Congress Might Get Involved in Disability Dispute Between NFL, Players’ Union
Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
As I mentioned back on June 8, Congress today heard the testimony of aging NFL retirees who said that playing professional football left them with broken bodies, brain damage and empty bank accounts. Chicago Bears Hall of Fame head coach Mike Ditka was among those retired players who told a sympathetic House Judiciary subcommittee tales of multiple surgeries, dementia and homelessness, all while trying to fight through the red tape of the National Football League and the NFL Players Association’s disability system.
Lawmakers say the players from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s laid the groundwork for the popularity of the NFL, a billion-dollar industry, and should be treated better. These same lawmakers might get involved if a better pension and disability system isn’t created. Of course, the NFL and the NFLPA say pensions are improving and there’s no need for Congress to step in. Pensions are improving, this is true. But by how much are they improving?
Last week, the NFL and NFLPA agreed to allow any former player who qualified as disabled under the Social Security system to be considered as disabled under the NFL/NFLPA system. This is a step in the right direction, but retired football players have been openly critical of the NFL and the players’ union over the amount of money older retirees get from a $1.1 billion fund set aside for disability and pensions. Let’s look at the numbers. The league says $126 million a year goes into pension and post-career disability benefits for retired players and their families. The accounts pay out $60 million a year to those players, $20 million of it for disability payments. But only 317 out of more than 10,000 eligible players are getting disability payments out of that fund. Lawmakers zeroed-in on the fact that the players’ union only represents active players, not retired players. This is a problem. The union and the NFL owners decide who sits on the panels that determine whether retired players get disability payments. NFL and NFLPA reps noted that the benefits in the disability and pension systems are set through collective bargaining negotiations between the players and the owners. Apparently, many of the players who now complain about their pensions did not view pension benefits as a priority when they were playing, and did not agree to make sacrifices in bargaining to improve either their pensions or the pensions of those who came before them. So, they’re getting what they deserve?
In the most recent collective bargaining agreement, payments from the pension fund were raised by 25 percent for players who retired before 1982 and 10 percent for those who retired after 1982. Again, these are at least steps in the right direction. The retired players need to answer for their lack of action when they were playing. And the NFL and NFLPA need to understand the role these players have had in the history of the game and continue to improve benefits.
Tags: Mike Ditka, NFL, NFL Players Association, NFLPARelated Stories
POSTED IN: NFL - NFL
1 opinion for Congress Might Get Involved in Disability Dispute Between NFL, Players’ Union
Jack
Jun 29, 2007 at 7:58 am
who’s going to probe congress
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