From The Baltimore Examiner, January 26, 2007
BALTIMORE - The NFL regularly asks those who can’t afford to buy tickets to its games — the vast majority of U.S. citizens — to subsidize luxury stadiums through their taxes. Marylanders, for example, gave the Ravens $200 million in 1998 for just that purpose. Not that professional football needs the money. The league grosses more than $6 billion per year, mainly from lucrative TV contracts.Taxpayers are not the only ones the league exploits. It stiffs pioneer players, too, through measly pensions that in no way cover the medical costs directly related to the beatings former players took while in the league.
The majority of players from the 1950s to the 1980s receive a monthly pension ranging from about $200 to less than $500 based on years in the league. The NFL also offers disability benefits to some players for career-ending injuries and for degenerative diseases.
This summer it improved benefits slightly and added one for former players who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s, offering them up to $88,000 per year for institutional care or up to $50,000 for in-home care. That is a start. But it is not nearly enough. Besides, what took them so long? The league does not need to perform a formal study to know its alumni routinely replace hips and knees, deal with back surgery, severe arthritis and that some can barely walk, much less participate in other recreational sports post retirement as a result of their tenure. The frequent concussions suffered by those who played in earlier years have been linked to dementia, depression and even suicide.
Sure, these guys played of their own volition. And they played during a time when playing football could not foot the bills. But they also helped to turn it into the money-generating behemoth it is today, allowing current players to earn huge salaries and the fame they enjoy.
Former Colts defensive back Bruce Laird and running back Tom Matte are members of a group trying to remedy the situation. They helped form the Baltimore Football Club Inc., a nonprofit that plans to raise money to help players like Hall of Fame Baltimore Colts tight end John Mackey, who suffers from dementia, afford health care. The group plans to hold its first fundraiser in the spring.
Laird said he is tired of begging. “We realize times change and we’re not entitled to what the players are enjoying today because we are not playing in these conditions.” But he said he wants to let the league and the union know that former players are suffering from medical problems directly related to their play 25 years after leaving the field.
The NFL is not a Ford Motor Co. crushed by staggering retiree costs. According to Steve Walters, an economics professor at Loyola College in Maryland, the NFL spends barely 1 percent of its revenues on pension costs. And, “given the billions that taxpayers have spent on new stadiums lately, I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to expect the union and league to look after the retirement and health needs of the guys who built the league, rather than expect them (in extreme cases) to rely on taxpayer-funded programs,” he said.
We agree.
The majority of players from the 1950s to the 1980s receive a monthly pension ranging from about $200 to less than $500 based on years in the league. The NFL also offers disability benefits to some players for career-ending injuries and for degenerative diseases.
This summer it improved benefits slightly and added one for former players who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s, offering them up to $88,000 per year for institutional care or up to $50,000 for in-home care. That is a start. But it is not nearly enough. Besides, what took them so long? The league does not need to perform a formal study to know its alumni routinely replace hips and knees, deal with back surgery, severe arthritis and that some can barely walk, much less participate in other recreational sports post retirement as a result of their tenure. The frequent concussions suffered by those who played in earlier years have been linked to dementia, depression and even suicide.
Sure, these guys played of their own volition. And they played during a time when playing football could not foot the bills. But they also helped to turn it into the money-generating behemoth it is today, allowing current players to earn huge salaries and the fame they enjoy.
Former Colts defensive back Bruce Laird and running back Tom Matte are members of a group trying to remedy the situation. They helped form the Baltimore Football Club Inc., a nonprofit that plans to raise money to help players like Hall of Fame Baltimore Colts tight end John Mackey, who suffers from dementia, afford health care. The group plans to hold its first fundraiser in the spring.
Laird said he is tired of begging. “We realize times change and we’re not entitled to what the players are enjoying today because we are not playing in these conditions.” But he said he wants to let the league and the union know that former players are suffering from medical problems directly related to their play 25 years after leaving the field.
The NFL is not a Ford Motor Co. crushed by staggering retiree costs. According to Steve Walters, an economics professor at Loyola College in Maryland, the NFL spends barely 1 percent of its revenues on pension costs. And, “given the billions that taxpayers have spent on new stadiums lately, I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all to expect the union and league to look after the retirement and health needs of the guys who built the league, rather than expect them (in extreme cases) to rely on taxpayer-funded programs,” he said.
We agree.
