and will cost approximately $120 million per year, bringing the annual cost of NFL player benefits to $700 million per year.
This is the fourth time since 1993 that benefit improvements have been made for both current and retired players.

Retired players now receive nearly $60 million per year from the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle Retirement Plan. In addition, there are three other funds that provide more than $1 million a year in financial assistance to retired NFL players in need. They are the NFLPA’s Players Assistance Trust, the NFL and NFL Alumni Association’s Dire Need Fund, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Enshrinee Assistance Fund.

“We are proud to have the most extensive benefits package in professional sports,” said HAROLD HENDERSON, NFL executive vice president of labor relations/chairman of the NFL Management Council. “These improvements are consistent with our commitment in every negotiation to address post-career issues and improve the benefits of retired players. No other industry reaches back like this to take care of former employees.”

“The current players have great respect for the heritage of the NFL and the former players that have contributed to the league’s success,” said GENE UPSHAW, executive director of the NFLPA. “As they have done on previous occasions, the current players strongly supported the idea of using a portion of their negotiated benefits money to fund improvements for the retired players.”

Details of the benefit plan improvements that were announced today:

• PENSIONS: Pensions of retired players will be increased by 25 percent for the amounts earned before 1982 and by 10 percent for the amounts earned in 1982 and later. The minimum increase for retired players will be $50 per month.

• WIDOW & SURVIVING CHILDREN BENEFIT: Benefits will be tripled for the survivors of a player who dies before his retirement benefits begin.

• NUMBER 88 PLAN: Beginning next year, players retired under the pension plan will be eligible for payment of certain medical and custodial expenses, whether provided at home or in an institution, that are a result of dementia, including Alzheimer's, regardless of the age when care becomes necessary. The benefit will pay the cost of providing up to $88,000 per year for institutional care or up to $50,000 per year for in-home nursing care. There also is agreement to fund research on dementia. The benefit is named in honor of Pro Football Hall of Famer JOHN MACKEY.

• TUITION REIMBURSEMENT PLAN: For players with at least five credited seasons who retire after the 2006 season, the plan will provide up to $15,000 per year for tuition expenses for the first three years after the player leaves football. Previously, this benefit was available to active players only.

• HEALTH REIMBURSEMENT ACCOUNT: A new Health Reimbursement Account will be created for current players for use when their NFL health insurance expires (currently four or five years after retirement). The accounts will begin for players who have three credited seasons at $75,000 and increase by $25,000 per year for up to 12 seasons. For example, a 12-year veteran will leave the NFL with a $300,000 health reimbursement account. The accounts can be used to fund post-career medical insurance, including the COBRA premium, and to pay other medical expenses, both for the player and his dependents.

Other CBA benefits for players include a 401K savings plan, annuity program, insurance, severance pay and disability benefits.

# # #

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NFLPA to boost retiree benefits, though some say it's not enough

Posted 7/26/2006 9:52 PM ET
By Larry Weisman, USA TODAY

Retired NFL players often say the game they helped popularize ignores them when they are old and ill. How to compensate them has long been a contentious issue between them and the NFL Players Association, which bargains on behalf of its active members.
Thursday, the NFL and the NFLPA plan to announce a beefing-up of benefits for retirees and active players alike that they value at $120 million a year.

Retirees who played prior to 1982 would see a 25% hike in their pensions; those who followed get a 10% bump. The minimum increase for the older retirees would be $50 per month, which is multiplied by years of service.

"This is a recognition of what those players did to build the game. We're saying we haven't forgotten them," said Gene Upshaw, the NFLPA's executive director.

The new plan will also triple benefits for widows and surviving children of a player who dies before his retirement plan kicks in. There will also be eligibility for payment of certain medical and custodial expenses for retired players in the pension plan who suffer from dementia. They could receive up to $50,000 for home care and $88,000 for institutional care. This has been nicknamed the "88 plan" in honor of Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, a former union president.

Upshaw said it is difficult to balance the needs and desires of current players with those of their predecessors and noted that many industries now are trying to take back pension and health care benefits they promised to retirees.

"In every labor extension we have done since 1993, we have gone back and improved the pension and benefits for the retired players," he said.

These increases will not satisfy everyone, he acknowledged.

"It's inadequate," said Bernie Parrish, 70, a defensive back with the Cleveland Browns from 1959-66 and a long-time critic of the union and the pension plan. "It's not even close to what it should be."

NFL player benefits are now worth $700 million a year and Upshaw said these new programs came from funds that could otherwise have gone into the salary cap or to benefits for current players alone.

"I think it's the right thing to do," said Don Hasselbeck, 51, a former tight end with the New England Patriots and other teams who has two sons (quarterbacks Matt and Tim) in the NFL. "We should be responsible for the guys who came before us. Gene has to educate the players that sooner or later they will be one of us (retired). There are lots of guys he knows who could use a little more retirement and health benefits.
This is a step in the right direction but it's not enough."

Current players will get a few add-ons. They'll be eligible for up to $15,000 per year for tuitition reimbursement for the first three years they are out of the game, following the 2006 season. They will also get a health reimbursement account to fund post-career medical benefits. A 12-year veteran would leave the game with $300,000 in such an account.

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The John Mackey Fund, Inc.

Come Join Us!
Mt. Washington Tavern Charity Challenge

The John Mackey Fund, Inc.

Please save Wednesday, September 13th, 2006, as we have an event for the John Mackey Fund, Inc., at the Mt. Washington Tavern, 5700 Newbury St., Baltimore, MD 21209, (410)367-6903, www.mtwashingtontavern.com.

It is part of a year-long contest set up by the Mt. Washington Tavern to see which charity rings in the most money (from drink and food sales).

There will be Guest Bartenders, a Silent Auction, a Raffle, Dancing and lots of fun.

At the end of the year, The Tavern will donate $10,000 to the charity that rings in the most sales at the restaurant and bar.

The fun begins at 6:00 p.m. and continues until closing.

Bring your family, friends and co-workers out for a great dinner. Help the John Mackey Fund win the Mt. Washington Charity Challenge so we can continue to support Dementia and Alzheimer research!

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Retired players make case for benefits boost

From the Baltimore Sun

Pension increases would need approval from current players

By Ken Murray
Sun reporter

July 26, 2006

Presented with hard facts and cold numbers, retired NFL players from Baltimore and Washington moved one step closer last night to a resolution of their bid for increased pension benefits.

It may not be the resolution they wanted, however.

After listening to an independent actuary and a five-person delegation from the NFL Players Association, there was just a glimmer of hope for the retirees.

"There was value in hearing what they had to say," said Bruce Laird, former Baltimore Colts safety and leader of the Baltimore chapter of retired players. "The most important thing is that these things can be changed. The active players can give us more [in benefits], but will they? Would it be prudent business-wise? Probably not."

What Laird and others found out is that the distribution of pension benefits is subject to change in a vote of active players. Retired players could get more, but it would be at the expense of current players.

"We have to get together to see if under the right circumstances we can persuade players now to put off some of their benefits to give us more," he said.

Tom Lowman of Bolton Partners Inc., presented actuarial figures in a closed-door meeting at Goucher College. Doug Allen, assistant executive director of the NFLPA, and Andre Collins, who heads the retired players department of the union, also attended.

"The fact they're here means we've got their attention," said Mike Curtis, former Colts linebacker. "Now we have to drop from the Web page and hell raising to get a numbers cruncher that can do the numbers for us."

Even as retired players debated actuarial numbers last night at Goucher, another NFL retiree was moving along a parallel track to provide assistance for those in need.

Jerry Kramer, a Hall of Fame guard with the Green Bay Packers from 1958 to 1968, has called a news conference tomorrow in Anaheim, Calif., to announce plans for an auction of sports memorabilia.

Kramer's goal is to raise at least $1 million for a newly created fund that will help indigent ex-players. The auction, named "The Shirt Off Your Back," will be held a week before the 2007 Super Bowl.

His fund, the Gridiron Great Relief Fund, was started with money he received for auctioning off a replica of his 1967 Super Bowl ring in May. Information about the fund and the auction is available at jerrykramer.com.

"Jerry felt like it was incumbent on him and others who had the wherewithal to do something [for needy retired players]," said Jennifer Smith, project manager for Kramer & Company, a marketing firm.

The idea for the fund grew out of a strange twist of events. Kramer's first Super Bowl ring was stolen some 25 years ago, but he recovered it last spring when it turned up in an auction. Upon getting the original back, Kramer decided to auction the duplicate and use the money - $22,000 - to start a fund for retired players.

"Our approach is very grassroots," Smith said. "We're not delving into [the battle between retired players and union]; we know the pension and disability stuff is messed up. The question is, how long will it take to fix it? These guys don't have time.

"Jerry wants to get some aid to these people right away."

Kramer is asking retired and active players to donate mementos to the cause. He has teamed with Mastro Auctions Inc., and retired players in the venture.

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

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Retired players tackle issue of higher pensions

By Ken Murray
Baltimore Sun Reporter

July 25, 2006

Almost 40 years after he served as president of the NFL Players Association, former Chicago Bears center Mike Pyle is preparing to make a last-ditch stand against the union he helped build.

Pyle, 67, is among a large contingent of disgruntled retired NFL players seeking significant pension increases under the league's new collective bargaining agreement.

He was scheduled to catch a flight from Chicago today to participate in a closed-door session of 75-plus retired players, most from Baltimore and Washington, to hear from a third-party actuary at Goucher College.

This, Pyle admits, is nothing like his old wars against NFL ownership when he was NFLPA president in 1967.

"It's a lot different fighting against your own," he said. "That's what's different for me. Owners never wanted to allow us to do anything."

The latest chapter in the battle between retired players and their old union will unfold at Goucher, where Baltimore actuary Tom Lowman tries to answer questions that the NFLPA so far has refused to answer.

In what amounts to a fact-finding mission, the former players hope to learn whether the union can afford to give them more than a promised 10 to 20 percent boost, as well as other critical actuarial information.

Retired players have been at odds with the union since executive director Gene Upshaw said in an interview in January that he doesn't represent them. Labor law dictates that he can only represent current players in the union, not retired players. The upshot produced growing animosity between the two camps.

"I don't know if paralyzed is the right word, but we're kind of stuck on an issue that we may be able to do something about, and maybe not," said Jean Fugett, a Baltimore native, lawyer and former tight end for the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. "There's a lot of emotion that's been attached to this. We're trying to get the facts."

The retired players are particularly upset by the way pension funds are distributed. Players who retired after 1997 receive $425 per month per credited season, while players who retired before 1982 get only $200 per month.

In a business that generates $6 billion a year in revenues, retired players think they should share in the financial jackpot current players are enjoying.

"I think everyone should benefit, if not equally, certainly proportionately, to what is happening today," said Bert Jones, a quarterback for the Baltimore Colts from 1973 to 1981. "Had there not been the '58 championship game between the Colts and Giants that brought TV to the sports arena, would we be where we are today? ... The history and tradition of the game is vital to its success."

Fugett, who was recently voted president of the steering committee for retired players, said his group will support "any initiative that helps former players." At the same time, he recognizes that a lot of retired players need help to cover health costs.

"Most of us are out here living on our wife's health insurance," said Fugett, a diabetic. "I'd rather have health insurance than [more] money."

ken.murray@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

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Ex-teammates help honor White

Todd Korth
PackerReport.com

Jul 23, 2006

Many of Reggie White’s teammates flocked to Green Bay this weekend to honor the late, great defensive end as he was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Saturday night. White also will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 5.

Reggie White had a way of attracting others to wherever he was because of his leadership ability. He did it as a player when he signed as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers in 1993 and he continued to do so in spirit on Saturday night for his induction into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. Many of his former teammates were on hand, and they showed the utmost repect toward the best defensive end ever to play in the National Football League.

Former Packers tight end Keith Jackson served as the present for White. Others including Santana Dotson, Sean Jones, Frank Winters, William Henderson, Edgar Bennett, Doug Evans, Gilbert Brown and LeRoy Butler were on hand to honor White. Many offered their memories of White during the induction ceremony and beforehand to the media in the Lambeau Field Atrium.

White, who passed away on Dec. 26, 2004, is the most honored athlete ever to play defensive end in the NFL and was a key player for the Packers’ 1996 team that won Super Bowl XXXI. In honor of the huge impact “The Minister of Defense” had during his six-year Packers career (1993-98), the Packers retired his No. 92 at the 2005 home opener, Sept. 18, vs. Cleveland.

White joined the Packers as the NFL’s most sought-after free agent in 1993 and immediately elevated the performance of the Green and Gold’s defense. After finishing 23rd in the league in 1992, the unit rose to No. 2 in 1993. The defense ranked No. 1 during the 1996 championship season, the first such ranking since 1967.

“He wanted people to fear him and also wanted people to like him,” Jackson recalled. “It was the weirdest thing. He’d come up and shake hands with guys afterwards and say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m sorry about that little spat we had.’”

All of White’s ex-teammates present Saturday night felt that White was the main reason for the Packers’ success in the mid-1990s. If not for White signing with the Packers, many other top players probably would have steered away of Green Bay.

“When Reggie came here, people felt that if Reggie can go to Green Bay and perform and make money and win championships, we have an opportunity to do so, too,” Winters said. “I think that helped a lot. We had some good guys come here and sign after he left the Packers. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened if (Reggie) didn’t (sign). He took that first step and made it happen.”

Current Packers honored at the banquet included Donald Driver, Nick Collins and Samkon Gado. They received awards for ‘Most Valuable Player,’ ‘Defensive Rookie of the Year’ and ‘Offensive Rookie of the Year,’ respectively.

Story URL: http://packers.scout.com/2/548969.html

Copyright © 2005 Scout.com and PackerReport.com

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THE NFL'S NOT-SO-GOLDEN YEARS

Sunday, July 23, 2006

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By Todd Christensen

Daily Herald

Provo, Utah

In 10 days I will be celebrating the dreaded 50th birthday.

No, I am not of a mind to purchase a Porsche, start wearing FUBU togs, blond my hair or get a 21-year-old girlfriend. But yes, I am certain that among the gifts I will receive will include reading glasses, support hose, a truss, a rocking chair, Milk of Magnesia and of course, the altogether-famous Geritol.

In all candor, I think I have prepared for this reasonably well, at least from a psychological standpoint. I read an interview with Gregory Peck years back in which he was queried as to whether or not he was disappointed that he was no longer a leading man and was instead relegated to the curmudgeon roles or was forced to play the grandfather. His response was downright profound: "I am not afraid to age, as I wish to feel the evolution of the seasons."

A little less deep but just as poignant was Gene Simmons, lead singer of KISS who, after watching a number of cohorts OD proclaimed, "Any day above ground is a good day."

But there are many of my brethren who do not have such a sanguine vantage point on life for a specific reason. I say "brethren" because I am referring to the NFL retired players. With the recent collective bargaining agreement between the NFL management and the NFL Players Association, there are literally billions of dollars to go around. This year, there will be a salary cap that will exceed three billion dollars league-wide, which means that the average salary for an NFL player will be nearly $2 million. Because of the multi-billion dollar television contract, there is not a single team that is not in the black before a single fanny is in the seats or a ticket sold. The NFL is the Gold Standard for professional sports, by far the most profitable and most popular.

Then it would stand to reason that they would take care of their own, but that has not been the case. There is no plan for health insurance for arguably the most dangerous sport, nor is there a pension that bears merit. Last year the average payout to an NFL vested retiree was less than $14,500. The poverty level, depending upon which information you garner, is somewhere in the neighborhood of $18,000.

To give you a comparison, baseball's average pension payout last year was a little over $34,000 per player. To give further evidence as to this damning discrepancy, at age 62 a 10-year veteran of Major League Baseball will accrue an annual stipend of $175,000. The same 10-year veteran from the NFL will be looking at $32,000.

This is a collective embarrassment to the NFL as a whole, but because it is not front-page news it has not been addressed. Certainly, management is to blame, but the real culprit is the Union, headed by Gene Upshaw. He has responded that "...the retired players are ungrateful" and "I do not work for the retired players, only the current ones."

Oh? In any other union, you can see pensions, severance pay and retirement benefits are commensurate with contemporary dollars whereas in the NFL you have players that are receiving 1960 dollars and trying to make ends meet. And with the average career at 3.6 years and the median tenure just a little less than six, isn't it incumbent upon such a legislative body to assist "those who built the game?"

Ethics and justice would indicate a resounding affirmative response, not to mention the fact that considerable funds are available. But as yet this necessary and deserved endowment has yet to come to fruition.

Brigham Young once said, "When you have enough to eat and wear, you have self-respect, and when you have self-respect, you have enough." No one is asking for a handout or for something that was not earned, in some cases, by literal blood and sweat. No one resents the bounty afforded the contemporary player. I went through two NFL strikes in hopes of improving the lot for athletes I knew were not even in the circuit yet. But the time has come for this unconscionable oversight to be rectified by the powers-that-be so that those who built the game and pioneered what is now the monolith known as the National Football League are proffered what is deserved.

In Proverbs 3:27 we read, "Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it."

Or as Spike Lee might say succinctly to Gene Upshaw, "Do the right thing!"

Todd Christensen, a former BYU running back and Oakland Raider All-Pro tight end, lives in Highland. He can be reached at dhsports@heraldextra.com. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D2.

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Effects of blows to brain linger a lifetime

By Carl Prine
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, January 9, 2005

In the milliseconds it takes for a player's head to recoil from a sledgehammer tackle, his brain swishes like a fat olive in the cocktail glass of his skull. Synapses snap. Nerve fibers shear away. Bathed in a swirl of cerebrospinal fluid, the brain stem twists inside like a dish rag, wringing out cognition.

Some concussions are mild, dizzying jolts that heal quickly. Others cause temporary blindness, amnesia, loss of breathing and permanent brain damage. Long-term effects from repeated blows include depression, punch-drunk syndrome and precursor symptoms for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

Five concussions in eight years ended the career of former Steelers fullback Merrill Hoge. There was that time he found himself playing in Kansas City, not Tampa Bay, where he thought he was. He could even hear the ocean.

His wife would tuck her telephone number into his wallet

because, inevitably, he would space out while driving, unable to remember his way home. And sometimes, when he got there, the family didn't look familiar.

He played through the dizziness, the blurry hulks of linebackers coming at him, the excruciating pain of a throbbing skull, because that's what men in the NFL do when they want what's best for their kids.

"You've got to put the pain out of your mind," recalled Hoge, now a respected football analyst for ESPN. "For me, in my last years, the game came down to managing six seconds. You leave the huddle and you say to yourself, 'Listen, I know it's going to hurt. It's really going to hurt, but you've got to suck it up for six seconds.

"And you do, you know? Your world is compacted into six seconds, so you get up, and it hurts, and you say to yourself again, 'Six seconds.' Do it 20 more times.

"'Six seconds.'"

Dings and thungs

But all those seconds can add up to a lifetime of expensive medical bills, and that has the National Football League Players Association worried about the cumulative effects of blows to the brain.

"Those head injuries are going to become what knees, backs have always been," said the union's director of benefits, Miki Yaras-Davis. "Concussions will take the forefront. What's different, from a union's standpoint, is how do you measure the impact of concussions? I have some former players now who are getting Alzheimer's or other organic brain disorders. What's the connection?"

Players who suffer five concussions in a career are three times more likely to experience depression as other men their age, and they carry increased risks for stroke and Alzheimer's disease, according to a landmark 2001 study of nearly 2,500 former pros conducted by Dr. Julian Bailes, a West Virginia University neurosurgeon and a leading expert on serious head trauma.

Bailes' research found that three of five retired NFL players had experienced concussions on the field, and 11 percent later suffered from clinical depression.

Seven of 10 players reported they didn't come out of the game after hurting their heads -- a practice that increased the risk of future concussions and could have killed them on the spot had they received another jarring blow, a rare phenomenon called "second impact syndrome."

Players say they're trained from Pop Warner days to shrug off the "dings" and "thungs" because their teams need them. A 2002 NCAA study of college football players found that up to 72 percent of concussions go unreported, a reality pros say continues every Sunday.

"I got so dizzy, I dare say there were minor concussions," said Steelers star running back Jerome Bettis, reflecting on a 12-year romp through the NFL.

"But that's one of those things. What are you going to say? As a running back, you're going to get a slight concussion four or five times a season, but it's not something you talk about. You're always going to take some dings."

Head games

On weekly injury reports, NFL clubs documented 203 brain "dings" in 2000 through 2003. The highest rates were suffered by players involved in high-speed collisions downfield -- wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, defensive backs -- and quarterbacks, who are often blindsided by larger, faster men.

There are likely far more concussions than the teams report, says Dr. Elliot Pellman, team physician of the New York Jets and chairman of the NFL's subcommittee on mild traumatic brain injury. He estimates 200 players suffer concussions every year -- four times the rate clubs disclose to each other.

By analyzing game video and then recreating the explosive impacts with crash-test dummies, Pellman found that 71 percent of all NFL concussions came from helmet-to-helmet contact.

But much of the impact wasn't absorbed by the crown of the head, where researchers used to believe most blows landed, but rather by the face mask, sides and backs of helmets. Other concussions stemmed from glancing tackles against the body that violently twisted the head, sloshing brain matter like yolk in a shell.

Pellman found that nearly a quarter of players had problems with memory, amnesia or processing information after receiving a concussion, but more than half of all pros returned to practice the next day.

Nearly 36 percent continued to play in a game despite a concussion. About 16 percent returned immediately to the field after a concussion was diagnosed. Pellman said that minority might be a unique "subset of players" pre-disposed to withstanding head trauma.

"We need to deal with the issue of concussions scientifically, not emotionally," he said. "There is a small subset of players who can return to the game. You make sure they're properly cleared through testing. "

Pellman says that the NFL "has never been more proactive" about brain trauma and will continue to "fine-tune" diagnoses and treatment because of the "millions and millions of dollars" the NFL has spent on medical research.

Pellman's research already has changed the way helmets are manufactured and tested, and new designs are expected to help reduce head trauma. Pellman believes the NFL's focus on concussions is filtering down to the franchises.

As running backs coach for the Washington Redskins, Earnest Byner agrees, saying he's now far more cautious about his players' head injuries that he was about his own during a 14-year career. In his day, a player went right back onto the field. That's not something he expects from his rushers.

"I tell the guys sometimes, like if I forget to call someone the right name or something, 'I took too many hits, fellow. You've got to understand that,'" he said.

"I'm sure my brain was jarred, probably, 15 or 20 times. Easily. When I got hit there was a 'THUNG!' Like one of those sounds. It was a sound, but it was like a feeling, too. Easily 20."

Second opinions

While many neurosurgeons are glad to hear coaches like Byner take head trauma seriously, others remain concerned that Pellman and the NFL underestimate both the number and severity of concussions in the league. Pointing to a 1997 study of the Canadian Football League that reported nearly half its players suffered concussions annually, they fear the NFL is trying to hide a major health problem.

"The NFL is not really reporting any kind of problems with concussions. They're trying to make the point that the NFL is different. They say, 'These are preselected players. This is a safe league. This isn't dangerous.' But look at the Canadian Football League. They're a fairly comparable group. They're often interchangeable players. They reported a 47 percent incidence rate," said West Virginia University's Dr. Bailes.

The Steelers' team neurosurgeon, Dr. Joseph C. Maroon, estimates 30 to 35 mostly mild concussions a year for his team. That puts the Steelers' rate of brain trauma closer to the CFL findings than the NFL research.

To remedy head injuries, Maroon screens the Steelers before the season to determine how their brains function normally. If trainers or coaches suspect a player suffered a concussion, he's immediately withdrawn from a game and is sidelined until he either passes a computerized test indicating his brain has returned to preseason "baseline" levels or a neurosurgeon says he's OK.

"I can assure you that no Steeler player ever returns to the field unless we certify him ready to go," said Maroon, a pioneer in the diagnosis and treatment of brain trauma at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "That really should be the standard of care for every NFL team."

Trainers and doctors leaguewide pointed to the Steelers as the model for concussion care, but 12 of the 32 franchises still don't use computerized baseline testing designed by Maroon and colleagues Mark Lovell and Micky Collins to screen concussions.

That surprised researchers from Australia and Europe, where baseline testing is mandatory for boxing, rugby, auto racing and other sports.

"The computerized testing is important because it gives you an objective assessment of where a player is as he heals," said Dr. Alex Collie, developer of the Concussion Sentinel computer program used by Notre Dame and the British boxing team. In the American Football Conference, only seven of the 16 franchises follow the Steelers' model of a computer in the clubhouse and a neurosurgeon on the field.

A handful, including the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and Pellman's Jets, didn't report following either standard.

A severe car wreck

Many of the innovations in preventing concussions from football aren't coming at the professional level. At Virginia Tech University, mechanical engineering professor Stefan Duma placed impact recorders in the Hokies' helmets. In 2003, the gadgets detected 3,300 hits to the heads of players during 10 games and 35 practices. A typical skull absorbed 50 wallops measured at 40 times the force of gravity -- equivalent to several dozen Mike Tyson punches during a brief football season.

Some players, however, had collisions measured at more than 120 G's, which is akin to a severe car crash. This year, Duma's team linked the detectors in the helmets to beepers on the sideline, allowing doctors to monitor in real time the hits that cause concussions.

"Otherwise, the medical staff might not have a clue whether a player has received a concussion," Duma said.

Duma believes Virginia Tech's technology can be adapted for the NFL game, and researchers are now comparing the field data with medical files to see if hits on the gridiron are linked to health problems later.

Other reforms seem impossible to implement. Because they play on concrete-hard AstroTurf, the Rams became so concerned about concussions that they asked Dr. Rosanne Naunheim, a professor of emergency medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, to investigate. Her studies found that artificial surfaces increased the risk and severity of concussions, but she's not sure whether the Rams or the Indianapolis Colts, which play their home games on carpet, will soon shift to softer matting.

"It would be harder for players to cut, harder for them to generate force and speed. It would be similar to what some players

already experience on muddy fields -- kind of like playing on a marshmallow," she said.

Pros can control some of their neurological fate by simply letting a doctor rub their gums with a cotton swab.

An unusual type of protein embedded in the genetic structure of a human cell, apolipoprotein E4, signals a greater risk of receiving a concussion.

Most players interviewed by the Trib strongly objected to any mandatory genetic tests designed to protect their health.

"Knowing what I know now, I would say I would (get the test). But if the question was asked when I was first coming into the league, 'Would you like to know, even if it means you can't play fullback?' The answer would have probably been, 'No,' " Hoge said.

Carl Prine can be reached at cprine@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7826.

Images and text copyright © 2006 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.

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Tackling NFL's issues

Monday, July 17, 2006

By VINNY DiTRANI

The mission for Paul Tagliabue's successor appears simple enough: Don't screw up things.

The NFL's next commissioner will inherit the most successful sports enterprise in history, one that has long enjoyed enormous growth and prosperity, not to mention labor peace. Looks like all Tagliabue needs to do is flick on the auto pilot switch before he leaves his office in August.

Under that sublime surface, however, is some churning areas of concern the next commish must address. Tagliabue will leave a generally tidy house. He's even tried to deal with some of the issues that might (and in one case, nearly did) provide future headaches.

Among those issues are revenue sharing, which almost ended the long labor peace this past winter; Los Angeles, without an NFL franchise since the Rams and Raiders bailed in 1994; involvement in the international community; and the league's involvement in its own media conglomerate, which includes a vehicle for someday bypassing traditional television arrangements.

Tagliabue recently predicted the sports world might change more in the next 15 years than it has in the past 50. And if you can remember the somewhat primitive nature of sports promotion and marketing in the mid-1950s, that is quite a statement.

Yet the NFL might take a step back instead of forward if the new man doesn't get the in-house act together. Revenue sharing long has been the staple of NFL economics, a route for small-market teams to compete with the large-market clubs. Monies from all television and league sponsorship deals, plus one-third of all ticket revenues, are shared evenly among the 32 teams.

But discrepancies in so-called "local" incomes such as stadium suites, radio and preseason TV rights, retail sales, parking and concessions fees and stadium naming rights have increased the gulf between the haves and have-nots. In 1995, the difference between the top and bottom clubs in revenues was a mere $28 million. Now the gap is five times that, around $140 million.

That's why NFL Players Association head Gene Upshaw insisted a revamped revenue-sharing plan be included in the recent extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Right now plans call for the top 15 revenue-making teams to contribute $30 million apiece to the pool.

The outgoing commissioner has named eight team representatives to a committee to study economic factors for teams to qualify for additional revenues. While league executives have been told to refrain from discussing the matter, one said, "The idea is to be sure the extra money received is reinvested into the football program."

Tagliabue distributed the eight slots evenly among the four quadrants on the revenue-generating list: Houston and Cleveland from the top eight clubs, Green Bay and Seattle from the second tier, the Giants and Detroit from the third level and St. Louis and Buffalo from the bottom eight. The new commissioner must make sure the committee can solve what at the very least is an extremely complex problem.

Revenue sharing could impact the search to fill the Los Angeles market. Teams from the lower-tier markets, especially those without concrete plans for the instant elixir, a new stadium, should be jumping to fill the void. But estimates of up to $800 million in stadium costs to get the Coliseum or Angel Stadium of Anaheim ready for football re-habitation is a daunting figure.

With more expansion very unlikely, the Bills, Chargers, Jaguars and Vikings appear most likely to move to Los Angeles. The new commissioner must spearhead, or reject, a plan by Tagliabue that not one but two teams relocate to halve the stadium costs and return the NFL to the nation's second-largest television market.

Any future expansion might be limited to outside the U.S. if the NFL can create an international presence to tap the foreign financial pipelines. A regular-season game was played in Mexico City last year and there's talk of playing two games in Europe in 2007. Super Bowl XL was televised in 234 countries in 32 languages.

But can the NFL really sustain an international face?

Exhibition games have been successful, but are novelties. NFL Europe has been less than a rousing success, albeit with rosters minus any big-time players.

The new commissioner must weigh the positives of new revenue sources against the negatives of embarrassing failure, even if his findings are not what the new-breed, looking-for-new-revenue-stream owners want to hear.

NFL games attracted some 200 million viewers in 2005, with network games averaging 15.6 million per contest and cable games 8.7 million per viewing. Yet the NFL will not only change its network look this year, but also add another outlet, the NFL Network. While the home-owned franchise has enrolled some 35 million households in two years, it still is not available on most cable systems.

So its first "national" telecast, the Thanksgiving night clash between the Broncos and Chiefs, will be "national" only to those who get the NFL Network (and over-the-air viewers in Denver and Kansas City). The next commissioner must assure his games are made available to the general viewer, not used as a carrot to attract people to his own TV network.

The same is true for potential digital telecasts made available to cellphones or devices that haven't even been invented. Such advances cannot be made at the expense of the longtime NFL stalwarts who like to flop in front of a TV with a beer and a bag of chips to watch their favorite teams.

Tagliabue's successor is walking into a nice gig, but it's a gig that could change drastically in the next few years. Continued success may well depend on how the new Tags handles the standing problems such as revenue sharing and absence from the L.A. market, as well as future endeavors such as international expansion and impending communication evolutions.

E-mail: ditrani@northjersey.com

Copyright © 2006 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

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For Upshaw, running union a labor of love

Philadelphia Daily News
Thu, Jul. 06, 2006

By PAUL DOMOWITCH
pdomo@aol.com

WITH THE CLOCK ticking on his final days as NFL commissioner, Paul Tagliabue flew to Dusseldorf, Germany, in late May to take in the NFL Europe championship game between Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Sitting next to him on the 8-hour flight was a frequent traveling companion, NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw.

"This was going to be his last one, so I wanted to go with him," Upshaw says during a recent interview with the Daily News at the union's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

NFL Europe still is in business today mainly because of Tagliabue and Upshaw. It's a money loser that most of the league's owners have long wanted to euthanize. But together, the commissioner and the union chief managed to convince them that it provides benefits to the NFL that can't be measured strictly in dollars and cents.

"It's the only other place you can play football when you're not playing here," Upshaw says. "It's the only place you can train officials. It's the only place you can send coaches and players [to get experience]. It's the only place you can have players that might want to be TV analysts get some experience.

"It gives you a chance to develop your talent both on and off the field. We look at it from the broad perspective, not just how much money you're going to make from it."

That kind of thinking illustrates why Upshaw's tenure, in the minds of most, has been so successful since he took over in 1983. And he's more than happy to confront those who criticize him, wondering aloud whether the source of their discontent is tinged with racism.

It's rare for a union boss and a company CEO to be on the same page about anything. The relationship between Upshaw and Tagliabue is unlike any you'll see in labor, in or out of professional sports. They are good friends who consider each other partners in a $6 billion-a-year business rather than fist-shaking, table-pounding adversaries.

Many hard-core labor types think Upshaw's relationship with Tagliabue is unseemly. They think it's impossible to represent your rank and file competently if you're close buds with management. They view Upshaw as a puppet and his union as the weakest in professional sports, even though the league's salary cap has nearly tripled in the last 12 years and the NFL's average annual salary has skyrocketed from $120,000 to $1.4 million in the more than 2 decades the Hall of Fame offensive lineman has run it.

"Paul and I have had discussions about how people perceive us," Upshaw says. "We have a relationship where we can just sit down and talk. Without even talking about business. We can talk about the history [of the game]. About what he's been through, what I've been through. All of those things are why we've had success...

"Probably the most important thing Paul has done is kept us out of the courtroom. He knew and I knew that if we stayed out of the courtroom and used the assets, which is the players, we could grow the game in a way that is unbelievable. And that's what's happened."

The courtroom is where the NFL was in 1989 when Tagliabue succeeded Pete Rozelle as commissioner. The league and union were embroiled in a bloody 6-year legal battle over free agency. Before that were bitter strikes in 1982 and '87.

Shortly after Tagliabue took over, Upshaw made the boldest move of his career, one that ultimately would change the face of the NFL. After a federal appeals court ruled that antitrust laws could not apply to the league because the NFLPA was a labor union, he decertified his union. With the NFLPA no longer a collective bargaining unit, the league was stripped of its antitrust protection, which ultimately led to a 1993 settlement that gave the players true free agency, along with a salary cap.

Since then, the players and owners have lived in relative peace and harmony, which has helped the league prosper and make lots and lots of money for both sides.

"When Paul took over, one of the first things he did was call me and said, 'Let's get together for dinner.' We met at a little [Washington D.C.] restaurant up on Columbia Road. From that point on, that's been the difference.

"We have agreed on a lot of things and we have disagreed on a lot of things. But it's nobody else's business. It doesn't advance his cause or my cause to have the Washington Post or the New York Times or the Philadelphia Daily News making a headline out of it, when the real issue is how do we solve the problem, rather than become the problem.

"It's never been about either one of us trying to one-up the other. It's always been, what can we do to make our product better and grow it. If people don't understand that, that's their problem, not ours."

Upshaw said his close relationship with Tagliabue is the main reason the owners and players got a new labor extension done in March. Upshaw and the union went into the negotiations wanting two things: a change in the salary-cap formula to factor in previously unshared revenue such as luxury-box income, concessions, parking and local sponsorship agreements, and a revenue-sharing agreement by the owners to assist teams not making as much money as others.

The owners eventually agreed to the change in the cap formula. But the revenue-sharing plan was another matter. The league's higher-revenue teams, including the Eagles, weren't eager to turn over some of their hard-earned money to other clubs. They also didn't understand why this was any of Upshaw's business in the first place. As long as his players were getting their cut of the league's total revenues, why on earth did he care if there was a growing gap between the league's rich and not as rich.

"Gene made it clear he didn't want a deal without enhanced revenue-sharing," said Harold Henderson, the league's executive vice president of labor relations since 1991. "We said over and over to him, 'It's not your issue. Why are you so hung up on that?' Some of the owners to the bitter end were still saying, 'I don't understand why he cares.' "

Upshaw cared, because he felt the NFL slowly but surely was heading down the same path of disparity as major league baseball, in which you have teams like the Florida Marlins with a $14.9 million payroll and teams like the Yankees spending about $200 million on players. That kind of out-of-whack situation apparently doesn't bother baseball's union people. But it bothers Upshaw.

"It doesn't do any good to have half the teams doing well and half the teams not doing well," Upshaw said. "The more closely you get to the baseball model, the harder it is to fix, because as the revenues get bigger and bigger and bigger, nobody wants to fix it.

"The argument [the owners] kept making was it's none of our business. That the union shouldn't be worried about revenue-sharing. That it's an internal matter for the owners. Well, it is. Except we have a salary cap in our league. When you have a salary cap, it changes all that. It's not just their business, it's our business, too."

With the March deadline for a labor extension looming, the owners were inclined to call Upshaw's bluff. But Tagliabue convinced the owners that Upshaw was very serious. On March 8, less than a half-hour before the deadline, the owners emerged from 2 days of meetings at a Dallas hotel with a revenue-sharing plan. The vote was 30-2.

"I'm telling you, if Paul and I didn't have the kind of relationship we have, we wouldn't have an extension right now," says Upshaw, who was on a plane to Hawaii for the NFLPA's annual convention when the deal passed. "I can tell you that with absolute certainty. Because I had walked away. I was done [negotiating]. Paul knew that. He had to convince his group that I was serious about it, and he did."

The CBA extension, which runs through the 2011 season, guarantees the players 59.5 percent of the league's total football revenue over the next 4 years and 60 percent in the final 2 years of the deal. And the revenue-sharing plan will allow teams with older stadiums to remain competitive.

"We have another 10 stadiums we still need to build," says Upshaw, whose union is the only one in professional sports that has invested money in the construction of new venues. "Until we can get that done, those teams aren't going to grow. Minnesota, Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego... that group at the bottom [of the revenue scale] are all in old stadiums. I've been around long enough to remember when they opened all those stadiums, and we thought they were great. Now, they're a piece of crap and need to be replaced."

Gene Upshaw initially had planned a career in politics after his playing career was over. His father, Gene Sr., had been politically active, serving on the city council back in Upshaw's hometown of Robstown, Texas, and also running for mayor. During his 15 years with the Oakland Raiders, Upshaw - who was nicknamed "The Governor" by his teammates - was actively involved with the Democratic Party. Then-California Gov. Jerry Brown had appointed him to a couple of state boards, and he even considered a run for the state Assembly when he retired.

"I knew that's what I wanted to do," Upshaw says. "But I never got the chance. I ended up coming here."

The NFLPA wasn't much of a union when Upshaw succeeded Ed Garvey in 1983. It was coming off a failed 57-day strike the year before and was more than $4 million in debt. Upshaw's first contract called for an $85,000-a-year salary, but he took less than half of that, so the union could pay the bills.

"When I took the job, I took it for 1 year," he says. "I told the players at the time that within that year, they'd know whether I could do the job and I'd know whether I wanted to continue to do the job."

One year has turned into 23. A union that was on life support when Upshaw took over now is thriving. It has more than $100 million in the bank and another $100 million in assets. The NFL player payroll last year was $2.8 billion and is expected to surpass $3 billion in 2006.

"You don't hear our players talking about not being paid enough anymore," says Buffalo safety Troy Vincent, the NFLPA president and probable successor to Upshaw. "The salaries are more than fair now. I don't think the Donovan McNabbs of the world will ever complain. The Michael Vicks, the Terrell Owenses, the Peyton Mannings, the Marvin Harrisons, the Troy Vincents, the Drew Bledsoes, the Brian Dawkinses... we don't have room [to complain]."

Still, some critics still contend that the NFLPA is a company union and that Upshaw is nothing more than a pawn of Tagliabue and the owners. They point out that the average NFL salary ($1.4 million) still lags well behind major league baseball ($2.5 million) and the NBA ($5 million). They point out that guaranteed contracts, which are standard in baseball and basketball, are few and far between in football.

Earlier this year, Marvin Miller, baseball's former union czar, fired a broadside at Upshaw and his union in an interview in The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.

"Every league's union except the NFL's has chosen to hire professional leadership," Miller said. "The NFL Players Association hired a former player. You see the results."

Upshaw just shrugs when asked about the criticism.

"With all due respect to attorneys, when God issued brains, they weren't the only ones that got them," he says. "What has helped me more than anything else in the last 23 years is that the players have trusted my judgment and have trusted what I've done. When I tell them this is a good deal, they believe me."

Upshaw says it's impractical to compare the average salary of NFL players with that of baseball or basketball players, because his union has more than twice as many members as baseball and more than three times as many as the NBA. He also disputes the suggestion that there are no guaranteed contracts in the NFL. He said more than 50 percent of the money that will be paid out to NFL players this season will be guaranteed, most of it in the form of signing bonuses.

"If you took the first 3 years of Carson Palmer's contract and the first 3 years of LeBron James' contract, Palmer is getting more money," Upshaw says of the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback, the first selection in the 2003 draft. "Look at last year's No. 1 [draft] pick [Alex Smith]. The 49ers gave him something like $22 million in guaranteed money before he ever threw a pass. And Houston already has given [this year's No. 1 pick] Mario Williams a lot more guaranteed money than Smith got.

"What does that tell you? It tells you that these guys aren't going to be getting cut in a year or 2 or 3. So, whatever they've got in the rest of their contract is, for all intents and purpose, guaranteed, too. Because that's the way the system is set up."

While people on the outside occasionally have questioned the effectiveness of Upshaw's leadership, his players seldom have. The one notable exception was in 1993 and '94, after the owners and players finally ended their long legal battle and agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that gave the players unprecedented free agency and a percentage of gross revenues. It also set up a salary cap, which nearly led to a mutiny when teams began releasing veterans to clear cap space.

Eventually, Upshaw persuaded the players to remain united.

"It kind of reminds me of what they told the black slaves after they finally freed them," Upshaw says. "They told them how much they loved them and how much they cared about them. They said, 'Don't worry about us beating you and making you work all day and not being able to have a family.' They tried to convince them they were better off on the plantation [than being free].

"It was the same way with the players. They finally had their freedom, but they still believed the owners cared about them. We had to break that mentality down and make [players] understand that they didn't really care about them. That it was about business."

Before Harold Henderson was hired as the NFL's chief labor negotiator in '91, he spent more than a decade in the same job with Amtrak. Before that, he was a successful Washington, D.C., labor attorney. He says that Upshaw has been as effective as any union leader he's sat across the table from.

"Gene's been a long-term strategic thinker," he says. "He's been a pain in my butt much of the time, but he's a tough, hard-nosed, savvy guy who's prepared to fight for what he thinks he deserves. He's been a very worthy opponent.

"I think Gene has provided as good and maybe better representation for his constituents as anybody in the country. Some people will challenge whether he's even the best in professional sports. But from my perspective, he's gotten them a helluva deal."

Upshaw says he believes that the color of his skin has had more than a little to do with some of the criticism he has received.

"There was a lot of doubt about whether I could do the job," he says. "Personally, I think a lot of it has to do with my race. It's a factor, and I know that. But that's OK. It's not going to stop me from doing what I have to do. But it does enter the picture from time to time. They don't want to accept that I can do this job. It's always a little tougher. Ask [NBA union chief] Billy Hunter. He'll tell you the same thing."

Henderson, another African-American, agrees with Upshaw.

"I think some of it has been [racially motivated]," he says. "He has a union that is blacker than most. Some of those comments suggest a hint of racism. It may be subtle and indirect. Maybe even unknowing. But the suggestion is that our player population is incapable of electing effective leadership. That they're not smart enough to know whether they're well off or not. That they need a smart white lawyer to tell them what they need."

The NFL has had a smart white lawyer leading them for the last 17 years. Now, with Tagliabue retiring, it is searching for a new commissioner. Interestingly, Upshaw's name has turned up on the milelong list of replacement candidates. But he said he really isn't interested, even if the owners are.

With Tagliabue retiring, with labor peace pretty much assured for another 5 years, with his 61st birthday coming up in a few months, there has been speculation that Upshaw also might soon ride off into the sunset. His current contract, which pays him a little less than $3 million annually, expires in March 2008, which is just about the time the 35-year-old Vincent probably will be ready to hang up his cleats.

For now, all Upshaw says is that he won't stick around beyond 2010 because the union has a mandatory retirement age of 65. "When it's time to go, I'll know it before the players do," he says.

The new CBA extension includes a clause that allows either side to void the deal in 2008 or 2009 if they are unhappy with it. That probably won't happen, but Upshaw says he needs to make sure his players are prepared for the possibility.

"It's going to be a bitter fight next time, and we need to be prepared," he says. "We can't sit here in my mind and think we have a deal until 2011. I'm preparing for if the deal ends in 2008. I want to make sure the union is in position to continue the growth that we've achieved."

© 2006 Philadelphia Daily News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com

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Life after the NFL: Football players try to find another love

BY RAINER SABIN Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Sunday, July 2, 2006

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Sports/42410/

TONTITOWN — Joe Dean Davenport lets out a hearty laugh, one that you would expect from a man that is 6-6 and weighs 268 pounds. Inside Mama Z’s, a quaint Italian restaurant with some Southern flavor, Davenport is having a grand old time talking about the two lives he has already led before turning 30. There is Joe Dean the cattle rancher, who tends to 570 acres of land and 215 cows in the small town of Cincinnati while hauling around hay in his own Peterbilt truck. And there was Joe Dean the NFL tight end, who caught passes from Peyton Manning and blocked for Edgerrin James. Davenport is one of a select group of former Arkansas Razorbacks who have played professional football.

But like many of the fortunate few who make it to the highest level, his career proved fleeting. Just five years out of college, he was forced to deal with the prospect of life after football.

“Every athlete wants to go out on your own terms,” Davenport said. “Your own terms is playing 10 years and retiring. But when you get tied back, you don’t have too many options. I couldn’t just sit at home and wait on somebody else to call. I had a farm and I take care of cows and I’m not looking back. ”

Well before he was cut by the New York Giants during training camp in 2004, Davenport considered never putting on pads again. Not long after he signed a two-year free agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers in 2000 following a senior season at Arkansas during which he caught 21 passes and was named to the All-Southeastern Conference second team, Davenport quit.

He decided he wanted to remain in Arkansas. But within a year of choosing an agrarian lifestyle over the glamour and glitz of the NFL, he rediscovered his passion for football and joined the Indianapolis Colts in 2001. Davenport played three seasons, starting nine games and catching 11 passes for 93 yards. By the end of the 2003 season, the Colts wanted a more fleet-footed tight end who would could be utilized as an offensive weapon in a system that used all options available to move the ball. When they didn’t offer Davenport a contract, he sat on the sidelines for months. Eventually, the New York Giants invited him to training camp. But within weeks they cut him and Davenport was resigned to the fact his playing career was over. “I had my shot and I don’t regret anything,” Davenport said. “If I got on with New York I would have stayed up there.” Davenport’s short stint in the NFL was not unusual. The average length of an NFL career is 3. 5 seasons, according to the league’s Players Association. The window for making money playing football is small.

A Cutthroat League

Don’t feel sorry for Clint Stoerner. He sure doesn’t. The fans in Dallas may have already forgot about him, but he still remains a local celebrity in Arkansas as the gritty quarterback who helped bring Razorbacks fans so much joy after years of misery during the 1990s. Wherever he goes in the state, he is still recognized as the guy who helped Arkansas achieve its two best records — a 9-3 campaign in 1998 and an 8-4 season the next year — since the Ken Hatfield era ended in 1989. But despite his great success in college from 1996-2000, his pro career has meandered. After playing in the NFL and NFL Europe, he has spent the last two seasons in the Arena League with the Dallas Desperadoes. Just five years ago, he was starting games for the more recognizable pro football team in the same city — the Cowboys. “It is a game, but it is also a business,” Stoerner said. “You look at it as a job and you grow and mature a lot.” Stoerner, Davenport and Cincinnati Bengals practice squad player Tony Bua paint the NFL as a cuttthroat league, where players are just looking to survive each day. The fierce competition among teammates to land a spot on a 53-man roster and the often merciless decisions made by NFL general managers are by-products of the hard salary cap and revenue sharing system adopted by the league in 1994.

In the 2006 season, each team was allowed to spend approximately $102 million on its players. The financial guidelines set by the NFL usually leads teams to cut more highly paid veterans in favor of rookies. Meanwhile, players who do not have defined positions with the teams are generally expendable. NFL contracts, after all, are not guaranteed. Only signing bonuses, which don’t count against the salary cap, are.

“It’s just extremely disheartening,” said Bua, who played linebacker and safety at Arkansas from 2000-2003. “If you come to a team that is not invested in you, it’s hard. You control what you can control.”

After entering the league two years ago, Bua has played for three teams and has not seen the field during a game since 2004, when he was a special teams player with the Miami Dolphins. The coach who drafted him, Dave Wannstedt, resigned under pressure during Bua’s rookie season and Nick Saban soon grabbed the reins of the franchise. At the time, Bua didn’t realized his career was in jeopardy.

“I was drafted there and they wanted to see me do well,” he said. “But a new coaching staff comes in and they wanted to clean house.”

Bua was released and after surfacing with the Cowboys in Sept. 2005 he was cut by them five weeks later. He is now one of five practice squad players with Cincinnati, where he makes a minimum of $4,700 per week. Prorated over the length of a typical season, he is earning $79,900 each year. The average income for a person between 25 and 34 years is $45,485, according to statistics supplied by the US Census Bureau.

Even though he only gives himself a “50/50” chance to make the 53-man roster, Bua is not looking to give up on his football career just yet.

“I try to look at as I was out in society,” Bua said. “I wouldn’t be doing as well as I am doing now. I am doing what I love to do, except for being on the practice field. I will ride as far as the road takes me.”

Making the transition

But there will come a point when Bua will have to hang up his helmet and put away his cleats. He can’t run around the field forever. That is the message Kurt Patberg finds himself delivering to former NFL and college football players when they begin thinking about a new career.

“They have to come to grips that they are done playing or that playing is not option,” said Patberg, the general manager of Competitive Resources Group, a Lawrenceville, Ga.-based company that helps former athletes find jobs with businesses around the country. “Let’s be realistic. How many people who have grown up playing ball and still have a shot are going to walk away? We would go as long as we could. But what is not OK is that when they say they are ready to be done when they really aren’t.”

Generally, NFL players can’t live off the money they made during their careers. And only those who have been on the 53-man rosters for a minimum of three seasons qualify for a pension at 55. The monthly payout is tied to the number of years in the league, and even a 20-year veteran like Darrell Green, who retired four years ago, would only receive $5,805 each month.

As a result, many who have played in the NFL have to develop alternative careers and some of them turn to companies like CRG for assistance. Founded by former Georgia Tech quarterback Jack Williams eight years ago, CRG has partnerships with more than 40 companies nationally and Patberg said athletes have certain characteristics that make them successful in jobs outside of sports, particularly in occupations where communication and appearance are important.

“There is no question that name recognition helps athletes,” he said. “They are in good shape. There is a presence issue. There are about 25 transferable traits and skills that an athlete has — hard work, multitasking, perseverance and time management among them. There is a unique skill set tied to athletes that makes them attractive hires to our companies.”

Bua said he has been approached by a pharmaceutical sales company in Arkansas and a Baton Rouge consulting service in recent years. But he turned them down, because the lure of playing football was too strong.

“I have had a couple opportunities to get in another career,” he said. “But you’re only young once. You might as well live out your dream. I hope and pray [those types of opportunities] will be there. But what happens in life is not up to me. It’s up to God. As much as I love football, God will find something else.

“But football is my life. I will play for as long as I can. If I have to bounce around, I will bounce around.”

John F. Murray, a sports psychologist who lives in Palm Beach, Fla., said he understands Bua’s mentality and has encountered athletes who don’t want to give up what has become their livelihood. But he also cautions that a complete devotion to football or any other sport can be detrimental to a player’s psyche when the opportunity to make interceptions, throw touchdown passes and break tackles is no longer there.

“If you don’t become more diversified, you can be lost in that identity,” he said. “When [the career ] ends you will find feelings of loss. The timing is a huge issue and in sports you become addicted to the excitement. Then all of a sudden it disappears.” That isn’t the case for Davenport, and that may have something to do with the fact that the former tight end fits Murray’s profile of a player who has other interests. Davenport seems to have made the adjustment to life without football because he was never all that tied to the game in the first place. “How much money these guys make might not be as important as being successful at something other than athletics,” Patberg said. “It is not about money for all of the guys. They want to emotionally be able to handle it. To move on to a second career is important for these guys.”

The Simple Life

“There’s no skyscrapers around here,” Davenport proudly proclaims at his 570-acre ranch in Cincinnati, a community on the western edge of Washington County that is so small some residents in Northwest Arkansas have never even heard of it. Approximately two miles down a gravel country road that is lined by wide open fields and a few Hackberry trees, Davenport spends some of his days riding around in an airconditioned baler that cuts, chops, compresses and ties together massive amounts of hay. “He has always loved the farm,” Davenport’s mother, Lola, said. “Joe Dean has always been mellow and not real outgoing. He might miss football some days, but he has fit back into his farm life like he has never been away. His father says Joe Dean knows a good cow when he sees it.” Working with his brother, Jarvis, Davenport usually begins his day at 10 a. m. and continues to labor until sundown on the large expanse of land he bought last October after he sold his 220-acre ranch in Tontitown. “I never really considered myself a total football player,” said Davenport, who was wearing a soiled white T-shirt, ripped jeans, tattered boots and a trucker’s hat. “I gave my time and effort to it when I was playing. Football can change a lot of people, because of the glamour and things like that. But I like doing other things like farming.”

Even when Davenport was a kid, he wasn’t dreaming about the NFL. He grew up on a ranch and didn’t start playing football until the sixth grade. Only at the behest of a neighbor who thought the wide-bodied kid could fill out a roster spot on the youth league team did Davenport even strap on a helmet.

Five years later, when former Springdale coach Jarrel Williams mentioned to Davenport that he could be an All-American if he worked hard, the tight end wore a look of befuddlement.

“I was like, ‘What is an All-American?’” he recalled. “I just was playing ball like everybody else. He was saying I could be real good. I was like, ‘Yeah right.’”

Davenport never really saw himself as a big-time athlete. In Indianapolis, he drove around in a pick-up truck with a big cowbell on it. These days, he also owns Peterbilt semi and spends hours on the road alone hauling hay, cows and rice for fun.

Davenport has traveled as far as Colorado in his truck and said he enjoys the freedom he has been afforded since he gave up the game. There are no coaches standing over him and he can go at his own pace. And as was the case with football, the results go hand-in-hand with the hard work.

“I don’t really have a boss,” he said. “I kind of like to see the cows grow. You take it to the market and sell it and people get to see what you have done — good or bad.”

At that point, Davenport quickly stops the baler and hops out. He is off to solve a problem that just came up. On a field with no lines or hashmarks, Joe Dean the cattle rancher is at home.

Copyright © 2001-2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved. Contact: webmaster@nwanews.com

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Baltimore Sun: The NFL's forgotten players

Before million-dollar contracts, the NFL's pioneers took the field. Today, many are scraping by financially, their benefits an embarrassment to a lucrative league.

July 2, 2006

DURING 14 YEARS IN THE NFL, DICK "NIGHT TRAIN" LANE was celebrated for his vicious clothesline hits, his technical skill on the defensive perimeter and his fast-paced lifestyle off it. Few players were bigger in stature -- or better at their job -- than the Hall of Fame defensive back with the alluring moniker who intimidated receivers from1952 to 1965.

"Train was kind of in the show-business atmosphere," said Lenny Moore, a longtime friend and on-field foe. "He married the great [jazz singer] Dinah Washington. That had him in the spotlight. He was as popular as she was."

The lifestyle turned out to be fleeting. Beset by financial problems and poor health, Lane spent his final years in an assisted living facility in Austin, Texas. Even though he had three sons - in three cities - and two ex-wives (Washington died in 1963), his caretaker was a retired construction engineer he met on the golf course.

In the end, Lane was neither exalted nor self-supporting. He lived paycheck to paycheck from his NFL pension, barely able to get around on bum knees. He died, virtually penniless, in 2002. It was a sad end to a proud life.

The harsh lesson of Lane's riches-to-rags saga is not lost on retired players today. The NFL's pioneers are awash in mental health issues, physical disabilities and financial distress.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of retired players in need of assistance after missing the NFL's money boat, a ship that sailed in 1993 with the merger of free agency and the salary cap. It left behind a whole generation of players who helped build the NFL from the ground up and now feel abandoned.

In an industry that created nearly $6 billion worth of revenue last year, retired players are scoffing at plans for a 10-to-20 percent increase in their pension benefits this fall. The proposal comes under terms that have yet to be made final in the NFL's new collective bargaining agreement.

For many older players, that increase could amount to as little as $40 a month per credited season, or an additional $2,400 a year for a player who lasted five seasons.

That might be too little, too late for the fast-dwindling corps of pre-1959 players facing insolvency and worse. Unofficially, there were more than 700 living pre-59ers when the landmark 1993 collective bargaining agreement was reached. Today, there are fewer than 300.

"Guys are at an age where their health is quickly deteriorating," said former Baltimore Colts running back Joe Washington. "In realistic terms, if these guys die off, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

No money for funeral

Lane was due an increase on his $800-a-month NFL pension when he died of a heart attack in January 2002 at the age of 73. Were it not for the diligence of Charles Carroll and the charity of Mike Ditka, however, Lane might have had a pauper's funeral.

Carroll was the businessman who befriended Lane and controlled his limited bank account ("Train was no money manager," he said). Upon Lane's death, Carroll said he was directed by Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, to give Lane a good funeral.

According to Carroll, there was enough money in Lane's account for half of the $12,000 funeral expense, and the other half came out of his own pocket while he waited for the NFLPA to send the rest. Ultimately, that check arrived through the intervention of Moore, a Hall of Famer with the Colts.

Still, there was a $1,600 headstone to pay for. Ditka covered the cost with money from his annual Hall of Fame golf classic in Chicago.

Ditka, a Hall of Fame tight end turned ESPN analyst, has been waging his own campaign to help needy players. He started a trust fund four years ago and estimates it helps 20 to 25 players each year. He also said he has written letters to NFL owners soliciting donations of $100,000 a team to "solve" the problem.

"The response was embarrassing," Ditka said. "One team sent $5,000, one sent $10,000. We're trying to let guys who made the game what it is today have some dignity.

"I'm very aggravated with the players association; I'm very aggravated with Gene Upshaw. I don't think they do enough. I don't think they do anything."

Upshaw, vacationing in Europe, has declined repeated interview requests. It is a fact of labor law, however, that he is allowed to represent only active players, not retired players, as the union leader.

It's not just the league's pioneers who need help these days. Mike Siani played from 1972 to 1977 with the Oakland Raiders and from 1978 to 1980 with the Colts as a wide receiver. He seems typical of the majority of retired players.

At 56, Siani has no medical, dental or life insurance because he can't afford the premiums. He gets just $492 a month in benefits because he took his pension early, at age 45. And he has to work two jobs, one as coach of a minor league indoor football team.

"People think, 'Wow, you played in the NFL, you must be a millionaire,'" Siani said. "They don't realize when I started playing in '72, I made $22,000 as a first-round draft choice."

He agrees with Ditka that Upshaw - his former teammate on the Raiders - and the NFLPA haven't done enough for retired players.

"As all the former players do, I think that maybe Gene is saying, 'Just go away, don't rock my boat, I've got a good gig going and I want it to last.' I'm very disappointed with what he hasn't done for us," Siani said.

Upshaw has been under fire since January, when he told The Charlotte Observer he doesn't represent retired players - a point the union acknowledged as far back as 1974 - and labeled those players attacking him as ungrateful.

The comments galvanized pockets of retired players across the country and fostered an atmosphere of mistrust toward the union. Some retired players believe there is more money available for pension increases than Upshaw says.

Baltimore's chapter of 65 retired players has stood at the forefront in the fight. The chapter established a blog, a Google link and an e-mail system to inform all retired players. Irked by the management of retired player funds a year ago, former Colts safety Bruce Laird, 56, has drawn a line in the sand.

"We do not trust Gene Upshaw or the NFLPA," he said, "because quite frankly they don't work for us."

What Laird hopes to do is improve dialogue between current players and retired players, dialogue that is virtually nonexistent. It is clear, however, that Upshaw still has support within the retired player ranks.

Upshaw critics, fans

Hall of Fame tackle Ron Mix, now an attorney in San Diego, wants to see benefits increased across the board, especially for a group of 325 retired players who took an ill-advised Social Security adjustment (more money up front, a lot less on the back end). Nevertheless, Mix is quick to credit Upshaw with improving the retired players' lot.

"A lot of criticism directed at [Upshaw] is not merited," Mix said. "It was his administration that sensitized the current players to pension increases [for older players]. There is absolutely no legal obligation by the league or the players association to go back in time and increase pensions. [But] it's been done a couple times."

In 2002, the NFLPA doubled the benefits of players who played before 1968 from $100 to $200 a month per credited season - at a cost of $110 million from current player benefits. According to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, the league pays out nearly $5 million a month in pension benefits.

Ravens kicker Matt Stover, a player representative for most of his 16 NFL seasons, visited a Baltimore chapter meeting of retired players last month to answer questions and explain the process. He promised the 10-to-20 percent increase once the new collective bargaining agreement is ratified in late summer or early fall.

"I want to make sure that the NFL retired players will always be considered in all negotiations. They have been since I've been here," Stover said. "My heart, as an active player, is to take care of them as much as we can.

"Can those guys be made whole? Oh, my goodness, we don't have billions of dollars for that. There's just no way."

How much money the union can allocate to retired players from funds in the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan is a point of debate. So far, Upshaw has declined to share specific actuarial information with them.

Ray Bille, who spent 37 years as a retirement plan consultant for three national firms, believes the NFLPA could do more to help.

Although he does not have access to NFLPA financial documents, Bille has spoken with a number of retired players, worked out his own calculations and come to the conclusion they could get as much as $100 more a month, not just the $40 that the union has proposed.

"I have no motivation to discredit Upshaw. I didn't play in the NFL and I have no relation to him one way or another," said Bille, now retired. "I feel he's not being totally aboveboard in the way he's communicating the opportunity to the retired players."

Bille also described the NFL's pension plan as "quite a bit weaker" than Major League Baseball's, in part because of a variable annuity element in baseball that the NFLPA bargained away in 1970 when executive director Ed Garvey was pursuing free agency.

Major League Baseball provides $175,000 a year for life for a fully vested pension based on 10 years' experience. A player with five years gets half that amount.

"Where football is today, I think [current players] do have something to do for the old-timers," Bille said. "The NFL is so much more successful than any other sport, including baseball. I feel strongly players averaging $1.5 million have somewhat of an obligation to the older guys, because it wouldn't be close to that if not for the base laid by these older players in the '60s and '70s."

---

Assistance

Retired NFL players who have medical or financial crises may qualify to get assistance from one of the following groups:

• Players Assistance Trust Fund // Maximum grant is $20,000 for medical or financial crisis. Under the umbrella of the Professional Athletes Fund, it is distributed by the NFLPA.

• Hall of Fame assistance fund // Established four years ago for Hall of Fame players in need.

• Mike Ditka's trust fund // Dikta and some other Hall of Famers hold a charity golf tournament each August that raises $200,000. Half goes to a charity for children, and the other half to retired Hall of Fame players.

• Dr. Arthur Roberts' screenings // An NFL quarterback-turned-heart surgeon, Roberts offers free cardiac screenings to all players in different NFL cities.

Benefits today

Players retiring after this season will have these benefits:

• Severance // Players get $12,500 per year, up to $15,000. A vested 10-year veteran would get $125,000. The benefit tops out at $200,000.

• Medical insurance // Good for four years from end of career. Player is eligible after three years and three games.

• Annuity // Available at age 35 or five years after career ends, whichever comes later. Starting in 2001, players with three years and three games experience receive $65,000 per year in tax-deferred compensation.

• 401(k) // Available at age 55 without penalty. Can receive at 45, but must pay 20 percent tax hit.

• Retiring Medical Savings Account // New, enters the plan with this collective bargaining agreement. Player gets $25,000 per year once he is vested, topping out at $300,000. Similar to a bank account and to be used for health-related issues.

• Life insurance // Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, the policy went as follows: 1 year - $150,000; 2 years - $180,000; 3 years - $210,000; 4 years - $240,000; 5 years - $270,000; 6 or more - $300,000.

• Pension plan // Previous plan ranges from $200 a month per accredited season to $425 a month per accredited season.

ken.murray@baltsun.com

Copyright © 2006, The Baltimore Sun

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/football/bal-sp.pensions02jul02,0,4652229.story?coll=bal-sports-headlines

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