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Disability Payments Will Be Debated
By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007; Page E08
The simmering dispute between retired NFL players and the NFL Players Association is heading to Congress. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law has scheduled an oversight hearing on June 26 to look into the way benefits are paid to disabled former players.
The issue of disability payments has been contentious for several years but has only recently received much public attention as former players have stepped up to say they believe the pension and disability plan, managed in part by the NFLPA, routinely denies benefits for injuries suffered while playing in the NFL. Among the accusations is that the plan's administrators have created a system that makes it almost impossible for a player to claim disability.
Several former players, including Mike Ditka, Jerry Kramer and Joe DeLamielleure, have complained in recent months that the pension plan does little to help retired players who can't afford to pay their bills. They said the players' association under Executive Director Gene Upshaw has abandoned retired players in order to cut a more lucrative deal with the league's owners, providing more money for Upshaw's main constituency -- active players.
"The NFL is a billion-dollar industry and yet the players who built the league are too often left to fend for themselves," Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the committee, said in a statement last night.
"The subcommittee has seen recent reports that the benefit plan offered to retired players may be stacked against players who need serious medical care."
At his traditional Super Bowl news conference in February, Upshaw said balancing the payments to current and retired players was impossible.
"That's never going to happen," he said. "We do what we can do. We will continue to do what we must do and we have not turned our back on anyone."
Upshaw has been invited to the hearings along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Neither has accepted at this point. Upshaw did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
Also invited are Ditka, ex-Giants star Harry Carson and former Raiders guard Curt Marsh, whose right foot and ankle were amputated in 1994 for what he has said was a football injury.
The relationship between the two sides has become more contentious recently. Upshaw was quoted in the Philadelphia Daily News as saying "a guy like DeLamielleure says the things he said about me, you think I'm going to invite him to dinner? No. I'm going to break his damn neck."
DeLamielleure, who has criticized the union's pension and disability plans under Upshaw, told the Charlotte Observer that he was taking the comments seriously.
"My wife was petrified," he said. "We grew up in Detroit. You know what unions are. You hear about it. She goes, 'Hey, this guy is a head of a union, a powerful union and [when] he makes a threat like that, you better take it serious.' "
Upshaw declined to comment on the remarks he made about DeLamielleure.
Sanchez also said in her statement that the subcommittee will look into the arbitration process the plan uses to determine benefits for retired players who are severely injured. Many former players claim the process does not fairly assess injuries and is designed to keep them from receiving benefits they deserve.
Staff writer Mark Maske contributed to this report.
LINK
By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007; Page E08
The simmering dispute between retired NFL players and the NFL Players Association is heading to Congress. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law has scheduled an oversight hearing on June 26 to look into the way benefits are paid to disabled former players.
The issue of disability payments has been contentious for several years but has only recently received much public attention as former players have stepped up to say they believe the pension and disability plan, managed in part by the NFLPA, routinely denies benefits for injuries suffered while playing in the NFL. Among the accusations is that the plan's administrators have created a system that makes it almost impossible for a player to claim disability.
Several former players, including Mike Ditka, Jerry Kramer and Joe DeLamielleure, have complained in recent months that the pension plan does little to help retired players who can't afford to pay their bills. They said the players' association under Executive Director Gene Upshaw has abandoned retired players in order to cut a more lucrative deal with the league's owners, providing more money for Upshaw's main constituency -- active players.
"The NFL is a billion-dollar industry and yet the players who built the league are too often left to fend for themselves," Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the committee, said in a statement last night.
"The subcommittee has seen recent reports that the benefit plan offered to retired players may be stacked against players who need serious medical care."
At his traditional Super Bowl news conference in February, Upshaw said balancing the payments to current and retired players was impossible.
"That's never going to happen," he said. "We do what we can do. We will continue to do what we must do and we have not turned our back on anyone."
Upshaw has been invited to the hearings along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Neither has accepted at this point. Upshaw did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
Also invited are Ditka, ex-Giants star Harry Carson and former Raiders guard Curt Marsh, whose right foot and ankle were amputated in 1994 for what he has said was a football injury.
The relationship between the two sides has become more contentious recently. Upshaw was quoted in the Philadelphia Daily News as saying "a guy like DeLamielleure says the things he said about me, you think I'm going to invite him to dinner? No. I'm going to break his damn neck."
DeLamielleure, who has criticized the union's pension and disability plans under Upshaw, told the Charlotte Observer that he was taking the comments seriously.
"My wife was petrified," he said. "We grew up in Detroit. You know what unions are. You hear about it. She goes, 'Hey, this guy is a head of a union, a powerful union and [when] he makes a threat like that, you better take it serious.' "
Upshaw declined to comment on the remarks he made about DeLamielleure.
Sanchez also said in her statement that the subcommittee will look into the arbitration process the plan uses to determine benefits for retired players who are severely injured. Many former players claim the process does not fairly assess injuries and is designed to keep them from receiving benefits they deserve.
Staff writer Mark Maske contributed to this report.
LINK
