NFL Live Streaming Online

Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal
Opinion
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Retired football players went to Congress recently seeking better disability benefits from the NFL. They should have gone to their fans, instead.

Heroes of bygone Sundays now understand that there is a very high price to pay for big hits they gave and took in NFL games. Testimony before Congress last month indicated that many retired NFL players suffer both serious physical and psychological problems.

The NFL has been less than generous with retirement benefits, testimony showed. Only 317 former players are receiving disability from the NFL. The average is $63,000 a year.

Although the players were paid well during their days in the NFL, they consider those benefits inadequate now as their job prospects dim and their health bills escalate. And, a great many former NFL players argue that the league's system for conferring disability benefits is designed to keep the numbers low.

Congress may have been the right place to pursue this argument, but we doubt it. If the NFL is violating federal law, then the courts would have been the more appropriate avenue for the players' appeal.

More likely, the NFL feels fully compliant with the nation's retirement laws, which Congress has weakened in recent years to the benefit of employers and the detriment of workers. We don't see any evidence that the NFL retirees are getting any worse a deal than the average working Joe.

Members of the House committee that held the hearings, both Republican and Democrat, jumped all over the testimony. They accused the NFL of being unfair and greedy. But we wonder how many paid as much attention when big American corporations were lobbying them to dilute benefits for the rest of us. Sharing the limelight with former NFL greats Harry Carson and Mike Ditka was just too tempting for the politicians in the room.

Congress should act only if there is a significant loophole in federal retiree-benefits laws that applies to the NFL. Better treatment for football retirees should come only with comprehensive legislation that helps all Americans.

This does not mean, however, that the retirees don't have a good argument against their former employers. The NFL generates approximately $7 billion a year, some of it off the old film of the former players whom the league now tries to ignore. Fans should let the league know that they want their former stars properly cared for,
especially considering the physical damage that playing the game causes.

But the impetus for change should come through fan support and the private sector, not through Congress - unless, of course, Congress wants to help all American retirees in the process.