Bernie Parish

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

FROM FORMER CLEVLAND BROWN

BERNIE PARISH

Bernie Parish, his truth on the truth squad

Bernie Parish, Match Baseball

NFLPA’s PR campaign claiming benefit increases are smoke and mirrors:

Delay, Deny, and Hope We die.

By Bernie Parrish author of best seller They Call It A Game, former officer of NFLPA 1960’s, pension plan pioneer, player advocate since 1960, Officer of Retired Players for Justice.

Claims of retirement benefits increases for retired players by Gene Upshaw and his PR shills are greatly exaggerated and consistently misrepresented. These are abuses clouded by calculated statements from the NFL owners through their company union the NFLPA to cheat the retired players out of previously contracted for retirement benefits an disability benefits.

First off there are no laws that say there has to be professional football or an NFL or a players union and there are no laws against their existence either. This brutal dangerous industry is unique. It is under no obligation to imitate or follow the pattern of any other business in the world.

An NFLPA Retired Members Directory 2004-2006 publication by the NFLPA, says that in “March 1987 Players who played prior to 1959 receive pension benefits for the first time. Six lines later the same publications says “June 1994 Pre-59ers included in Pension Plan.” Well, was it 1987 or 1994? The NFLPA’s written histories are self serving manifestos rather than accurate accounts of what happened or when it happened.

There is no one in or around the NFLPA today who has any idea what went on in 1959. Their accounts of history are simply self serving tales of fiction. They are making it up to try to make the retired players look bad, and to cost those retired players the retirement plan they won at great personal sacrifice and raw courage fighting the most ruthless monopoly in America in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965. I have the advantage of being one of the guys who were there, with the men who made it happen. Having written an autobiography a best selling book They Call It A Game recounting our player’s battles with the owners and the traitors within our own ranks, I am an acknowledged writer and historian, an expert on the era and the players union and the pension plan.

It was not as if the early NFL players didn’t believe they were laying the foundation for themselves and all future of players who also would be involved in building a tremendous industry. But our earlier players have been double crossed by the owners who are using their control of today’s company union to do it. Those owners have always been bitter that we threw off their yoke and kicked their butts for a pension and did it without agents or lawyers holding our hands.

The excerpt from the following memo written by the NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle explains what happened in 1959 and 1960 and shows the intent of both the veteran active players and the league for the future of the NFL Player Benefit Plan. It did not include having thugs like Gene Upshaw/Paul Tagliabue/Roger Goodell come along in the early 1990’s and cut us out of our plan, and by playing the current players off against us retired players.

The Pete Rozelle Memo follows here:

THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE 20 May 1960

MEMORANDUM TO: NFL Veteran Players

SUBJECT: NFL Player Benefit Plan

Early History and Development of the Benefit Plan

“Upon the advice of competent benefit plan consultants, retroactive service prior to 1959 was not included. The amount of benefit payments was to depend entirely upon the amount contributed to the trust fund. The league consultant decided that it would impractical to include service prior to 1959 at the outset of the plan; at least until it was known that there would be sufficient income to cover such service. It should be obvious to all players that the amount of the benefit payments and the possibility of later including retroactive service prior to the 1959 season, are entirely dependent upon one basic factor—namely, adopting measures to produce the highest possible income for the Benefit Plan.

Club owners and players were extremely enthusiastic when the Benefit Plan was first formulated. It was readily and willingly agreed that both the clubs and the players would cooperate completely in developing sources of income for the Benefit Plan. It is significant to note that, unlike benefit plans in other sports, the NFL plan does not call for individual player contributions. This means that not one player is paying one cent toward the cost of the Benefit Plan.”

PETE ROZELLE, Commissioner

Now in 2007 the NFL is a $7.1 billion industry.

1959 to 1993 the retirement benefits were $60 per month per season that is $0 increase in 35 years.

In 1994, 35 years after the plan began the benefits were increased by $24 a month to $84 per month.

In 1998, 5 years later the benefits were increased by a measly $16 per month to $100 per month.

In 2002 Art Modell, Baltimore Ravens owner and a group of owners increased the benefits by $100 per month to $200 per month. Unbelievably Gene Upshaw opposed this increase but the owners overrode him and jammed that $100 benefit increase down his throat.

That 2002 $100 per month increase cost only $19.4 million as evidenced by the employer contribution increase from $23.6 million in 2001 to $43 million in 2002 while Upshaw falsely claims it cost $110 million.

NFLPA attorney Joseph Yablonski’s sent a threatening letter dated August 29, 2006 on behalf of Gene Upshaw and the NFLPA to me as the leader of our retired players movement, that in one paragraph claims both a $110 million and $250 million increases both relating to the 25% retirement benefits in a ridiculous distorted mish-mash of typically inaccurate misleading NFLPA propaganda. A 25% benefit increase on $50.58 million of total benefits paid in 2005 costs $12.6 million, not $110 million, and certainly not $250 million, that is $12.6 million, peanuts out of $7.1 BILLION.

A 25% increase amounts to a total of only $12.6 million not the phony claimed “$120 million to bring the total to $700 million” as stated by Gene Upshaw and the NFL office’s Harold Henderson on July 27, 2006. $110 mil, $120 mil, $250 mil, $700 million are thrown around fast and loose to try to confuse the players and the public and the government in order to cheat the retired players out of their retirement and disability benefits. ($50.58 mil x .25% = $12.6 mil)

Examining what exactly has happened with the only significant increase. The employer contributions were:

$24,211,136 1999
$26,675,399 2000
$23,654,464 2001
$43,074,347 2002
$49,599,601 2003

The entire employer contribution in 2002 was only $43,074,347 how could the benefits be increased by $110 million as Upshaw have claimed repeatedly? How many times does $110 million go into $43,074,347? How many times does $110 million go into $19.4 million the true increase in 2002?

Upshaw and his gang act like if they say it enough times it will turn into the truth. Their $110 million is “wrong, incorrect, a bald faced…” The NFLPA’s attorney Joseph Yablonski knows it is wrong but he and Upshaw and the rest of his cabal continue to make these false statements to financially damage the retired players. I don’t believe that that is legal. On page 2 of Yabolonski’s 10 page 8/29/06 threatening letter written on behalf of his clients Gene Upshaw and the NFLPA he is spinning the tale that “This year the NFLPA negotiated for an additional $250 million to be spent on improving retired player benefits as part of the 2006 extension of the CBA.” In truth and fact the 25% benefit increase proposed will cost 25% of $50.58 million the total benefit payout from 2005 which is $12.6 million not $250 million even 6 years times $12.6 million is not $250 million it is $75.6 million.

One must also note that the $50.58 million of retirement plan benefits also include an unknown amount of disability benefits lumped together (hidden) and duplicated in statements depending on what the owners and their union are selling at the moment. The estimate is $10 million (of the nearly $20 mil claimed to be paid to disabled players by the NFL cabal), then $10 mil of the $50.58 million is actually disability payments not retirement benefits. So the cost of 25% should really be 25% of $40.58 million or about $10 million not even $12.6 million.

$50 per month increase is $1.63 per day. $50 divided by 30.5 days per month equals $1.63 a day increase, pitiful.

The owners say that they dump $700 million in cash (calling it player benefits) in a pile and let a bunch of inmates with diamond earrings and size 10 ball caps worn sideways, with a history of arrests for gun violations and 3AM shootings outside strip clubs, DUI’s, 9 children by 9 different women, murder, and Dog Fighting can decide how much of the pile of cash should go into the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan. Those inmates don’t have a clue that their is the one and only retirement/disability trust fund. They don’t even tell the inmates that the disability and the retirement plan trust fund is the same fund, a single fund they must get their disability payments from. Upshaw and the owner’s claim the inmates run the asylum and decide how much goes into the retirement/disability plan, one absurdity after another. The owners claim the inmates are the plan fiduciaries.

Settling the disability plan without settling the retirement plan is not really possible. It is the same plan. But don’t tell the inmates. The owners and their company union are trying to hide behind these fairytales. Gene Upshaw told the press, “And you have to understand, everything we (the NFLPA) are able to do comes from the guys in the locker room today. The active players pay the freight. They write the check. It comes out of their 60 percent that I negotiate on their behalf.”

As usual that Upshaw statement doesn’t match up with the facts. The active players “write no check” if they do they owe taxes on that Upshaw imposed “check.” “Their 60% is another myth. It is really only 40.5% but first contracts must be honored and expenses paid before players can be paid and one of those contractual obligations is a Pension plan contract between the owners and the retirement plan. It is an owners contractual obligation that the current players play no role whatever in. In fact there are no real negotiations the Chicago Bears owner, our plan actuary, tells the company union how much the owners/employers will contribute to the plan and that is what is contributed by the owners.

Pete Rozelle NFL Commissioner said in his historic 1960 Memo to NFL Veteran Players, “It is significant to note that, unlike benefit plans in other sports, the NFL plan does not call for individual player contributions. This means that not one player is paying one cent toward the cost of the Benefit Plan.” Further proof that active players make no contributions to the retirement plan is that on IRS Form 5500 for 2006 page 4 line 9i it says “Employer contribution” $67,938,458 million. There is no reference to any “employee (active player) contribution” or any “checks from active players” and these form 5500 tax returns have had the same “Employer contribution” reference for over 40 years and there has never been a single reference to any active player contribution not in 1962 nor in 2006 or any year in between. This is another Upshaw/Goodell PR scam misrepresentation.

In testimony to the Congressional Committee June 24, 2007 the NFL’s staff pension expert for 20 years, attorney Dennis Curran told the committee that the “retirement plan is funded by the owners” less than an hour later NFLPA & Retirement Plan attorney Doug Ell testified that “the active players fund the Retirement Plan”. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Linda Sanchez told Curran and Ell in opening the hearing that even though they were not under oath the witnesses would be under the same legal penalties to tell the truth as if they were under oath. Obviously either Curran or Ell was lying to the committee. Their combined testimony displayed the NFL’s utter contempt for the committee, for the congress, and for the laws of the United States of America.

Not only is this claim a fraud but the claim of having negotiated for 60% of the $7.1 billion gross is another fraud just as the fact that active players write no checks to the player retirement or disability plan. The amount that goes to the active and retired players is only 40.5%. That means there is over a billion dollars of union PR BS cash missing somewhere. 60% is an Upshaw myth.

“Side letters” is another Lanny Davis get the bad news out early tactic. A couple weeks ago I wrote an email to the 1500 in our community about the “secret side letters” that hide Upshaw’s true compensation that begins at over $6.7 million reported in the 2007 IRS LM2 reports. Those secret under the table side letters are between Upshaw and his accomplice Troy Vincent who plans to succeed Upshaw, and would have remained secret if their existence had not been exposed by my essay to our retired players email community. These “secret side letters” amend the CBA and when their content is exposed will tell the real story of NFLPA corruption.

Upshaw’s new writer Lanny Davis is the author of “I did not have sex with that woman.” Upshaw’s own quotable quotes “I have not took my pension…” and “…break his God damn neck” “I’m tattooed with it…” have the Lanny Davis ring to them don’t they.

Diverting employer contributions to complex insurance and investment funds is the way that most labor racketeering works according to the Dept of Labor’s OIG website. The CPA firm of Thomas Havey was the NFLPA’s accountants through early 2003 until their star accountant Frank Massey was convicted of helping the iron workers union leader hide extravagant personal expenses in general overhead. “In a 2003 plea bargain, former partner Francis J. Massey pled guilty to assisting top officers of the fund "in falsifying Form LM-2 reports from 1992 to 1999 to hide in excess of $1.5 million in personal dining, drinking and entertainment expenses," according to the Department of Labor. Separately, former partner Alfred S. Garappolo pled guilty to "knowingly and willfully concealing and failing to disclose" to investigators information regarding the embezzlement of $33,000 from the fund.” Massey plea bargained a 5 year sentence and a $35,000 fine. Havey was the Arthur Anderson of labor unions before Frank Massey’s corruption took them down. Thomas Havey’s Frank Massey was also the person who went to the IRS and Labor Dept with William Hundley and Robert Peloquin to save Upshaw from criminal prosecution for loaning himself $100,000 of union funds when the legal limit is $2000. It was Massey who came up with the argument that Upshaw was taking his severance pay early and the IRS and Labor Dept accept the ridiculous idea which was never used before or since to justify any other illegal union loan.

In 2003 Calibre CPA Group PLLC replaced Thomas Havey as the NFLPA’s accountants. Calibre has been very creative in coming up with labels covering up money paid to Gene Upshaw in Retention Bonuses, Trust funds and deferred payment plans.

Further research reveals that Upshaw has now 2007 hired Charles Ross to be the NFLPA’s new in house accountant replacing William Garner who “kept two sets of books” as in house accountant. Ross, an alleged tax expert, came from CPA Thomas Havey’s disgraced Washington DC office, the one that prepared the NFLPA’s LM2 reports for Upshaw from 1990 to 2003 until their office was closed by the 2003 Havey embezzling union funds scandal. Now this is developing scandal worthy of Lanny Davis. The San Francisco office address of the NFLPA and Thomas Havey, CPA’s is still one and the same even though Dave Meggysey suddenly resigned in unison with the Players Inc crowd, from his do nothing $234,000 a year NFLPA job and vacated that office. Address: Western Office NFLPA & Tomas Havey CPA 423 Washington Street, Suite 700, San Francisco , CA 94111. Coincidence? Not really.

When the Retirement Plan was initially put into writing the Plan said the following.

BERT BELL NFL PLAYER RETIREMENT PLAN

(As Amended March 15, 1963, May 17, 1963; December 13, 1963; and October 13, 1964)

and

TRUST AGREEMENT

(As Amended May 17, 1963; and May 23, 1963)

ARTICLE 16

16.1 Under no circumstances shall any funds contribution to the Trust or to the Insurer, or any assets of the Trust or funds on deposit with the Insurer ever revert to, or be used or enjoyed by, any Employer or the League, nor shall any funds or assets ever be used other than for the benefit of the Players, Vested Players, and Retired Players, and their beneficiaries. This section may not be altered or amended.

This Article 16.1 does not say may not be altered or amended until Paul Tagliabue & Jeff Pash from Covington and Burling Law Firm and his leashed pet show up and they decide to violate this agreement and screw the Retired Players over cutting their funding to peanuts.

Tagliabue/Goodell/Pash/Upshaw still have their Groom Law Group violating this clause “altering and amending” the retirement Plan document contract clauses holding down benefits while abusing and exploiting retired players because in their arrogance they believe they can hire guns like Lanny Davis and get away with it.

In 2006 an amendment was added to the Collective Bargaining Agreement called for the NFLPA to make its “best effort” to increase benefits for ALL retired players.

Instead of making the “best effort” on behalf of ALL players as this contract amendment required the Executive Director gave himself a 200% or more increase in his own compensation and unilaterally dictated a 25% benefits increase to retired players. The 25% increase is meant to be a vindictive insult to retired players who criticize Upshaw’s outrageous treatment of them and his personal greed and his illegal collusion with the NFL owners. There was no one to negotiate with since CBA “negotiations” were completed and a “best effort” could have been 500% since there was no one to oppose it. This sort of contorted situation is the norm rather than the exception for the NFL.

In addition to the league cabal working to cheat retired players by diverting funding to new insurance and retirement and medical plans that exclude retired players, there is also the Plan actuary Aon Corporation owned by Chicago bears owner Patrick Ryan a plan employer whose own contributions are lowered by what we believe are his own companies cooked actuarial analysis of our Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan. Ryan is also a Republican fund raiser who the Dept of Labor is protecting from prosecution under and order from the Bush administration to the Dept of Labor not to prosecute any high profile white collar crimes.

We retired players need for Congress to suggest that the NFL match Major League Baseball’s pension plan and to scrap and redraft a disability plan that fits the unique circumstances of professional football the most dangerous sport to participate in in the world today.