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Ex-players plead case to Congress

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Wednesday, June 27th 2007, 4:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The NFL has abandoned the retired players who turned the league into a $6-billion-a-year enterprise, a group of angry former players said yesterday during a congressional hearing on the league's disability and pension plans.

Despite the enormous wealth generated by pro football, the players claimed, the league and the NFL Players Association stonewall players debilitated by brain and spinal injuries suffered during their careers rather than address the health and financial needs that have left many physically broken, depressed, homeless or suicidal.

"We have been betrayed," former Browns cornerback Bernie Parrish said at a news conference before yesterday's hearing. "Our union, Roger Goodell and the owners are operating a system of delay, deny and hope you die."

Players have accused the NFL of treating them as disposable for years, but Hall of Famer Mike Ditka and other retired players have turned up the heat on the league and union in recent months, accusing officials of denying aid to players with overwhelming health and financial problems. At yesterday's hearing, Ditka and former Giants great Harry Carson were among those who got the opportunity to share their
frustrations with those who could do something about it: lawmakers.

"I just think that to go back and pick up these people and take care of them is not that big of a problem," Ditka told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. "It's right versus wrong, period. Don't the owners have some responsibility? Believe me, nobody is going broke. The responsibility has to go back to the league to take care of these people."

Subcommittee chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) said the hearing was scheduled to examine how the NFL's disability and pension plans serve athletes in what she called "the most brutal major American professional sports league."

"Only 284 former players out of nearly 10,000 currently receive long-term disability benefits," Sanchez said. "That translates to less than 3% of retired players, a very small number for any industry, much less one as physically demanding as professional football. The fundamental question then becomes whether this disability process is fair for retired employees of the NFL. The evidence suggests that the vast
majority of former players needing benefits do not receive them."

NFL vice president Dennis Curran told the panel that benefits for disabled players have skyrocketed in recent years: Players who are permanently disabled and out of the league less than 15 years receive benefits worth $110,000 a year, he said, up from $9,000 in 1982. Last year, former players received more than $55 million in pensions, Curran said. About $20million in disability payments were paid.

The NFL's 2006 agreement with its union increased pensions 25% for those who played before 1982. It also created the 88 Plan, which pays up to $88,000 a year to players suffering from dementia. Retiree benefits have increased in every collective bargaining agreement since 1993.

Last week, the NFL announced that it will use the Social Security standards to define disabilities - any retired player who qualifies for Social Security benefits will be automatically approved for NFL disability.

"A great deal of what has been said or written about the benefits available to NFL players has been wrong," said Douglas Ell, the counsel to the players' retirement plan, who represented the union at yesterday's hearing.

But protests by Curran and Ell were drowned out by stories of loss, pain and a cruel bureaucracy.

"Now that they have put the lipstick on the pig, I want to tell you what really happens to retired NFL players," said former Oakland Raider Curt Marsh, who told the panel that the disability plan's administrators dragged out a decision on his case even though he suffered brain damage and his foot and ankle had to be amputated
because of injuries.

Before the hearing, former Jacksonville and Cincinnati lineman Brian DeMarco talked about how his spinal injuries have made it difficult to walk. At 6-6, he is still an imposing figure, but he moves slowly and looks in constant pain. His back is held together by titanium screws and rods, and he needs a cane and assistance from his wife to get around.

DeMarco said the NFL and NFLPA have given him virtually no assistance. At 35, he can't work because of his injuries. Thanks to escalating medical bills, he and his family have been homeless three times in the last four years. "We lived in a storage unit. We lived in cars," DeMarco said. "This is the hardest thing in the world - can you imagine getting up in front of the world to say that you can't work, can't take care of your family? They need to do something about this because guys are dying, and I'm one of those guys."

Sandy Unitas, the widow of Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas, said her husband had been denied benefits for an injury that left his right arm virtually debilitated. "He couldn't button his shirt, he couldn't sign his name, he couldn't lift more than eight ounces," she said. "He virtually became a lefthanded person. My husband made the NFL what it is today, and when he went to the NFL for disability
benefits, he was rejected."

Mercury Morris, a Dolphins running back in the 1970s, said the NFL was trying to send a message.

"They were saying, 'If we can do that to Johnny Unitas, we can do it to anybody.'"