This is from Pro Football Weekly's Online edition......see my end comment
Upshaw defends NFLPA’s level of contribution to retired players’ pensions
By Eric Edholm, Dan Arkush and Mike Holbrook
Feb. 1, 2007
MIAMI — The NFL Players Association held its annual meeting at the Super Bowl to discuss a wide range of hot-button issues, including testing for human-growth hormones and other designer drugs, player conduct and the early returns on the first year of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. But the testiest exchange came at the end of the question-and-answer session over retired players’ benefits.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Brian Burwell finished the session by asking union president Gene Upshaw, sternly, “I am a little confused. You talked about the oldest players, and how, back when you were playing, you were told what doctors to go to and (that) a lot of times you didn’t know what your own diagnosis was. … In light of those kinds of those kind of working conditions that you and all of the older players that I have talked to dealt with, isn’t there any way, as this huge, enormous pie continues to grow, that you can find some extra money for them?”
Upshaw retorted by saying there is $60 million paid each year — money that comes directly from current players’ salaries — that benefits former players drawing pensions. “They’re the ones who put that money in. That’s where that money comes from,” Upshaw, a retired player, said. “We just spent $51 million this (past) year to improve the benefits for guys like me. And it’s not just this year. It goes all the way back (to 1993).”
There are nearly 9,000 former players who are eligible for benefits, but fewer than 200 get long-term benefits. Many NFL alumni have suffered serious medical problems after their careers have ended, a lot of whom have distanced themselves from the league they feel has left them behind. The NFLPA says a new $50-a-month increase in the new CBA should help matters.
The union also has concerns about current players. The talk of increased testing for performance-enhancing drugs is something that resonates from both the players’ union and the league, but Upshaw said he and new commissioner Roger Goodell differ on how the testing should take place. Upshaw said he wants to avoid having his players “getting stuck in the arm with a needle every five minutes” and that there is no effective, reliable testing method for HGH and EPO, one of the newest banned substances to be added to the league’s list.
So Mr Upshaw still comes off to most people as someone who works hard for players rights, and he does, for current players.
50 Bux a Month?? That's Not much.....tell that to Herb Adderly who gets $126.50 a month. I know One of the last things Paul Tags did as commish was the #88 rule named after John Mackey, to help those players who have suffered TBI from their playing days. It just might be too little too late......
