Gene Upshaw does not act alone. "We're all Watusi."
A post sparked by Monday's edition of HBO's "RealSports with Bryant Gumbal", the best news program on television.
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Former Buffalo Bills guard Joe DeLamielleure took his pension at age 45 because that was when he needed the money. He gets $992 per month. A MLB player with a similar career span who collects at age 45 would get $6,000 per month. If DeLamielleure, who played 13 seasons and entered the Hall of Fame in 2003, had waited until he was 55, he would have gotten about $2,200 per month, according to ESPN. If former Washington cornerback Darrell Green, who played 20 years, decides to collect at age 55, he'll get the largest pension in NFL history: $69,660 per year.
-- this per Oakland Tribune citing ESPN's always relevant "Between The Lines."
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The current players in the nation's most popular and wealthiest professional sports league had better take a closer look at Jim Otto and what his life has been like for the last several decades. Dozens and dozens of surgeries, unending pain in every joint presumedly, and a pension that isn't enough to cover a half way decent medical plan (medical is NOT part of the current NFLPA deal for retired and disabled former members).
This icon of the AFL, the great Raider tradition, and all that is supposedly right with playing hard and playing hurt must lead a extraordinarily difficult life right now. All the backslapping and friendly waves he receives on the way up to Al Davis owners' box every week likely do zilch to dull the pain and ease the immobility, as well as the knowledge that his health will likely only decline from this point.
He's one of the great football players, and the way he has been treated, as well as so many others, may be the biggest scam in American sports history, because the NFL pie is so big and there are so many millions of eyeballs watching and doing nothing to this point.
"Sports Illustrated" a few years back ran a remarkable piece on the decline in health of several former players. And what's happened since? When the most read sports magazine hits us all the face with a major, major scandal, we all, and specifically the current players in the NFL, must admit that we didn't care enough to take some kind of action. Everyone feels horrible for Earl Campbell's declining health. But what is to be done to aid him and the thousands to follow?
This just ain't right, and is a really a whole lot of wrong.
Every sport we have sees this type of exploitation, save maybe baseball (pussies...), whose players strike once a decade or so. They have a fucking union, Upshaw. Marvin Miller is one of the greatest labor leaders in our country's history. Though his footprint is small in terms of members being affected, he and his men showed what balls and nerve can accomplish.
The big money players in the NFL owe it to their teammates to get this shit rectified.
That's truly what being a teammate is all about, one would think.
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Some links, in no particular order. Read and discuss, if you like.
1
2
3
4
5
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Fellas and fans, ya gotta turn "We didn't know..." into "We did something good for each other."
The NFLPA members are all adults with families. How will you explain this crap to those family members tonight, next year, five years out?
And who will help you in your time of need, which is surely coming.
=====================================
Former Buffalo Bills guard Joe DeLamielleure took his pension at age 45 because that was when he needed the money. He gets $992 per month. A MLB player with a similar career span who collects at age 45 would get $6,000 per month. If DeLamielleure, who played 13 seasons and entered the Hall of Fame in 2003, had waited until he was 55, he would have gotten about $2,200 per month, according to ESPN. If former Washington cornerback Darrell Green, who played 20 years, decides to collect at age 55, he'll get the largest pension in NFL history: $69,660 per year.
-- this per Oakland Tribune citing ESPN's always relevant "Between The Lines."
---------------------------------------------------
The current players in the nation's most popular and wealthiest professional sports league had better take a closer look at Jim Otto and what his life has been like for the last several decades. Dozens and dozens of surgeries, unending pain in every joint presumedly, and a pension that isn't enough to cover a half way decent medical plan (medical is NOT part of the current NFLPA deal for retired and disabled former members).
This icon of the AFL, the great Raider tradition, and all that is supposedly right with playing hard and playing hurt must lead a extraordinarily difficult life right now. All the backslapping and friendly waves he receives on the way up to Al Davis owners' box every week likely do zilch to dull the pain and ease the immobility, as well as the knowledge that his health will likely only decline from this point.
He's one of the great football players, and the way he has been treated, as well as so many others, may be the biggest scam in American sports history, because the NFL pie is so big and there are so many millions of eyeballs watching and doing nothing to this point.
"Sports Illustrated" a few years back ran a remarkable piece on the decline in health of several former players. And what's happened since? When the most read sports magazine hits us all the face with a major, major scandal, we all, and specifically the current players in the NFL, must admit that we didn't care enough to take some kind of action. Everyone feels horrible for Earl Campbell's declining health. But what is to be done to aid him and the thousands to follow?
This just ain't right, and is a really a whole lot of wrong.
Every sport we have sees this type of exploitation, save maybe baseball (pussies...), whose players strike once a decade or so. They have a fucking union, Upshaw. Marvin Miller is one of the greatest labor leaders in our country's history. Though his footprint is small in terms of members being affected, he and his men showed what balls and nerve can accomplish.
The big money players in the NFL owe it to their teammates to get this shit rectified.
That's truly what being a teammate is all about, one would think.
=====================================
Some links, in no particular order. Read and discuss, if you like.
1
2
3
4
5
---------------------------------------------------
Fellas and fans, ya gotta turn "We didn't know..." into "We did something good for each other."
The NFLPA members are all adults with families. How will you explain this crap to those family members tonight, next year, five years out?
And who will help you in your time of need, which is surely coming.
posted by joe sweeney at 12:56 PM
1 Comments:
Well written article.
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