Retired Football Players Take Case to Congress
Bone-crushing hits often mean long-term disability with little support.
Sept. 18, 2007 — -- The National Football League is more than just a kids' sport played by grown men.
It is a multibillion-dollar industry and its fans pay top dollar to see bone-crushing hits and skull-rattling tackles that players endure for more than 16 weeks a year.
But what the fans don't see is what happens after a player walks away from the game or in the case of so many NFL veterans, what happens when a player hobbles away from a sport that is "not a contact sport, but a collision sport," as legendary coach Mike Ditka described it.
Criticism of the NFL's retirement and disabilities plan has grown and retired players are pushing the league and their union to do more to treat injuries and health problems that stem from years of contact play.
In response, Gene Upshaw, the NFL Players Association's executive director, went to Congress today to push for a change in federal law to give the union more power in what it can do for retired players filing for disability benefits.
The Senate Commerce Committee held what Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called a "fact-finding mission" to examine the NFL's long-term disability program, a system that the Ditka of today called "broken."
"The system is broken. Fix it. … The money is there," Ditka said. "Don't make proud men beg. Don't make them jump through hoops."
The issue was taken up by the House earlier this summer, but the Senate hearing featured the two men at the center of this storm — Upshaw and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, both of whom failed to show up in June.
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