Today on Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL's dirty secret should be exposed.

It's past time the NFL starts owning up to the human wreckage they leave behind.

NFL's Treatment Of Retired Players Needs More Coverage, But Will Networks Report On Growing Problem Or Ignore It?

by Leonard Shapiro, Badgerlen@hotmail.com
published on Jan 25, 2007

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Over the next dozen or so days Super Bowl over-kill will be flooding the nation's airwaves, with all the predictable story lines -- two African-American head coaches in the game for the first time, vindication for Peyton Manning, Sexy Rexy or Train Wreck Rex Grossman, blah, blah, blah -- emanating ad nauseum from the respective camps of the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears.

It will be mostly feel-good, fluff-stuff journalism, particularly on CBS, which is airing Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4 and already has announced that anchor Katie Couric will be included in its endless pre-game coverage that Sunday, even if she probably would be wise not to be distracted from covering the daily carnage in Iraq, the state of the Union or health care and immigration reform.

Still, if she continues to focus on football, here's a tip for Ms. Katie, who keeps letting it be known she wants to be considered just like one of the hard-news boys in the business.

Get a tape of HBO's "Real Sports" show that aired Monday night, and will be repeated seven times on the cable network before the Big Game, and hone in on a particularly chilling segment on life after pro football for so many of the old warhorses of yesteryear.

http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_02812.shtml

I heard OJ makes beaucoup pension bucks, but I suspect that's because he's on disability. :shrug:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/justice/4523332.html

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Benefits, pensions lacking
HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel this week told the story of several former players, including Conrad Dobler, a three-time Pro Bowler who played 10 seasons for the Cardinals and Bills. At 56, he's reduced to a shuffle, spent 100 days in the hospital last year and had seven operations. He told Real Sports he takes 150 Vicodin each month.

Disability insurance is part of his NFL benefits package, but NFL doctors say he's not disabled.

"I mean, if you can stand, if you can breathe, you probably aren't going to get disability," Dobler told Real Sports. "You basically got to be strapped to a gurney with I guess your head taped to the top of it before you'll get anything with that nature."

According to HBO, dozens of former players say their benefits won't pay for knee or hip replacements or treatment for post-concussion syndrome. Their pension is worth about $1,000 a month.

Professional athletes in every sport frequently struggle with life once the cheering stops. Divorce, addiction and bankruptcy aren't uncommon. NFL players have an additional risk: worn-out bodies.

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but don't these guys make millions?

When I was growing up in the 60s, my dad was friends with several pro athletes (some were NFL players) here in KC. They lived just like we did and most had off season jobs to help support their families. I believe they make a little more money now, but it's only the super stars who make the big bucks.

thank you for the info. I was under the impression they made millions and wondering why they could not afford health care.

and many have no job skills. It is not as glamorous as it seems.

have got to be absolutely first class but the bucks go to the star soloists and the well known conductors. You think the musicians have splendid jobs but they are basically (like defensive linemen) doing hard work and are not compensated as they should be. That's why they have a union. Of course there is not any comparable physical harm in being a member of the New York Philharmonic but I wonder how many of its musicians can afford to live in Manhattan.

I believe the minimum salary for a rookie is about $285,000 and it goes up depending on how many years you've been playing. This would be for a third string center or some position like that. Nobody who is playing in the league right now is poor. It was a lot different a few years ago, but when the free agency rules came about, the salaries went up. Players from the 60's were not rich. They are the ones who could use some help, and the NFL has plenty of money to help them.

they only work for a short period of time. So unless they save their money they end up broke at age 40.

But I still feel more sorry for the players from the old days. They played for the love of the game and are now beaten and bruised and, in many cases, not well off financially. At the same time, they're watching the current players rake in small fortunes. The NFL can afford to help them.

especially the ones who are hurt.

...exactly how our veterans are treated by the Bush administration. They pump you up with visions of glory and after you return home, broken and paralyzed, they discard you like yesterday's trash.

Maybe Bush should become the NFL commissioner after he finishes his prison sentence.

Good on Mike Ditka for taking a stand on this issue.

"The Era of Responsibility is Over"

(Rayfield Wright) He said he and others had to work really hard just to get players' surgeries paid for after injuries. I thought that was attrocious. The guys would get injured and not be able to play anymore and that was that. They had nothing. I don't know, if it's still like that, or not. I'm not much of a football person and I haven't talked to him in years.

but I read where many of the players were under so much pressure that they were (forced) to make compromising decisions in regard to their health. For instance, they might have a finger amputated instead of allowing it to heal properly so they could return to the field sooner.

Is that still the case or is my memory faulty?

There was an article in the LATimes a couple months back about a player who kept on playing with ruptured spleen because he didn't want to look like a piker in front of his teammates.

It's probably available only for $ now, so I'm not going to try to find a link, but it was pretty disturbing. They don't want to admit when they've been seriously hurt because they want to look like "real men."

This could definitely lead to some serious health problems.

btw, does anyone know if that rumor about the very low life expectancy of pro football players is true? I remember something going around about it being 55 years, but I'm certain that must be an exaggeration. Still, does anyone know if there is an actual figure available.

On edit--Google really is my friend:

Strength isn't enough: NFL linemen have to be so big, their health may be at risk.

Damn, according to this, it is 55:

"A 1994 study of 7,000 former players by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health found linemen had a 52 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than the general population. While U.S. life expectancy is 77.6 years, recent studies suggest the average for NFL players is 55, 52 for linemen."

The Hall of Fame tackle played 13 years in the NFL.

It hurt just watching him move to the podium. He's not yet 60, but his walking-around days are definitely over.