way to go congress, it's about time those who played the game are cared for..........
 

Why are they so surprised, I guess they never had to deal with disability rules and regulations. Even temp. disability is a pain in the but. Just try to reup for another 6 months. The system does sux

I just have to think that our Congress has better things to do than this and how very hypocritical it is for them to make mockery of someone else's disability plan.

Well said ScottyRo, well said indeed. It's like they're always looking in other people backyards, when the weeds in their own backyard grows way out of control, besides the NFL and it's Player Union is not the MLB they won't buckle or submit to pressure from Congress. This situation is going to have to be work out amongst themselves, no Congress, no Media, just them acting like adults and addressing a serious issue.

Regardless of your thoughts about congress, something needs to be done about the cuncussion problem. These are the guys that built the NFL, and they did it for less money than a lot of us make today. The players today make enough money to plan for their own retirement/disability, but those guys from the 60's? They deserve to be supported by the $7 BILLION industry that they built.

That could be said for any industry, any company. Truck drivers are notorious for having back problems that disable them and the entire country's economy is built on product being delivered, but there's no congressional hearing about the unfairness of their position. You could probably find industry after inustry and company after comany where employees wore their bodies out for very little pay compared to what is made now and what the company raked in who get much less than an average of $63k in disability benefits each year. Why is it so much more important when you talk about the sports industry?

Very well said.

And I would like to add that, while former NFL players might have made less than what we make today, back in the day they made more money than the average Joe. Obviously, some of them knew how to manage it, some didn't.

you have to start someplace........
given the benefits package most major co.s provide their employees, even many yrs ago, does not seem to jell with what nfl players recieved, but, since i don't have that on paper in front of me, i'm not sure....
i was reading, where are they now and came across bob lily......
you all do remember him, don't you?
anyway, his nfl benefits per month are like 100.00..........
now, compare that to a major co in the 70's of your choice and tell me what an average employee who put in 10 yrs or so would have coming to him/her.
i'd say it's a few more dollars.....
anyway, you're right, big co.s do not take of their own, but isn't it time they do? if not now, when?

Apples and oranges, ScottyRo.

First off, truckers have a long-standing, powerful union that has lobbied congress for decades on their behalf. Certainly you've heard of the Teamsters. Believe me, congress has held many hearings on the trucking industry. Recently, the ICC imposed new standards limiting the number of hours a trucker could drive in a day (a ruling that was met with much resistance from the truckers). The NFLPA didn't really come to power until 93.

Second, trucking companies are required to carry workers' compensation that will pay injured truckers for any disabilities they accuire in the course of their employment. Only recently have select insurers (Lloyds of London) started writing policies for injuries sustained by athletes.

Third, truckers can drive until liability carriers will not insure them anymore (around age 75). NFL players have a 15 year shelf life if they're extreemly lucky. If a player retires at age 35 he has 40 years of life left on average.

Fourth, you're comparing debilitating brain damage to back problems. I'd rather walk with a cane when I'm 70 than not remember how to talk when I'm 50.

Fifth, the disparity between what a trucker was paid in 1970 and today is roughly equivalent. The disparity between what a player is paid now and in 1970 is not even close.

I was using truckers as ONE example of employees who injure themselves for their company but really don't get much in return. In that context I am comparing apples to apples. Plus, I'm not sure how often Congress has held hearings strictly to listen to former truckers who don't think they're getting enough out of their disability plans. Maybe they have, but I doubt it.

I'm not going to go back and look at the history of worker's compensation laws to verify that what you say as true today was true back then. Again, don't attack the "trucker" example so hard. That was just an example of ONE group.

Shelf life of the player is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how long after their injury they have to live unless the disability payments stopped. Maybe they do stop for former NFL players and that'd be a problem for me. But I still think they should file a lawsuit rather than getting congress to hold hearings so the congressmen can be on TV.

I'm not comparing brain injuries to back problems. I'm talking about employees who become disabled by their jobs and used truckers as one example. Don't add to what I wrote. I learned a while back on forums not to use examples because people tend to assail the example instead of the point. I slipped up and used one.

But on that note, you've probably never tried both of these injuries so you're not really in a position to say for sure which you would choose if given the choice. You're only guessing.

Exactly, I get the feeling that the former players are concerned with not getting a piece of the big pie because they played so early in the NFL's history rather than concerned with being denied benefits. (I'm not saying there are no valid cases where a former player was wrongly denied benefits).

My point overall that is being overlooked is that I just don't see this as being Congress' business. It seems to be more about congressional public appearances with a presidential election year coming up than actual concern for the players and a complete waste of tax money (but what isn't, these days?).

I may be mistaken here, but I thought I heard somewhere that players from the pre-modern era decided not to defer contract money toward the future, and take all their money upfront, basically signing away a lot of their benefits that they would have received today, or something to that effect. Like I said I might be mistaken, but if that is the case, why make a big deal about it now, I know nobody in those days could have ever imagine that the NFL would grow into the financial beast that it is. Now, I not saying they don't deserve something, but to make it sound like the NFL leaves them in the cold is not fair, they do get help for hospital bills, mortgages, and different things like that, again I'm not saying that the NFL shouldn't restructure their benefits package, but to to take all your money upfront do whatever it was you did, and now see the money that modern players make, and say we should be getting a bigger piece of the pie, I just see a little something wrong with that. True those players built a foundation for the league, but they had nothing to do with the success the league has built since the early 90's to this day. The NFL's popularity wasn't built on the success of the players from the 40, 50, and 60's, but from the players from the 80, 90, and the 2000's, now the players from the pre-modern era wants to look at the modern era players as selfish, but make no bones about it, nobody gave the modern player nothing, they had to earn it. The NFL is not worth $7 BILLION dollars because of Pre-era players, the leagues popularity in all earnest was solidified in the 70's, with the Steeler dynasty, America's team the Cowboys, the high flying antics of the San Diego Suuuper Charrrgers, and the nasty boys of Oakland, along with others. Then the 80's came along to add a little flavor to the plate and increase the individual identity of the league with the emergence of players such as Walter Payton, Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway, Jerry Rice, and a host of other players who made the game a more marketable product. Then the 90's players and the new millennium players with their larger than life personalities basically blew the doors off of the henge's as for as marketing is concerned, these guys came along and made the NFL the most popular sport in this country by a landslide. Now yes the players from the past deserves a better disability plan, but to say they're the reason the game is the way it is today is ludacris and insane at best, they're just the guys who played the game at their time and the guys who came after them are just the ones who played at their times. When the pre-era guys received their pay checks at that time were able to live the good life in those economic times. Is the NFL responsible for the evolution of the economy? No, they're not. Are they responsible for the players in that era spending their money whichever way they did and not investing in their own future? No they're not. I think it's irresponsible to make the NFL and the Players Union of today the bad guy in all this, it's the contracts that they all agreed upon at that time. And as far as the Congress is concerned I personally know of a bunch of veterans who fought in the military in the past who need their situation looked into, but Congress is to busy looking into steroids in the MLB, dog fighting, and now the NFL. Yo Congress, these vets can't even survive day to day without the help of civilians living in their own communities, these vets are homeless, starving, and barely getting by on their disability plan, why I don't see Congress gathering under special circumstances to deal with those issues. PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES.

Nice job blacksaint.
The only thing I want to point out is this is not an issue the congress is addressing with federal dollars. It is the fact that a corperation, ie. NFLPA, has not held up its end of the bargin. They like so many major corperations have little or no obligation to thier employees. The injuried must fight for the coverage. The goverment does not step in an say yeah or nah at this point. Unless you ask for supplemental SS. The big picture could effect all the companies in america. trust me the lobbying behind the closed doors are hot and heavy.

As for the Vets in this country we should all be ashamed. We elect these people and do not force them to take care of them. They are disposable profit making committe. That is what they are. The people who make money at war are directly linked to the goverment. Do we stand up and say enough is enough. No we sit and complain but do nothing. This is one of the reason the world looks at the citizens of america with little or no respect. When our soldiers go to war the bills keep coming in. So many loose it all while fighting for this country. Around the world many country freeze the billing to families of a soldier fighting for that country. Here it is viewed as an oppertunity to explote the situation for the corperate good by way too many. This is America home of the INC..

This is not what our for fathers had in mind. I love our country but am so worried that we are forgetting what made this country so great. Individual rights that allowed us to protect one another. Today we allow those rights to be widdled way a little at a time till one day we are going to wake up and find them all gone. Then what.

I already find myself appoligizing to my oldest son for how our generation has fallen asleep behind the wheel. Till we as a people are ready to stand up and be heard as a group, united, the political machine in america will continue to do what they want. Maybe it is time to take to the streets and let the country know how we feel. Sorry only a handful have time in thier busy scheduals to do it.

Sorry gang but this is america. As long as it does not bother us in our homes we wont do much about it. Even then it I wonder.

I understand your point, and attacked the trucker example hard because I have worked insuring the trucking industry since college. You're right that congress sees this as a chance to grandstand since the NFL and its players have such a high national profile...

Still, the cuncussions and the long-term brain damage that they cause is a issue that is just coming to light. The NFL and the NFLPA should have addressed this head-on from the start and never given congress an chance to get involved.

My points were: either way, this is an issue that needs to be addressed by someone. Also, NFL players and the NFL do not share the same employee/employer relationship that most of us do with our employers. There's just no way to compare a coal miner or an accountant or a soldier to NFL players.