How many more?

 

It’s happened. Our worst fear has been realized. One of the 320 widows excluded from the Legacy Benefit died before the NFLPA acted on her behalf. Just 16 days after writing to NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, Susan Copeland passed away after a brief but sudden illness. She was just 65 years old.

How many more?


Susan Copeland’s husband Jim, who played for the Cleveland Browns from 1966 to 1974, died of cancer in June 2010. He was 65. Following his NFL career, Jim Copeland remained in sports, serving as athletic director at Virginia, Utah, William and Mary, and for 11 years at SMU. When Copeland retired from SMU in 2006, former SMU football coach said, “He doesn’t sugarcoat anything, and that’s one of the reasons why I liked him.”

Susan Copeland didn’t sugarcoat anything, either, in her message to De Smith. “He was very proud of being a Brown and especially proud to be a player in the NFL,” she wrote of her husband. “During his years of playing, the teams went on strike several times for the NFLPA and I am extremely disappointed, as I am certain as Jim would have been, that widows are not included in these benefits. I hope that you all see to making this right.”

Unfortunately, De Smith and the NFLPA have ignored her plea, as they’ve ignored the pleas of Sylvia Mackey, Sandy Unitas, Ginny Concannon, Mary Hilgenberg, Denise Tatum, and a host of other widows.

How many more widows must die before the union acts?

Family members noted that Jim Copeland exhibited signs of dementia – which has been linked to head trauma suffered in football – prior to his death. In a cruel irony, the NFLPA – the union that Jim Copeland supported – is diligently, doggedly, and determinedly defending active players who have been fined and suspended for participating in bounty schemes designed to injure opponents.

Months ago, the NFLPA retained outside counsel – Richard C. Smith, a partner with Fulbright and Jaworski LLP in Washington, D.C. – to represent players in any litigation related to bounties.

Months ago, the NFL agreed to pay its 51% share of the estimated $7 million cost to include the widows in the Legacy Benefit.

Months ago, Fourth & Goal board members and numerous widows began contacting NFLPA officials and former player board members.

Months ago, Domonique Foxworth – who now serves as NFLPA president, a position John Mackey once held – declined a request by Mackey’s widow for a meeting to discuss the widows’ Legacy Benefit exclusion, saying he’d already heard Sylvia’s “heart on the matter” and a meeting was unnecessary.

Months ago, the NFLPA punted the widows’ issue to the NFL and, in the months since, continues to stonewall.

The 320 men – our teammates, our brothers – took reduced monthly pension benefits so that their widows would continue to receive these benefits. The only thing these teammates did wrong was this – they died before the latest collective bargaining agreement was enacted in August 2011. The league has acted on behalf of the widows. The union has not. And now one widow has died.

Is this the NFLPA’s strategy – “One down, 319 to go”?

How many more widows need to die before the union acts?

How many more?

moreless

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

That’s the old adage that came to mind when I read the NFLPA’s latest “proposal” to the NFL regarding the 320 widows excluded from the Legacy Benefit. Discussed in a conference call among members of the NFLPA Former Players Board of Directors and outlined in a message from one member, the proposal calls for the union to use player fine money to fund its 49% of the widows’ Legacy Benefit. According to the board member, the board was notified during the conference call that “the NFL has agreed to pay its 51% of the Widows Legacy Benefit from Club Funds and that the NFLPA has offered to pay its 49% from $7 to 9 M of ‘fine money’ that was not allocated to any specific charity.”

At least the NFLPA is – finally – admitting its obligation to the widows, even as it fails to act on their behalf and even as it extends another disingenuous proposal.  

In February, the NFLPA, the NFLPA’s Former Players Board of Directors and NFLPA Former Player Chapter Presidents were made aware of the league’s commitment to contributing 51% of the widows’ Legacy Benefit. In contrast to the NFL’s immediate response when alerted to the issue, the NFLPA took nearly five weeks to reply and then simply punted the issue to the NFL, refusing to acknowledge its own responsibility and instead called for the league to pay the estimated $14 million cost of extending the Legacy Benefit to the widows.

The NFLPA subsequently claimed the league intended to use player fine money to cover the cost of including the widows, arguing that it was player money. That’s a puzzling argument on several counts:

• The union – not the league – said the NFL’s 51% would come from player fine money. The NFLPA provided no proof or documentation of its contention, despite numerous requests.
• The union argued that fine money is player’s money – even after a player pays the fine to the NFL.

• Using the same logic, the league could claim that player fine money is owners’ money. After all, the owners pay the players and the players pay fines with that money (i.e., the money paid to players by the owners).

• The union claimed that players should have a say in determining where the fine money is allocated. One member of the NFLPA Former Players Board of Directors was “troubled that the NFL apparently at this time has unlimited discretion on how to use player fine money without any input from current players.”

• Really? A player breaks a rule, incurs a fine, pays the fine to the NFL … and the NFLPA wants that player to determine where the money goes? I’ll remember that next time I get a traffic ticket.

• Player fine money has helped fund the NFL Player Care Foundation, the NFLPA Players Assistance Trust and other retired player programs; disaster relief initiatives; and health-related charities.
• Quite frankly, I’m troubled by the NFLPA’s turning its collective back on the widows.

Do you see the contradiction? The union claimed the NFL intended to use player fine money to cover the widows. The union adamantly opposed the reported use of player fine money. Yet now the union is “offering” to pay its share of the widows’ Legacy Benefit with player fine money. 

If we believe that, shame on us. In fact, if we believe the union intends to ever contribute to the widows’ Legacy Benefit, shame on us.

These fascinating financial facts – which Sports Business Journal extracted from the union’s most recent LM-2 – should put in perspective the NFLPA’s refusal to support the widows:

• The NFLPA gained $75 million in commercial revenue during the last fiscal year (excluding the four-and-a-half month lockout)

• For the previous fiscal year ended February 28, 2011, the union collected $120 millionin licensing and sponsorship.

• “Notable NFLPA commercial revenue streams” for the period of time around the lockout (March 1 to 11, 2011; and July 26, 2011, to February 29, 2012), as cited by Sports Business Journal, included:

• NFL – $43 million
• Panini / Topps / Upper Deck – $13 million
• Adidas – $8.5 million
• Genesco Sports Enterprises – $2.2 million
• Gatorade – $1.4 million

Despite this healthy revenue stream, the union steadfastly refuses to chip in approximately $7 million to cover 320 widows whose husbands had the misfortune of dying prior to the August 2011 signing of the CBA.

Sports Business Journal also noted some interesting expenditures included on the NFLPA’s LM-2:

• The NFLPA paid Executive Director DeMaurice Smith $2.44 million during the pre- and post-lockout period. The LM-2 did not provide details on Smith’s new three-year contract and NFLPA spokesperson George Atallah refused to provide this information.  
• The NFLPA paid $2.2 million to the law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, which represented Tom Brady, other active players and at least one draft-eligible player, in the Brady v. NFL lawsuit to end the 2011 lockout.
• The NFLPA paid more than $8 million in CBA expenses, including payments to Dewey & LeBoeuf and Latham & Watkins law firms.

Despite covering these and other expenditures – including legal representation for players accused in the bounty scheme – the NFLPA stands firm in its refusal to help cover the widows. And neither the union nor the NFLPA Former Players Board of Directors is standing up for their teammates’ widows.

We are.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego Chargers, 1982-1983

moreless