The NFL: Where Neglecting Ex-Players Happens

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

"He says I had a broken neck, and I was in agony the rest of the season; but he said I was a hypochondriac and there was nothing wrong with me, and host me up with whatever he said I needed."

It turns out that Pear needed seven surgeries on his upper and lower spine. He is not able to work and can barely earn a living when he could work. Pear had two young children but he was not able to take care of them and had to send them back to their mothers.

In 1983 was the first time Pear attempted to apply for NFL disability, and he was approved by the physician the league sent him to. Yet Dee Becker, a union claims representative, that he brought too much "information" to the examining room (basically stating he influenced the doctor).

His claim was denied.

In '95 he tried once more, this time under a new class of claims which meant permanent and degenerative conditions. Like the other time he applied, he had a slam-dunk medical case. The league's appointed doctor again found him suitable for disability, but again Pear was denied.

Pear asked, "What do you have to be to be considered disabled?" Becker responds by saying, "Unless you're in a wheelchair like Darryl Stingley, you won't get the benefit."

With nowhere else to turn, Pear took out his pension early and now gets $600 a month from the NFL for his six years of back-breaking service.

Mike Mosley cannot even put a roof over his head. A doctor botched his surgery. He was a returner and flanker with blazing speed—he ran a 4.28 40-yard dash.

The doctor who treated Mosley fixed the cartilage that Mosley tore, but did not repair the ligament which eventually frayed as he was trying to run. He went from returning kicks to not even being able to bend his knee.

In 1998, he filed for disability and somehow was approved. It meant that he got $9,000 a month, allowing him to buy small house and win custody of his daughter, who was five years old.

In 2004, without a word, the NFL union cut him off. He tried appealing but got nowhere. The union would stop taking his calls, and soon he lost his house and truck

He and his daughter had to move into his 75-year-old mother's house. They get by on her social security check of $319 a month.

Mosley explains, "There's nothing left, they took it all from me, and never even gave a reason. If you talk to Upshaw—and I tried like hell to—could you ask him how he lives with himself?"

There's even more questions the Union needs to answer, such as why has Conrad Dobler been denied five times for disability? He's had 13 operations on just one leg.

Willie Wood can't even pay for his assisted living. Mercury Morris is still fighting in appeals court to overturn the pension board's decision, 20 years later.

Yet, to ask the question to the league office, good luck! No one will answer the phone or return a call.

So, Solotaroff looked at the facts and found that in the '60s, the pension fund began to grow just like the game. Team owners in 2005 paid $67.9 million to cover the Bert  Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Retirement Plan, which earns millions more a year in additional interest on its vast investment holdings.

In 1993, it all changed. The landmark bargaining agreement between players and owners made partners of the long-term enemies. It created confusing new rules and it created a bureaucracy with a six-man board of trustees, made up of three reps from owners and players apiece.

A screening committee that has the power to approve or reject claims was also created.

Even worse is that ex-players have to prove that the injuries suffered were caused by football, or they have no chance of getting the $9,000 a month.

Mosley states, "That's the trick they pulled on me. They shopped and shopped 'til they found a quack doctor who would cross me off their list."

Worse still, the Union claims they paid out $20 million a year to 317 disabled ex-players and that many of them get the maximum benefit of $18,600 a month.

When going through the tax forms for 2006, the most recent year available, they show that only 121 players received disability and the estimated cost was $9.2 million.

Upshaw then misleads on how the money gets to the players. He states that the money comes from the active players, which is an outright lie. The only thing the players have done is decrease their annual salary by $56,000 to contribute to the fund.

What it really means is that every cent that goes towards the ex-players is from the owners themselves, not the active players.

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