WP: NFL(PA) Dispute Heads to Congress

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602644_pf.html

NFLPA Dispute Heads to Congress
Disability Payments Will Be Debated

By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007; E08

The simmering dispute between retired NFL players and the NFL Players Association is heading to Congress. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law has scheduled an oversight hearing on June 26 to look into the way benefits are paid to disabled former players.

The issue of disability payments has been contentious for several years but has only recently received much public attention as former players have stepped up to say they believe the pension and disability plan, managed in part by the NFLPA, routinely denies benefits for injuries suffered while playing in the NFL. Among the accusations is that the plan's administrators have created a system that makes it almost impossible for a player to claim disability.

Several former players, including Mike Ditka, Jerry Kramer and Joe DeLamielleure, have complained in recent months that the pension plan does little to help retired players who can't afford to pay their bills. They said the players' association under Executive Director Gene Upshaw has abandoned retired players in order to cut a more lucrative deal with the league's owners, providing more money for Upshaw's main constituency -- active players.

"The NFL is a billion-dollar industry and yet the players who built the league are too often left to fend for themselves," Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Calif.), who chairs the committee, said in a statement last night.

"The subcommittee has seen recent reports that the benefit plan offered to retired players may be stacked against players who need serious medical care."

At his traditional Super Bowl news conference in February, Upshaw said balancing the payments to current and retired players was impossible.

FULL story at link.

[BlueManDude]

1. The players fight amongst themselves and the owners laugh all the way to the bank

Gene Upsahw - what a joke. A stooly for the owners.