Recently, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith � and a contingent of union representatives, including former Saints� and current Browns� LB Scott Fujita, Saints QB Drew Brees and newly-elected NFLPA President Domonique Foxworth � met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials. Fujita and Brees are members of the NFLPA�s executive committee.

Among the topics discussed was possible disciplinary action against players who participated in the bounty scheme.

Following the meeting, Brees told NFL.com, �We didn�t get any meaningful evidence, or any meaningful truth or facts� regarding the bounties. NFLPA assistant executive director George Atallah, in fact, has described the bounty scandal as an �alleged pay-to-injure scheme.�

It seems that both Brees and Atallah remain skeptical about the existence of a bounty system. Yet the union admitted receiving an audio tape in which coach Gregg Williams is heard explicitly extolling players under his charge to injure certain players on the San Francisco 49ers. Moreover, Williams even identified specific areas of the body (e.g., ACL, head, neck) to target. The NFL�s investigation has resulted in the suspension of Rams� defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, as well as Saints� GM Mickey Loomis, head coach Sean Payton, and assistant coach Joe Vitt and probable disciplinary action against 22 to 27 players involved in the bounty system.

Still, the union continues to protect the active players who are believed to have participated in the scheme. In fact, the NFLPA has already retained outside counsel to represent players in any litigation related to bounties. The outside counsel � Richard C. Smith, a partner with Fulbright and Jaworski LLP in Washington, D.C. � was also part of the NFLPA contingent that met with NFL officials last week, as were the union�s General Counsel Richard Berthelsen and Assistant General Counsel Heather McPhee.

As the NFL�s Jeff Pash observed during a discussion with the Associated Press on Friday, the union represents all active players � yet by protecting those who participated in the bounty system, the NFLPA fails to represent the players who were the targets of bounties and/or were injured by bounty-incentivized hits. Pash is right on point. And quite frankly, if I�m a dues-paying member of a union and I�m deliberately injured by another union member � and the union protects that member � I�m angry.

According to Pash, the NFLPA has not shared the Williams tape or any other information on bounties with the league. Moreover, Pash said that although the NFL has invited �a number of players who we think have information� to speak with NFL officials, the players have thus far been unwilling to do so. �We remain open to hearing their views and their knowledge,� Pash told the AP. �The players know what went on in the locker room in a way that we don�t know.�

Again, Pash is right on.

As for Brees, maybe he�s simply trying to protect his teammates on the defensive side of the ball � and certainly with his general manager, head coach and interim head coach suspended for all or part of the season, I�m guessing he�s unwilling to see any further disruption to the team.

Still, it�s difficult to comprehend how he could turn his back on Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner, Cam Newton, Brett Favre and others who were targeted by Williams� �incentives�. Football is a physically challenging game in and of itself. Add bounties that reward players for injuring opponents and the probability of injury is greatly multiplied.

While injuries are difficult for players to cope with, the burden on families is as great or greater. I�ve seen what wives like Sylvia Mackey and Mary Hilgenberg and Kay Morris and Suzie Heywood � and too many others � have endured.

That�s why the NFLPA�s stand on the bounty scandal is indefensible. And that�s why the union�s failure to act on behalf of the 320 widows who were excluded from the Legacy Benefit is inexcusable.

Under the current terms of the CBA, these widows � whose husbands died before the CBA was enacted on August 4, 2011 � are not eligible for the Legacy Benefit even though each woman�s husband chose the pension option that would continue after his death.

Rather than working with the league, which has already promised to rectify the situation, the NFLPA has instead insisted that the NFL pay the entire cost of including the widows. While the union has refused to contribute $5.8 million (its 49% share of the estimated $12 million cost) to extend the Legacy Benefit to the widows of 320 retired players, it had no problem spending $44 million for an insurance policy that provided active players $200,000 each if the 2011 season had been cancelled.

Is it possible that the NFLPA � the union John Mackey devoted so much of his time and talent to � just doesn�t care about Mackey�s widow Sylvia, who spent the last decade caring for her husband during his descent into dementia?

Or is there a more strategic reason why the NFLPA is ignoring the widows� plight? Is it possible that the union is hoping to bargain with the league � opening the door to further investigation of the bounties and disciplinary action against players, in return for the league picking up the whole cost of including the widows in the Legacy Benefit?

Regardless of motive, in the NFLPA�s refusal to help the widows, its failure to protect player safety, and its insistence on putting the legal needs of active players before the moral needs of past, present and future players, union officials have made their priorities clear: money comes first.

Bruce Laird
President, Fourth & Goal
Baltimore Colts, 1972-1981
San Diego Chargers, 1982-1983