The New NFLPA-League Labor Contract

Peace is almost always good.

From the perspective of an NFL retiree the most interesting part of the new 2006 labor contract is how it affects our Pension and Benefits plan. Having played when helmet to helmet collisions were common on almost every play, when crack back and chop blocks, forearm blows to the face and head, small one and two bar plastic face masks, and it was gutless to run out of bounds when one could get an extra yard with a head on collision, clothes lining wasn’t a penalty, head slaps, climbing the pile of humanity with nylon/steel tipped cleats to block kicks, and a time when quarterbacks were fair game like everyone else and the fans loved it; making me feel some what possessive about the game. We who played the game as it was then, loved it as well but suffered the physical consequences of the game as we shaped it.

The fans loved it, Jim Brown, Paul Warfield, Gary Collins, Leroy Kelly, Mike Ditka, Chuck Bednarick, Ernie Stauntner, Tommy McDonald, YA Title, Johnny Unitas, and the rest of us played in front of 80,000 fans, packed houses in Cleveland Municipal Stadium and Yankee Stadium, Lambeau and Soldier Fields, we built the NFL from that point in NFL history and it is our shoulders the NFL stands on today. TV discovered us, the NFL and began paying the first big bucks in 1964 and it has been up up up from then until now.

In comparison today’s game seems like a track meet compared to the game we played. Today is “don’t touch the quarterback, slide down to keep from getting hit” and “run out of bounds if it looks like you are going to get hit near the sideline,” the line men push and shove and hold like an almost brawl that never quite breaks out. The sound tracks from a game in the 60’s and one from 2005 are like listening to two totally different sports.

The first mention of Player Benefits that I can find following the approval of this new 2006 labor contract last week, comes from a small blurb in a USA Today’s summary "Labor Deal at a glance." under the last item "Other: Player benefits will be substantially improved, including expanded post-career medical coverage. There will be continued support from the union for stadium construction, youth football, NFL Europe and other initiatives." The details of these items of interest will be published here as soon as I receive them.

I located this information on the Internet and haven't heard from Brigg Owen the Pres of our NFLPA for Retired Players from my inquiry for information about the Pension & Benefit Plan made on behalf of our 64WorldChamps LLC last week. I'll print the news here when I get it.

Media Highjacks Super Bowl for Reluctant Bettis

Jerome Bettis didn't do anything to promote himself, but the media seized on the Bettis is from Detroit story line and wore it out. Jerome did what was logical to do, enjoy it. But for one outstandingly gritty play by Rothelsburger, and a missed field goal, Bettis would have been the NFL's all time greatest goat instead of the media's Super Bowl Hometown Sweetheart. I felt like Steeler defensive coach Dick LeBeau was the unsung hero of the game and that Rothelsburger was slighted, slightly. Were it not for my admiration for LeBeau I'd have been pulling for the Seahawks. Now I am glad the Steelers won because it will give more meaning to the Browns-Steelers games next season provided the Browns can muster up some meaning themselves.

I still can't help hating the Steelers from the days when I played against Bobby Layne and John Henry Johnson and Charlie Scales and Buddy Dial, and Big Daddy Lipscome, and George Tarasovick and Myron Pottios and Ernie Stauntner and the cheap skate Rooneys. Dirty tough games, the best kind. I don't think today's players would have liked being in the middle of a game when there were helmet to helmet hits on every play, along with head slaps, chop blocks, crack backs, clotheslining, the idea was deliver blows rather than grabbing at the ball type contact. Running out of bounds when you could get extra yards was seen as gutless and a kick to the head was delivered now and then. I can't believe Chuck Noll went over to the dark side.

Thank God Gangster Rap didn't get another promotional push from the NFL during the Super Bowl. A gang war between the Skin Heads and the Gangster Rappers...No! Actually I can't wish that on either of them but they are both a plague on our children's lives.

The intricate nuances of the NFL's free agency contract rules do little more than provide jobs and security for a needless strata of union personel, agents and club management go-fers that cost the players, coaches, and owners about 20% to 25% of the available revenues generated by the league. Over 30 years ago I explained in the final chapter of my book They Call It A Game how to compensate the players based on winning, then individual performance, etc. It really is pretty simple and is much fairer than the way contracts are negotiated and awarded today.

With a mad man elected as Iran's leader who admires Hitler wants to destroy Isreal and denies there was a Holocaust, and a total mess in a third World Iraq where the military and police trainees can't read and therefore can't be trained, and who in fact just want a paycheck from a job with a future that they can support a family with, we are facing the toughest challeges of our lifetimes. We could do with a little more candor from our "leaders" at this crucial time.

Mike Ditka has great political potential and I for one believe we should support him if he decides to run for political office. Mike recently made some strong remarks about how today's players do little or nothing for those whose shoulders (broken cartiledge and bones) they are standing on. Contract negotiations are underway and I have yet to hear a single mention about increasing NFL pension and benefit plans. You can expect to hear from the retired players shortly.