By Dan O'Neill
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/20/2007
Reminiscent of President Richard Nixon's paranoid White House of the early 1970s, the NFL Players Association has moved to suppress retired players that have been campaigning for changes to health and pension benefits.
The Gene Upshaw-led NFLPA is threatening to dissolve alumni chapters whose leaders speak out against the union. According to a Denver Post story, Andre Collins, the NFLPA's director of retired players, has sent memos to chapters across the country, notifying alumni presidents that if their conduct is deemed detrimental to the NFLPA their accreditation might be pulled.
Shrewd move, NFLPA. Who handles your public relations, the Corleone family? When do you start leaving horse heads under the sheets?
"If this happens, the NFLPA is infringing on my rights as an American to speak out," Wade Manning, the NFLPA's Denver alumni president, told the Associated Press. Manning played for the Broncos and Dallas Cowboys in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "I left body parts on stadium floors. I should be able to say what I want."
Some might suggest the union's time would be better spent trying to keep its members out of jails, fights, paternity suits, drugs, fines and suspensions. Instead, they appear to be committed to silencing veteran players who have publicized the lack of support for long-term physical and mental problems some have suffered as a result of their careers.
Bruce Laird, the former Baltimore Colts and San Diego Chargers player who leads the retiree chapter in Baltimore, told the AP: "Basically, the union is saying that if you don't drink the Kool-Aid, then you better keep your mouth shut."
Laird posts a blog that supports better benefits for former players.
"To me, this is a blog issue, no question," Laird said. "But (as bloggers) we're just trying to get the truth out. We want people to know what has happened to the makers of this game."
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/20/2007
Reminiscent of President Richard Nixon's paranoid White House of the early 1970s, the NFL Players Association has moved to suppress retired players that have been campaigning for changes to health and pension benefits.
The Gene Upshaw-led NFLPA is threatening to dissolve alumni chapters whose leaders speak out against the union. According to a Denver Post story, Andre Collins, the NFLPA's director of retired players, has sent memos to chapters across the country, notifying alumni presidents that if their conduct is deemed detrimental to the NFLPA their accreditation might be pulled.
Shrewd move, NFLPA. Who handles your public relations, the Corleone family? When do you start leaving horse heads under the sheets?
"If this happens, the NFLPA is infringing on my rights as an American to speak out," Wade Manning, the NFLPA's Denver alumni president, told the Associated Press. Manning played for the Broncos and Dallas Cowboys in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "I left body parts on stadium floors. I should be able to say what I want."
Some might suggest the union's time would be better spent trying to keep its members out of jails, fights, paternity suits, drugs, fines and suspensions. Instead, they appear to be committed to silencing veteran players who have publicized the lack of support for long-term physical and mental problems some have suffered as a result of their careers.
Bruce Laird, the former Baltimore Colts and San Diego Chargers player who leads the retiree chapter in Baltimore, told the AP: "Basically, the union is saying that if you don't drink the Kool-Aid, then you better keep your mouth shut."
Laird posts a blog that supports better benefits for former players.
"To me, this is a blog issue, no question," Laird said. "But (as bloggers) we're just trying to get the truth out. We want people to know what has happened to the makers of this game."
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