Ditka, other critics say effort falls short of what's needed
By David Haugh
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
May 23, 2007, 10:53 PM CDT
Kay Morris liked the words from Commissioner Roger Goodell about the NFL forming its first alliance to improve medical services for ailing retired players such as her husband, Larry, the most valuable player for the Bears in the 1963 NFL championship game.
But she would like actions even better. Then she might escape a growing pile of debt and obtain better care for her 73-year-old husband, who suffers from dementia.
"I woke up this morning thinking I finally was going to call someone and say, 'Please,' " Kay Morris said on the phone Wednesday from her home in Flowery Branch, Ga. "I haven't heard from anybody since I faxed a letter [the NFL] said was the last thing they needed. That was over a month ago."
Morris' frustration reflects the ambivalence following Goodell's announcement Tuesday that the NFL, the NFL Players Association, the NFL Retired Players Association, the NFL Alumni Association, NFL Charities and the Pro Football Hall of Fame will collaborate "to address the medical needs of former players."
In a four-tiered mission statement, the alliance vowed to explore better ways to identify players who need financial help but are too proud to ask and to work with health-care facilities throughout the country for discounted medical care for retirees.
At the NFL owners meeting in Nashville, Goodell called the commitment "principally directed toward those who are in dire need or can't afford the proper kind of care."
Mike Ditka appreciates Goodell acknowledging the problem, but he wasn't impressed.
"I say this honestly, I don't know if 'a committee to explore' is going to cut it," Ditka said.
Ditka, the former Bears Hall of Fame player and coach, and ex-Packers great Jerry Kramer helped form Gridiron Greats, a non-profit group that accepts private donations at www.jerrykramer.com on behalf of individual players.
The group prides itself on minimizing red tape for affected families.
"What the league came out with was a lot of rhetoric," Ditka said. "You hope the light has finally gone on to rectify the wrong. In the old days, if you hurt your head, you know how they figured out if you were OK? They'd hold up three fingers and ask you how many fingers you saw. If you said, 'Three,' you went back in the game.
"Now a lot of guys are paying for that kind of treatment through no fault of their own, and the league needs to take more responsibility."
Kay Morris used less inflammatory language to express the same idea. Five weeks ago she faxed a letter to the offices of the 88 Plan, an agency the league created last year in honor of Baltimore Colts Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, who wore jersey 88 and suffers from dementia. Through the 88 Plan, former players with similar afflictions can collect up to $88,000.
Morris was told the letter would be the final step toward reimbursement for the cost of caring for her husband. Health-care expenses have sapped more than $200,000 in her savings and investments, and she recently had to borrow $10,000 from a friend.
"I spent money I didn't have because I was told [by the league] I'd get help," Morris said. "Well, I sure could use it now."
After Larry Morris' plight was made public last month, the Bears stepped up with a donation that "helped relieve the immediate pressure," and Kay Morris received a personal note from team matriarch Virginia McCaskey.
"You have no idea how much I appreciated that," Kay Morris said.
Ditka also called to ask about his former teammate and helped arrange for a release of funds to the Morris family from Gridiron Greats, with more donations expected to be forwarded next week.
The type of bureaucratic challenges Morris has experienced with the league represents one of the biggest reasons some retirees view Goodell's grand plan with a wary eye.
Jennifer Smith, executive director of Gridiron Greats, spoke with at least 10 skeptical former NFL players Wednesday.
"They want to know what this means because we've been hearing this for a while," Smith said. "Providing medical assistance is different than providing disability or pension benefits."
Smith wondered, for example, if the new measures could provide immediate financial help for one former player she wished to keep anonymous who is living in his car because his physical condition prevents him from holding a job. Or another player Smith just visited in Texas who was forced to move back in with his mother at 48 after his disability benefits stopped and he still wasn't well enough to
work.
The dissent has become so widespread that during a golf outing last month in Houston, 21 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame discussed staging a boycott of next summer's induction ceremony in Canton, Ohio.
"The NFL would notice a picket line, wouldn't it?" Hall of Famer Paul Hornung told the Houston Chronicle.
More and more, disgruntled players with similar tales of woe contact Smith hoping Gridiron Greats can provide a quick financial fix for them in a way the NFL benefits system could not. One of those players is Conrad Dobler, who described the league's announcement as "a spin-doctor type of move."
Dobler, a notoriously dirty player as a guard mostly with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1972-81, has been denied disability benefits 12 times by the NFL players union. Told by doctors he is 90 percent disabled, Dobler walks with the help of a cane or a walker and is scheduled for knee surgery next week.
"I have friends who played who are in need of disability benefits, but they don't apply because they look at me and say, 'If you can't get it, we never will,' " Dobler said on the phone from Kansas City, Mo. "This latest 'research project' by the league is more lip service. Not one word about disability or pensions or immediate care versus long-term. Hospital discounts? Big deal."
The NFL points to 284 former players-about 3 percent of the estimated 9,000 NFL retirees-who have received disability payments totaling $19 million and 900 others who have gotten financial help from the NFLPA's Players Assistance Trust.
Carl Francis, a spokesman for the NFLPA, defended the commitment by reminding critics of the $126 million active NFL players have contributed to a fund for retired players.
"What we've done this week is going to continue and enhance the programs we have in place and [is] another way we can continue to improve the lives of our former players," Francis said.
NFLPA President Gene Upshaw, who was unavailable and not quoted in the league's two-page release, recently lashed back at Ditka and critics of the league's treatment of retired players in an interview on Sirius Satellite Radio.
"The big misconception is no one talks about what the players are already doing," Upshaw said. "To say that the players today have left [retired players] behind is just not true."
Upshaw went on to explain how the NFLPA put $20 million into a plan for disabilities and tripled accessible benefits for widows and surviving children. It represents incremental progress, though skeptics such as Ditka will dismiss all statistical claims as long as he keeps gathering anecdotal evidence.
"All I know is guys like [former Bears] Larry Morris, Harlon Hill and Doug Atkins, they need help and the league hasn't helped," Ditka said. "Now, all of a sudden, people have brought awareness to what's going on, and they have to say or do something."
Ditka paused, as if to stave off an emotional rant on an issue that clearly has become his passion.
"Forget the talk," he said. "Let me see someone take some action. Don't make these guys jump through hoops."
By David Haugh
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
May 23, 2007, 10:53 PM CDT
Kay Morris liked the words from Commissioner Roger Goodell about the NFL forming its first alliance to improve medical services for ailing retired players such as her husband, Larry, the most valuable player for the Bears in the 1963 NFL championship game.
But she would like actions even better. Then she might escape a growing pile of debt and obtain better care for her 73-year-old husband, who suffers from dementia.
"I woke up this morning thinking I finally was going to call someone and say, 'Please,' " Kay Morris said on the phone Wednesday from her home in Flowery Branch, Ga. "I haven't heard from anybody since I faxed a letter [the NFL] said was the last thing they needed. That was over a month ago."
Morris' frustration reflects the ambivalence following Goodell's announcement Tuesday that the NFL, the NFL Players Association, the NFL Retired Players Association, the NFL Alumni Association, NFL Charities and the Pro Football Hall of Fame will collaborate "to address the medical needs of former players."
In a four-tiered mission statement, the alliance vowed to explore better ways to identify players who need financial help but are too proud to ask and to work with health-care facilities throughout the country for discounted medical care for retirees.
At the NFL owners meeting in Nashville, Goodell called the commitment "principally directed toward those who are in dire need or can't afford the proper kind of care."
Mike Ditka appreciates Goodell acknowledging the problem, but he wasn't impressed.
"I say this honestly, I don't know if 'a committee to explore' is going to cut it," Ditka said.
Ditka, the former Bears Hall of Fame player and coach, and ex-Packers great Jerry Kramer helped form Gridiron Greats, a non-profit group that accepts private donations at www.jerrykramer.com on behalf of individual players.
The group prides itself on minimizing red tape for affected families.
"What the league came out with was a lot of rhetoric," Ditka said. "You hope the light has finally gone on to rectify the wrong. In the old days, if you hurt your head, you know how they figured out if you were OK? They'd hold up three fingers and ask you how many fingers you saw. If you said, 'Three,' you went back in the game.
"Now a lot of guys are paying for that kind of treatment through no fault of their own, and the league needs to take more responsibility."
Kay Morris used less inflammatory language to express the same idea. Five weeks ago she faxed a letter to the offices of the 88 Plan, an agency the league created last year in honor of Baltimore Colts Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, who wore jersey 88 and suffers from dementia. Through the 88 Plan, former players with similar afflictions can collect up to $88,000.
Morris was told the letter would be the final step toward reimbursement for the cost of caring for her husband. Health-care expenses have sapped more than $200,000 in her savings and investments, and she recently had to borrow $10,000 from a friend.
"I spent money I didn't have because I was told [by the league] I'd get help," Morris said. "Well, I sure could use it now."
After Larry Morris' plight was made public last month, the Bears stepped up with a donation that "helped relieve the immediate pressure," and Kay Morris received a personal note from team matriarch Virginia McCaskey.
"You have no idea how much I appreciated that," Kay Morris said.
Ditka also called to ask about his former teammate and helped arrange for a release of funds to the Morris family from Gridiron Greats, with more donations expected to be forwarded next week.
The type of bureaucratic challenges Morris has experienced with the league represents one of the biggest reasons some retirees view Goodell's grand plan with a wary eye.
Jennifer Smith, executive director of Gridiron Greats, spoke with at least 10 skeptical former NFL players Wednesday.
"They want to know what this means because we've been hearing this for a while," Smith said. "Providing medical assistance is different than providing disability or pension benefits."
Smith wondered, for example, if the new measures could provide immediate financial help for one former player she wished to keep anonymous who is living in his car because his physical condition prevents him from holding a job. Or another player Smith just visited in Texas who was forced to move back in with his mother at 48 after his disability benefits stopped and he still wasn't well enough to
work.
The dissent has become so widespread that during a golf outing last month in Houston, 21 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame discussed staging a boycott of next summer's induction ceremony in Canton, Ohio.
"The NFL would notice a picket line, wouldn't it?" Hall of Famer Paul Hornung told the Houston Chronicle.
More and more, disgruntled players with similar tales of woe contact Smith hoping Gridiron Greats can provide a quick financial fix for them in a way the NFL benefits system could not. One of those players is Conrad Dobler, who described the league's announcement as "a spin-doctor type of move."
Dobler, a notoriously dirty player as a guard mostly with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1972-81, has been denied disability benefits 12 times by the NFL players union. Told by doctors he is 90 percent disabled, Dobler walks with the help of a cane or a walker and is scheduled for knee surgery next week.
"I have friends who played who are in need of disability benefits, but they don't apply because they look at me and say, 'If you can't get it, we never will,' " Dobler said on the phone from Kansas City, Mo. "This latest 'research project' by the league is more lip service. Not one word about disability or pensions or immediate care versus long-term. Hospital discounts? Big deal."
The NFL points to 284 former players-about 3 percent of the estimated 9,000 NFL retirees-who have received disability payments totaling $19 million and 900 others who have gotten financial help from the NFLPA's Players Assistance Trust.
Carl Francis, a spokesman for the NFLPA, defended the commitment by reminding critics of the $126 million active NFL players have contributed to a fund for retired players.
"What we've done this week is going to continue and enhance the programs we have in place and [is] another way we can continue to improve the lives of our former players," Francis said.
NFLPA President Gene Upshaw, who was unavailable and not quoted in the league's two-page release, recently lashed back at Ditka and critics of the league's treatment of retired players in an interview on Sirius Satellite Radio.
"The big misconception is no one talks about what the players are already doing," Upshaw said. "To say that the players today have left [retired players] behind is just not true."
Upshaw went on to explain how the NFLPA put $20 million into a plan for disabilities and tripled accessible benefits for widows and surviving children. It represents incremental progress, though skeptics such as Ditka will dismiss all statistical claims as long as he keeps gathering anecdotal evidence.
"All I know is guys like [former Bears] Larry Morris, Harlon Hill and Doug Atkins, they need help and the league hasn't helped," Ditka said. "Now, all of a sudden, people have brought awareness to what's going on, and they have to say or do something."
Ditka paused, as if to stave off an emotional rant on an issue that clearly has become his passion.
"Forget the talk," he said. "Let me see someone take some action. Don't make these guys jump through hoops."
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