B_Dub_Saint

A bill addressing professional athletes' injury benefits making its way through the Louisiana Legislature could hinder the New Orleans Saints' recruitment of free agents, a former NFLPA president said.

Kevin Mawae, a Baton Rouge resident, former LSU center and eight-time All-Pro NFL standout who served as president of the National Football League Players Association from 2008-2012, said House Bill 1069 poses a financial risk for players that team members in other states don't have to worry about.

The legislation aims to calculate workers' compensation benefits for professional athletes based only on weekly earnings at the time of the injury, rather than based on average weekly earnings over the entire year. The NFL's collective bargaining agreement has a formula for the latter calculation, which divides total annual compensation by 52 (weeks).

Timing of a prospective injury, then, becomes a determining factor in calculating how much workers compensation is owed. Players typically earn a variety of wages during the off-season and preseason that are substantially less than what they make under contract during the 17-week regular season.

Get hurt at training camp, Mawae said, and the difference could be between benefits based on earnings of $900 a week and earnings based on $8,700 a week, to use an example of a minimum wage player who makes $450,000 a year. Earn more under contract, and the gap widens. "If I'm a player coming to look at all of the benefits (of signing) ... that's a chance I don't want to take."

Read more: Proposed Louisiana law could hurt New Orleans Saints' free agency chances, former NFLPA president says | NOLA.com



All I can say is this is some B.S. BIG TIME

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SUPER BOWL CHAMPS 2009 :)