By Ron Borges, Boston Globe Staff | February 2, 2007
MIAMI -- Everybody at the NFL Players Association is very concerned. They told us so yesterday when the subject of aging and down-on-their-luck former players with minimal pension benefits and poor disability coverage was raised at a union press conference. It came five hours after a small group of former players ripped the union and the league for doing too little, too late to aid players such as Herb Adderley, a Hall of Fame cornerback for Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers who receives $126.85 a month in pension benefits from the NFL.
NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw said so. So did union president Troy Vincent, who insisted he thinks about the plight of such players every day. Both were asked what they have donated to an online auction run by two of their loudest critics, Hall of Fame player and coach Mike Ditka and former Packer Jerry Kramer, to raise $500,000 to fund a new foundation to help players such as Adderley. The answer was nothing.
"I'll give them anything they need," Upshaw claimed after saying he hadn't given anything for an auction that began at 11 a.m. yesterday and will run through Feb. 13. "I didn't know about it. I'm doing what I can for our fund, PAT. That's the one I administer."
That's also the fund that gave $1.2 million last year to 147 players in need, according to Upshaw. That averages to $8,163 to each recipient, from a union whose active players are paid just under 60 percent of the total gross revenues of the National Football League. That figure is into the billions and includes television revenues.
"I really don't think he's given us anything," said 61-year-old Hall of Fame cornerback Lem Barney of Upshaw's contributions. The soft-spoken Barney has been a minister for nearly 30 years in and around Detroit, where he starred for the Lions. "As we find out each year, Gene is only for the active players. He boasts and brags about that when we talk about it."
Barney has donated his first Pro Bowl jersey, the one he wore in 1967 after being named Defensive Rookie of the Year. It is something he has always held dear, so much so that "I didn't give it to Lem Barney III, my son. But I'd give it to these guys. The need is great. Their need and our need for compassion."
Hall of Fame guard Joe DeLamielleure, who was once down and out but somehow raised nine kids as he struggled to get back on his feet, has donated a solid gold bracelet with a gold football bearing his No. 68, which was given to every member of the Buffalo Bills offensive line by O.J. Simpson after he became the first NFL back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
"There are only six or seven of them in the world," Kramer said. "It's one of the most precious items he had but he wanted to donate it to the guys."
Those guys are mostly players from pro football's early days, although there are many more recent players in need, including one former Patriot who presently is in a homeless shelter. They are proud men reluctant to ask for help, even as their health and living conditions have slipped with the passage of time and growing disabilities.
Kramer's foundation, Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, will see that the money from the auction is distributed to needy players "without a lot of red tape." Ditka had already formed his own foundation for the same purpose and has helped fund Hall of Fame safety Willie Wood's living arrangement at an assisted care facility after learning Wood could not afford it.
The stories go on and on but the money does not. While today's players receive the highest salaries in NFL history, many of the men who built the foundation of today's game live in poverty. There is no simple solution. But DeLamielleure believes he knows the root of the problem.
"I played next to a guy for seven years who's living in a homeless shelter," DeLamielleure said. "Our pension sucks, plain and simple. I think Gene Upshaw and [former NFL commissioner] Paul Tagliabue are responsible. They've been in charge for 20 years."
Asked about such criticism, Vincent seemed more irked than interested.
"Not one day goes by in our building that we don't discuss the state of our retired players," Vincent claimed, "but all we hear are a lot of gripes about what we're not doing. In some cases, what they want is just not affordable. All I hear is, 'Hey, Troy, when are you going to increase the benefits?' At some point, you've heard enough."
Kramer's effort to help former players began 25 years ago, when he lost his Super Bowl I championship ring on a flight. He did not see the ring until 1993, when someone told him it was being auctioned on a website. Kramer contacted the company, Mastro Auctions, and it returned the ring and later agreed to auction off a replica that had been made for him. It raised $21,000 and Kramer donated the money to a fund for former NFL players in trouble.
From that start came the idea for the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and the auction, which can be accessed by going to JerryKramer.com. Ditka's fund was then five years old and he told of writing the 32 NFL owners and asking each for a donation of $100,000. According to Ditka, he got three responses, a check for $10,000 and two for $5,000.
"I told my people to send 'em back," he said. "The response was not good. It's a shabby way to treat people. I went back to the Hall of Fame two years ago and when I heard the poppycock from Upshaw, it was a joke. It's hypocrisy to listen to what he says. To what the commissioner says.
"We're not trying to bust anyone's back or insult anybody, but I had dinner last night with a guy who owns a franchise in another sport. I told him some of the stories and he offered $100,000. An owner in another sport. What Joe said about this is honest. These guys today who play the game of football are not the makers of the game. They're the keepers of the game. They're playing on the shoulders of others who didn't make anything, but they loved the game."
What Ditka, Barney, Kramer, and others seek is not a handout. They want financial help from the richest league and one of the richest unions in the world.
"The money is there to help," Ditka said. "We could eliminate this problem for guys like Pete Pihos, Doug Atkins, Joe Perry, Willie Wood. Why do it? Because they need it. Don't make them go through a bunch of hogwash."
Five hours later, in the same room where Ditka and his allies had stood, Upshaw and Vincent insisted the cost would be $800 million to lift the pension of elderly players to the level of today's players. That may be true, but that's now what they're asking for.
They're asking for a little dignity and a little help from a business many of them sacrificed their bodies to build. If Troy Vincent wants Willie Wood to help him work on his backpedal as a consequence, he'd probably be happy to do it. Except that he can't backpedal anymore. Or pay his bills.
MIAMI -- Everybody at the NFL Players Association is very concerned. They told us so yesterday when the subject of aging and down-on-their-luck former players with minimal pension benefits and poor disability coverage was raised at a union press conference. It came five hours after a small group of former players ripped the union and the league for doing too little, too late to aid players such as Herb Adderley, a Hall of Fame cornerback for Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers who receives $126.85 a month in pension benefits from the NFL.
NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw said so. So did union president Troy Vincent, who insisted he thinks about the plight of such players every day. Both were asked what they have donated to an online auction run by two of their loudest critics, Hall of Fame player and coach Mike Ditka and former Packer Jerry Kramer, to raise $500,000 to fund a new foundation to help players such as Adderley. The answer was nothing.
"I'll give them anything they need," Upshaw claimed after saying he hadn't given anything for an auction that began at 11 a.m. yesterday and will run through Feb. 13. "I didn't know about it. I'm doing what I can for our fund, PAT. That's the one I administer."
That's also the fund that gave $1.2 million last year to 147 players in need, according to Upshaw. That averages to $8,163 to each recipient, from a union whose active players are paid just under 60 percent of the total gross revenues of the National Football League. That figure is into the billions and includes television revenues.
"I really don't think he's given us anything," said 61-year-old Hall of Fame cornerback Lem Barney of Upshaw's contributions. The soft-spoken Barney has been a minister for nearly 30 years in and around Detroit, where he starred for the Lions. "As we find out each year, Gene is only for the active players. He boasts and brags about that when we talk about it."
Barney has donated his first Pro Bowl jersey, the one he wore in 1967 after being named Defensive Rookie of the Year. It is something he has always held dear, so much so that "I didn't give it to Lem Barney III, my son. But I'd give it to these guys. The need is great. Their need and our need for compassion."
Hall of Fame guard Joe DeLamielleure, who was once down and out but somehow raised nine kids as he struggled to get back on his feet, has donated a solid gold bracelet with a gold football bearing his No. 68, which was given to every member of the Buffalo Bills offensive line by O.J. Simpson after he became the first NFL back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
"There are only six or seven of them in the world," Kramer said. "It's one of the most precious items he had but he wanted to donate it to the guys."
Those guys are mostly players from pro football's early days, although there are many more recent players in need, including one former Patriot who presently is in a homeless shelter. They are proud men reluctant to ask for help, even as their health and living conditions have slipped with the passage of time and growing disabilities.
Kramer's foundation, Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, will see that the money from the auction is distributed to needy players "without a lot of red tape." Ditka had already formed his own foundation for the same purpose and has helped fund Hall of Fame safety Willie Wood's living arrangement at an assisted care facility after learning Wood could not afford it.
The stories go on and on but the money does not. While today's players receive the highest salaries in NFL history, many of the men who built the foundation of today's game live in poverty. There is no simple solution. But DeLamielleure believes he knows the root of the problem.
"I played next to a guy for seven years who's living in a homeless shelter," DeLamielleure said. "Our pension sucks, plain and simple. I think Gene Upshaw and [former NFL commissioner] Paul Tagliabue are responsible. They've been in charge for 20 years."
Asked about such criticism, Vincent seemed more irked than interested.
"Not one day goes by in our building that we don't discuss the state of our retired players," Vincent claimed, "but all we hear are a lot of gripes about what we're not doing. In some cases, what they want is just not affordable. All I hear is, 'Hey, Troy, when are you going to increase the benefits?' At some point, you've heard enough."
Kramer's effort to help former players began 25 years ago, when he lost his Super Bowl I championship ring on a flight. He did not see the ring until 1993, when someone told him it was being auctioned on a website. Kramer contacted the company, Mastro Auctions, and it returned the ring and later agreed to auction off a replica that had been made for him. It raised $21,000 and Kramer donated the money to a fund for former NFL players in trouble.
From that start came the idea for the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund and the auction, which can be accessed by going to JerryKramer.com. Ditka's fund was then five years old and he told of writing the 32 NFL owners and asking each for a donation of $100,000. According to Ditka, he got three responses, a check for $10,000 and two for $5,000.
"I told my people to send 'em back," he said. "The response was not good. It's a shabby way to treat people. I went back to the Hall of Fame two years ago and when I heard the poppycock from Upshaw, it was a joke. It's hypocrisy to listen to what he says. To what the commissioner says.
"We're not trying to bust anyone's back or insult anybody, but I had dinner last night with a guy who owns a franchise in another sport. I told him some of the stories and he offered $100,000. An owner in another sport. What Joe said about this is honest. These guys today who play the game of football are not the makers of the game. They're the keepers of the game. They're playing on the shoulders of others who didn't make anything, but they loved the game."
What Ditka, Barney, Kramer, and others seek is not a handout. They want financial help from the richest league and one of the richest unions in the world.
"The money is there to help," Ditka said. "We could eliminate this problem for guys like Pete Pihos, Doug Atkins, Joe Perry, Willie Wood. Why do it? Because they need it. Don't make them go through a bunch of hogwash."
Five hours later, in the same room where Ditka and his allies had stood, Upshaw and Vincent insisted the cost would be $800 million to lift the pension of elderly players to the level of today's players. That may be true, but that's now what they're asking for.
They're asking for a little dignity and a little help from a business many of them sacrificed their bodies to build. If Troy Vincent wants Willie Wood to help him work on his backpedal as a consequence, he'd probably be happy to do it. Except that he can't backpedal anymore. Or pay his bills.
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