See, no current player, or ‘active’ member of the NFLPA wants to give up anything in order to negotiate these benefits, so when the time to retire comes and they have a crap pension and insufficient healthcare, can they really blame anybody but themselves? Are they expecting Gene Upshaw to wave a magic wand and force the owners to pony-up some benefits out of the goodness of their hearts? That’s not how collective bargaining works.
Benefits for people who have already retired aren’t even considered a mandatory subject of bargaining! Even if the NFLPA tries to negotiate a benefit increase for these retired players, they cannot strike over it lawfully. Although I think Mr. Upshaw would be well-advised to press the retiree benefits issue with the members he now represents (i.e. the active players) at contract time for their own good, his hands are truly tied when it comes to the group of retired players below. Just my opinion, anyway …
Victims of self-neglect – NFL – Yahoo! Sports
The NFL Players Association heard the latest round of complaints from its former players Tuesday when a group of Hall of Famers led by Mike Ditka and Gale Sayers voiced their displeasure with the union’s handling of pension benefits in a hearing before the U.S. Senate.
Amid the back-and-forth between the retired players and NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw, one question remains: Why has it taken so long for this heavily-debated issue to come to the forefront?
The simple answer is that for a long time, players barely spoke up about what they wanted. Worse, many of them gave little regard to their futures.
