NFL Executive?
Some skeletons are hidden behind Super Bowl glitz — Add this to the NFL pre-game posts. Good article.
They came bearing stories of Willie Wood, the former Packer, now destitute, living in a nursing home and being supported by one of Ditka’s trust funds for retired players. Of Herb Adderley, another Packer and Hall of Famer, whose pension for 12 years’ service was a preposterous $126.85 a month until the latest raise, which got him to $150. Of John Mackey, the former Baltimore tight end and co-founder of the modern players’ union, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Of the recent death of Andre Waters, the Philadelphia defensive back who died at 45 but whose brain at autopsy was shown to be the medical equivalent of one of a man in his 80s. Of the anonymous former New England Patriot who allegedly is living on the street.
The back story, though, is how the league, which eats money at a galactic rate, and the union, which sits at the kids’ table financially but still gets its fill, have decided to define the game’s builders as, well, on their own in the most legally binding and ethically challenged sense. To hear the veterans say it, they accept the deeds, then ignore the needs…
“I had dinner last night with a guy who owns a franchise in another league, and he pledged $100,000,” Ditka said. “We sent out letters to all of the 32 owners back in 2002 asking for $100,000 from each of them to start a trust fund for these players, and I don’t know if the letters ever got there, but we only got a check for $5,000 from one and $10,000 from another. We sent them back.”
related link:
NFL Tells Churches to Get Screwed
(yawns)
It’s been a couple decades since last I researched this for a medical group in Boston. But, it used to be that the NFL Players pension used to kick in at age 54. When I inquired about this to some insurance executives –they said, ‘No strain. The average NFL vets lifespan is 52!”
Humpf.
Same thing has happened with the old NASCAR drivers……
The Owners just shrug and say they are free agents and are responsible for their own retirement plan.
I feel bad for those guys, but I cannot get excited about this. Every industry has former employees living in poverty. Heck, Wal-Mart currently employs people living in poverty.
People make choices. If you want to play professional sports for a living, you’re aware of the health risks, you have to choose what’s most important.
Heck, that’s why so many athletes, when given the choice between professional baseball and football, choose baseball. They want to have some life to live after they’re done playing.
If the players really cared about this, they’d put together their own pension fund and bypass the owners.
Ditka is doing the right thing, but he’s going to the wrong source.
Further, I expect to see a rash of player deaths start in about ten years… along the lines of what happened to Waters (brain related) or what’s happened to a number of pro-wrestlers (heart related due to steroid use).
The current league minimum salary is roughly $260,000. That’s the minimum. If I had that much money and squandered it away, then that’s my own fault.
Then again, I do appreciate what Mike Ditka does for retired players. The older players are my heros, and it’s good to reward a player who inspired the masses towards greatness.
I hate to say it i agree with #5. they know going in that there are risks but at that age they feel like they can take on the world.
there are some that succeed like Robert Smith from the vikings.
Also I have a question for James Hill,
what wrestlers died from heart failure due to steriods?
Every pro sport also has plenty of guys who took the checks, retained a good lawyer and a good asset manager and got truly rich with little effort and little risk.
Although there’s always a remote chance of unforseeable, unrecoverable disaster striking, for the vast majority – no matter what your profession – when you net hundreds of thousands – or millions – annually, the only way you can wind up broke is by being a fool.
#7
$260K sounds like a lot. However, you are forgetting that the average player career lasts less than four years. Further, that is the current player salary. Guys like Unitas made almost nothing in comparison.
Interesting that Al Davis, a guy that is generally despised by the media and especially in the Bay Area, is the one guy that stands out in terms of helping aging players.
It’s the entertainment industry. When has that industry EVER treated its workers right, except under duress? The top people get obscenely rich, the workers with unions live pretty well, everyone else is pretty much expendable. Read about how Disney treated Carl Barks, creator of Unca Scrooge and of Donald Duck’s three nephews. Or Warner Bros. and the creative crew at Loony Tunes. NFL? Same industry, or might as well be.
#9 – Rick Rude, for one.