Kerry Warns NFL to Help Retired Players or Face Congressional Action

[The Straight Story]

Kerry Warns NFL to Help Retired Players or Face Congressional Action

"If the NFL doesn't get its house in order, I am prepared to introduce legislation to create an oversight commission to look at the actions of the retirement board."

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator John Kerry today told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he wants the league to take seriously complaints from injured retired players, who say they receive little medical guidance, counseling or assistance once their playing days are over and they live with debilitating injuries.


“I call on the NFL to get its house in order,” said Kerry. “I hope both the NFL and the Players Union will work together to eliminate any unnecessary red tape and provide the appropriate resources so that former players, who did so much to make the game what it is today, receive adequate compensation. If it doesn’t I am prepared to introduce legislation to create an oversight commission to look at the actions of the retirement board. They must clean it up, or we will.”


Kerry said that if the NFL does not address this issue, he will introduce legislation that would create a commission to provide oversight of the NFL’s Retirement Board. Kerry’s remarks were made during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the issue. Kerry is a senior member of the committee.


Senator Kerry’s statement as prepared is below:


I first want to welcome the retired players who are here with us today. We thank you for your commitment to the game. You built the game of football with your backs and your bodies, and we are honored to have you here.


We have heard a lot about the way the NFL has failed to take care of its retired players, particularly its disabled players – some of whom have long term disabilities from the injuries they sustained while playing the game. It is clear, the system has failed.


I am glad we are holding this hearing to find out why – and to explore the system of benefits available to players. Today we will hear from retired players – the fathers of the game – who have been let down by the system.


Their stories demonstrate a serious and immediate need by the National Football League and the Players Union to start working together to resolve the issue.


Football is a dangerous sport. There is no question about it. Nearly half of all players retire because of injury. Sixty percent of players suffer a concussion and at least one quarter suffer multiple concussions.


Through the years, too many players who have been sidelined due to injury have been pushed back into the field of play without consideration of the long-term consequences of their injuries. While the NFL has been making progress on this front in recent years, I hope we can agree that all former players who need disability assistance should receive it.
Unfortunately, despite the obvious violent nature of football, the statistics on how many former players qualify for disability benefits are shockingly low.


The numbers are in dispute, but we are told that only 317 former players out of nearly 10,000 receive long-term disability benefits. That translates to less than 3% of retired players. Out of 1052 applications filed for benefits, well more than half are denied.


This points to a system that is broken. The players who built the game deserve more than delay and bureaucratic red tape – or worse, as some allege collusion and corruption in the process.


At a bare minimum –we need information and we need oversight. The National Football League, which exists today with unprecedented wealth and popularity, must resolve this. I hope both the NFL and the Players Union will work together to eliminate the unnecessary red tape and administrative burdens and provide resources so that former players, who did so much to make the game what it is today, receive adequate compensation.


I call on the NFL to get its house in order. If it doesn’t I am prepared to introduce legislation to create an oversight commission to look at the actions of the retirement board. They must clean it up, or we will.


Witnesses

Mr. Daryl Johnston
FOX Sports Broadcaster
and former NFL Player, Dallas Cowboys Opening Remarks

Mr. Brent Boyd
former NFL Player, Minnesota Vikings

Mr. Bill Bain
former NFL Player, Los Angeles Rams


Mr. Garrett Webster
son of NFL Player Mr. Mike Webster, Pittsburgh Steelers


Mr. Dave Duerson
Trustee for the Burt Bell/Pete Rozelle Retirement Plan
and former NFL Player, Chicago Bears


Mr. Gene Upshaw
Executive Director
National Football League Players Association


Mr. Roger Goodell
Commissioner
National Football League

http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=283545

[DaveJ]

1. That makes sense...

It's crazy enough we allow people to beat and bash one another physically for sport.

[TomInTib]

2. Good for him.

I know a couple of ex-NFL players, and they are really having hard times.

Drug (painkiller) addiction is a real issue.

[Olney Blue]

3. Kerry would have been a caring president.

[WildEyedLiberal]

4. Read a really sad article about an ex-NFL player

Who is suffering memory loss and lots of consequences of years of concussions. Poor guy is on like 1000 dollars worth of meds a month. Good on Kerry for this.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Damn if only he had the gumption ...

to warn the rest of corporate america. But then most of them only hire 'ordinary' NFL fans or their friends or their spouses or their children or their brother or their sisters, or etc. etc. etc.

[MLFerrell]

6. Um, hey, John?

How about putting some of that political clout behind my grandfather's pension?

He DID work in a steel mill for 50 years, give or take.

Why the fuck should an NFL player's mismanaged pension be more important than that of a steelworker who fought in WWII?

I commend his concern, but why is he focusing on the once rich and famous as opposed to the common man?

It's a goddamned shame that those who BUILT the United States are forgotten in their hour of need...

'Nuff said.




EDIT: "Once" rich and famous, as opposed to "already" rich and famous.

[Fabio]

21. ummm, hate to be real here

but the NFL is extremely solvent and american steel is bankrupt.

[NobleCynic]

7. How much do these athletes get paid again?

Everybody deserves to have decent benefits if they work, but really now. It isn't like these people are in need. And if they blew all of their money stupidly leaving none for retirement, my sympathy is rather limited. A blue collar worker having miserable benefits, I have sympathy for. I'm not blue collar anymore, but I did that. For a measly 10/hour. Needless to say I don't do that anymore.

But a retired pro athlete? If he's starving in his old age and out in the cold without a roof over his head, maybe I'm a bad person for this, but I can only laugh. You make that much money and blow it all, tough. The working poor and middle class need priority in this. Decent retirement and health care for the people. Then we can worry about the oh so poor pro athletes.

[Bill McBlueState]

11. yeah, you're a bad person for that. n/t

[ShaneGR]

17. Sigh, you really shouldn't post if you don't understand. It's about older retired players....

Who didn't earn millions, they earned at most a couple thousand dollars a game on average. Most of the problems are players who played from the 1950s all the way up until the 80s, before the huge influx of cash came.

And really, even if the retired players in question did make millions, which they didn't, you're saying they shouldn't be eligible for fair disability and healthcare because they would have made a lot of money while they played? That's pretty fascist.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

8. OH JESUS FUCKING CHRIST..

We have way more important business than taking care of the retirement benefits of overpaid jerks who squandered all the big bucks they made..

I could live my whole life off what some of these creeps earn in less than a year..

Zero fucking sympathy...

[LittleClarkie]

9. He's doing that other stuff too

It's called multitasking.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

10. Yeah... right..

They won't do shit for people who really need it but they have time to take care of overpaid jerks that have played a kids game for a living..

I despise professional sports..

[politicasista]

15. Who is "they"?

I think that Senator Kerry and other dems have done more for REAL people than many here ever will in their whole lives.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

20. How many fucking homeless do we have in America..

What about them?

Who on the federal level is doing a damn thing about homelessness.

[ShaneGR]

22. Since you seem to need help, here's a link to all the federal funding...

http://funding-programs.idilogic.aidpage.com/funding-programs/

[The Vinyl Ripper]

24. If there's so much federal funding...

Then WHY ARE THERE SO MANY HOMELESS?

And I don't need it but there one hell of a lot that do..

[ShaneGR]

27. Would you prefer that the police pick up every homeless person and force them to seek shelter??

Honestly, most homeless fall into one of two categories.

#1: Mentally ill
#2: Substance addiction

In many cases its up to the homeless to seek help through the system. Just because they're on the street doesn't mean their arent funded programs out there to help them. BTW, none of this has anything to do with getting old and broken football players health insurance.

[wisteria]

23. Exactly. n/t

[karynnj]

32. Exactly

Including having co-written Kerry/Feingold, which is really the basis of the current Democratic plan to get out of Iraq.

He also has been involved with working on issues like Pakistan and the global warming bills.

[ShaneGR]

18. The average pay of a player who retired in 1960 was less than $15000 a year.....

I really wish you people would bother to read articles.

[tuckessee]

26. That equals $90,500, which is still a nice chunk of change.

Today's Dollars converter http://www.1soft.com/todaysdollars.htm

[ShaneGR]

28. So because they made decent money back then they shouldn't get disability for work injuries?

Huh?????

[The Vinyl Ripper]

30. I was working in the 60's

$15,000 a year was *damn* good money..

Not to mention all the sweetheart deals that ex players get from adoring fans.

They made their choices, let 'em live with them.

The part that pisses me off is that we have to hold Congressional fucking hearings about this miniscule issue while America literally goes down the damn toilet..

I don't want hearings on NFL pensions, I want IMPEACHMENT...

[ShaneGR]

31. So basically you want to ignore everything except impeachment...

Anything relevant to US citizens, even hearings on thousands of people being denied disability despite clear evidence they are (under the law) eligible for it. By your logic only poor homeless americans should be eligible for workers compensation. If someone chose to work as anything dangerous, heck, a crane operator, and they made good money but the crane fell on them they should pay for their disability with the money they made. Sigh.

[karynnj]

33. Impeachment can not start in the Senate

[sandnsea]

37. He also proposed Family Immigration Legislation today

to protect moms and kids from being separated in raids, but nobody cares about that boring stuff. He also gave a helluva speech on the senate floor and ripped Kyl a new asshole. Nobody cared about that either. So maybe you want to take a look in the mirror when YOU bother to post over football instead of the important events that took place today.

[Bill McBlueState]

12. Anyone who's griping about this needs to learn a little:

If you don't think politicians should speak about this issue, read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Webster , and especially here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Webster#Post-football_life

You should at least understand the problem before you go shooting off at the keyboard.

[NobleCynic]

13. Breach of contract is the jurisdiction of the courts

Not Congress. I don't see the point of Congressional hearings on this. If they're breaking the law now, they'll break it later. The only remedy for this is in the courts, and it sounds like the courts are handling it.

[politicasista]

14. Thank you n/t

[The Vinyl Ripper]

16. Fuck these overpaid buffoons..

They made a damn choice to take up a career that anybody with the sense God gave a grapefruit knows destroys your body.

Now they want to bitch and moan about their pensions.. They should have invested privately when they were making the big bucks.

All the people at Enron lost their pensions and Congress didn't so crap about that..

I don't normally curse online but this crap has pissed me off for the first time in probably years..

[ShaneGR]

19. No, F you....

I don't limit the people I care for and have sympathy for, the retired players in question are over fifty years old, earned far less than the median income at the time of their retirements. Regardless, I'm not the type of person who turns my nose up at people who are in need of serious medical care. You are. Bet you didn't know that Bart Starr, a Dallas Cowboys QB and hall of famer, who was out of the league in the 1960s never earned more than 150k in a year and gets an 800 dollar a month pension check. But he can't walk straight and his disability has been denied multiple times by the NFL.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

25. $150 K/year..

In the 60's was a fucking fortune..

I was making about $3.00 an hour then..

[ShaneGR]

29. Gees, you should really apply for a corporate HR position...

You could easily come up with at least 30 reasons per person as to why they shouldn't get disability for work related injuries.

[Moses2SandyKoufax]

34. Good on you Shane.

Thanks for speaking on behalf of players who DIDN'T become millionaires playing football. Maybe people should actually read and do research before they shoot their mouths off and confirm their ignorance.

[BlooInBloo]

35. Good. Upshaw is a complete fuckwipe. Must be from Connecticut.

[flvegan]

36. What next, the WWE?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

38. Good for President Kerry

It's sad that the thread has devolved into "I don't give shit about sports so let me be edgy and say fuck them all" bitch fest.