DITKA, BROWN VS. NFL
One Super Bowl party you might not see on TV is Gridiron Greats Celebrity Golf.
It was held in Phoenix, all right. On Thursday, January 31.
It will boast 70 NFL legends like Mike Ditka, Don Shula, Paul Hornung, Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Steve Young, Eric Dickerson, Mean Joe Green, Tony Dorsett, Franco Harris, Too Tall Jones, and Barry Sanders.
Why might you not see it?
Because it was sponsored by Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, the group which has taken point blank aim on the NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) for doing too little too late for retired players in need.
“I feel like this is the right thing to do,” said former Dallas Cowboy Randy White in a GGAF press release. “So many players are suffering, it’s only right to help our brothers and provide assistance. I look at the list of over 70 players who will come to Phoenix to participate and know that as retired players we can make a difference and do what the NFLPA is not.”
But GGAF’s most vociferous spokesman is Ditka, the rambunctious Hall of Fame tight end and coach.
Last September Ditka called out the NFL telling a committee of Congress that his organization has “picked up the slack left by an NFL PA that does not do enough for disabled retired players and an ownership that seeks to avoid doing anything at all.”
Ditka told the committee that only 4% of the 10,000 NFL retirees receive any level of disability benefits and a grand total of four (4) have ever received benefits for brain injuries.
“Anyone who has played the game, especially in the recent past when it was often played on a concrete parking lot covered with a quarter-inch layer of indoor-outdoor carpeting called ‘Astroturf,’ will tell you that NFL football often results in concussions. The idea that only four men who have ever played pro football have had disabling brain injuries just doesn’t make sense.”
Ditka noted NFLPA president Gene Upshaw’s $7 million salary and accused the NFL/NFLPA pension plan of intentional delay, most blatantly in the Mike Webster case.
“Here was a guy who started almost 250 games for the Steelers and played every offensive down for six straight seasons. He played when the head slap was legal, and probably had thousands of serious hits to his head. But the plan told Mike he wasn’t disabled.”
After retiring from football Webster could never hold a job and died in 2002 before the plan made a final decision. His estate sued and was upheld in a court decision which found the plan ignored unanimous medical evidence.
Mike Ditka’s roommate with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1967 and 1968 was FRED BROWN of Lompoc (pictured above). Brown was a linebacker five years for Philadelphia after one with the Los Angeles Rams, this after a college career at Miami. He was a second round draft pick.
Seated upstairs at a Lompoc coffee house recently, Brown declared he was not at all surprised when Ditka began to challenge the NFL establishment. “Ditka is that kind of a person. He’s very committed to anything that he sees is wrong.”
Brown tells the story of Iron Mike once going ballistic at halftime when the Eagles were being clobbered by the Cowboys.
“Ditka was so upset that he went into the locker room and destroyed it. Sinks, urinals, he just went off. And he went off primarily because as a group of players we were someplace else or some of us had quit. He just could not tolerate that. When things become intolerable he does not mind letting you know.”
Brown too is furious over the Webster case. He won’t go on TV like Ditka, but when queried, he pulls no punches.
“People like Webster set the foundation for the league. The owners and the players association do not recognize the import of these people. He goes to the league thinking it would help him with health expenses attributed to his participation in the league, and then the league (the players association and the owners) put him through a bunch of barriers and obstacles that over time become…. It’s like they’re waiting you out. You get so frustrated. You get tired waiting. In the meantime you’ve got these horrendous bills that are piling up.”
On its website the NFLPA defends itself by acknowledging need for change in the disability system but points to basic retirement raises which it has negotiated in each of its last three contracts. Ten-year veterans who played from 1959 to 1968 now receive at age 55 an annual pension of $30,000, it says.
““With taxes you’re talking $25,000,” Brown comes back. “The people having the problem need at least a living wage. Is that enough for all his medications? A reasonable amount would be $50,000.”
Forbes magazine calls the NFL the richest sports league in the world. The average franchise is worth $957 million. The Cowboys are the crown jewel at $1.5 billion.
Brown, 64, is vested in the union’s pension plan. He has not made a disability claim, but that day might not be far off. He has had shoulder, knee and four ankle surgeries. His right ankle has been fused. The speed he demonstrated on the gridiron is vanished. He takes stairs step-together-step.
“I was active most of my life,” he says quietly. “Now I can’t. I have reason to be concerned.”
One Super Bowl party you might not see on TV is Gridiron Greats Celebrity Golf.
It was held in Phoenix, all right. On Thursday, January 31.
It will boast 70 NFL legends like Mike Ditka, Don Shula, Paul Hornung, Gale Sayers, Dick Butkus, Steve Young, Eric Dickerson, Mean Joe Green, Tony Dorsett, Franco Harris, Too Tall Jones, and Barry Sanders.
Why might you not see it?
Because it was sponsored by Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, the group which has taken point blank aim on the NFL and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) for doing too little too late for retired players in need.
“I feel like this is the right thing to do,” said former Dallas Cowboy Randy White in a GGAF press release. “So many players are suffering, it’s only right to help our brothers and provide assistance. I look at the list of over 70 players who will come to Phoenix to participate and know that as retired players we can make a difference and do what the NFLPA is not.”
But GGAF’s most vociferous spokesman is Ditka, the rambunctious Hall of Fame tight end and coach.
Last September Ditka called out the NFL telling a committee of Congress that his organization has “picked up the slack left by an NFL PA that does not do enough for disabled retired players and an ownership that seeks to avoid doing anything at all.”
Ditka told the committee that only 4% of the 10,000 NFL retirees receive any level of disability benefits and a grand total of four (4) have ever received benefits for brain injuries.
“Anyone who has played the game, especially in the recent past when it was often played on a concrete parking lot covered with a quarter-inch layer of indoor-outdoor carpeting called ‘Astroturf,’ will tell you that NFL football often results in concussions. The idea that only four men who have ever played pro football have had disabling brain injuries just doesn’t make sense.”
Ditka noted NFLPA president Gene Upshaw’s $7 million salary and accused the NFL/NFLPA pension plan of intentional delay, most blatantly in the Mike Webster case.
“Here was a guy who started almost 250 games for the Steelers and played every offensive down for six straight seasons. He played when the head slap was legal, and probably had thousands of serious hits to his head. But the plan told Mike he wasn’t disabled.”
After retiring from football Webster could never hold a job and died in 2002 before the plan made a final decision. His estate sued and was upheld in a court decision which found the plan ignored unanimous medical evidence.
Mike Ditka’s roommate with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1967 and 1968 was FRED BROWN of Lompoc (pictured above). Brown was a linebacker five years for Philadelphia after one with the Los Angeles Rams, this after a college career at Miami. He was a second round draft pick.
Seated upstairs at a Lompoc coffee house recently, Brown declared he was not at all surprised when Ditka began to challenge the NFL establishment. “Ditka is that kind of a person. He’s very committed to anything that he sees is wrong.”
Brown tells the story of Iron Mike once going ballistic at halftime when the Eagles were being clobbered by the Cowboys.
“Ditka was so upset that he went into the locker room and destroyed it. Sinks, urinals, he just went off. And he went off primarily because as a group of players we were someplace else or some of us had quit. He just could not tolerate that. When things become intolerable he does not mind letting you know.”
Brown too is furious over the Webster case. He won’t go on TV like Ditka, but when queried, he pulls no punches.
“People like Webster set the foundation for the league. The owners and the players association do not recognize the import of these people. He goes to the league thinking it would help him with health expenses attributed to his participation in the league, and then the league (the players association and the owners) put him through a bunch of barriers and obstacles that over time become…. It’s like they’re waiting you out. You get so frustrated. You get tired waiting. In the meantime you’ve got these horrendous bills that are piling up.”
On its website the NFLPA defends itself by acknowledging need for change in the disability system but points to basic retirement raises which it has negotiated in each of its last three contracts. Ten-year veterans who played from 1959 to 1968 now receive at age 55 an annual pension of $30,000, it says.
““With taxes you’re talking $25,000,” Brown comes back. “The people having the problem need at least a living wage. Is that enough for all his medications? A reasonable amount would be $50,000.”
Forbes magazine calls the NFL the richest sports league in the world. The average franchise is worth $957 million. The Cowboys are the crown jewel at $1.5 billion.
Brown, 64, is vested in the union’s pension plan. He has not made a disability claim, but that day might not be far off. He has had shoulder, knee and four ankle surgeries. His right ankle has been fused. The speed he demonstrated on the gridiron is vanished. He takes stairs step-together-step.
“I was active most of my life,” he says quietly. “Now I can’t. I have reason to be concerned.”
Parts of this story appear in the Santa Maria Sun currently on the newstand.
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JOEL
Thursday night the Stanford Cardinal upended the Washington Huskies 65-51, the first time in seven years Stanford has won at Seattle. JOEL SMITH played five minutes for Washington, but did not score. Washington is now 3-5 in the PAC-10.
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GEOFF & JASON
In Bismarck, North Dakota tonight the Marauders of the University of Mary played their first home game in weeks. Didn't matter. They lost 71-59 to Southwest Minnesota State to fall to 3-9 in conference, 6-15 overall. GEOFF WEST was held to two points. JASON WEST scored one.
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