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By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

After months of complaints from retired NFL players who believe the league and the players' union have abandoned them, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association Executive Director Gene Upshaw met with a group of former players yesterday to discuss those issues.

But in the collection of past players at the meeting that included Frank Gifford, Merlin Olsen and Cornelius Bennett, only former Packer Jerry Kramer represented the vocal group of retirees who have spoken out about the league's pension plan and a disability system they insist is designed to deny most claims.

Three hours later, when they emerged, Upshaw and Goodell had little to announce other than that they had talked. They said they would focus on joint replacement, a dire-needs fund, a cardiovascular health program and the establishment of some kind of assisted-living arrangement. But they said they would not build a retirement home for disabled football players, something that has been discussed by the
league and union for years.

"We didn't solve all the problems," Kramer said. "We've got some more things to do."

In many ways, the meeting -- pushed for by Goodell -- seemed to be an effort by the league and the players' association to show they are addressing the issue of retired players. The subject flared up at the Super Bowl and never died down as studies came out showing potential long-term effects of concussions and former players told stories of their difficulty in obtaining disability payments. Many blamed the
league and the union for creating a system that blocked them from collecting.

Upshaw and Goodell said that by bringing together the NFL Alumni organization, Pro Football Hall of Fame and NFL Charities into a group they call "the alliance," more money will be available to provide assistance to players who need it. When asked how much that would take, Upshaw said, "It's the $64,000 question, maybe the $64 million
question." Then he said that by pulling together the various league entities along with Kramer's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, they would be able to draw money from several entities and put them under a single umbrella.

Goodell and Upshaw already have agreed to let those players who have qualified under Social Security disability standards receive NFL disability, saying this could help solve the problem of injured former players. But because those standards have yet to be applied, it's hard to know how many players it will help.

Kramer has been chastised by many in his organization, including former New York Giants star Harry Carson, for agreeing to take part in yesterday's meeting. Many in the retired players movement have looked skeptically at the meeting as a public relations ploy by the league and union to deflect criticism. Kramer said he too was concerned about his decision and worried about it on Monday night in a conversation
with Olsen.

As the meeting convened yesterday, Kramer said Olsen accosted Upshaw by asking if the meeting was "a dog and pony show or are we going to come up with a solution?"

Upshaw replied, "Forget the yelling and see if we can intelligently look at it."

Kramer said he was encouraged by Upshaw's response.

Bernie Parrish, the unofficial leader of the retired players movement, was not.

"The people they had there are a bunch of self-promoting, owner kisser-ups," said Parrish, who was not invited to the meeting.

Parrish has repeatedly said he wants the NFL players' pensions to match those of baseball (which are significantly higher but also require players to wait until they are 62 to collect) and have the disability system overseen by a firm other than the Groom Law Group, which has done work in the past for the NFLPA.

"When the owners open up their checkbooks and start writing checks for a pension plan like baseball's and trash the disability plan and rewrite it, then they will be doing something," Parrish said.