MEN'S JOURNAL
CASUALTIES OF THE NFL

The following are quotes and excerpts from an in-depth story that appears in the August issue of Men's Journal the Gridiron Greats and the NFL Disability system.  The investigative story, "Casualties of the NFL," written by Pulitzer Prize nominated writer Paul Solotaroff, addresses the abandonment and betrayal of former players by the BFL/NFLPA.  The magazine in on newsstands now and we encourage you to pick up a copy and read the entire story.

 

EXCERPTS & QUOTES

 

"I'm at the bottom of the pile under a thousand pounds of guys , and I'm thinking I'm never getting up.  I'll never walk again."  DeMarco got to his feet, and , minutes after breaking off bits of spine, reentered the game.

-Brian DeMarco, on a pileup during his career with Cincinnati

Stunningly no one in the sport has stepped up to address the scope and depth of the injuries-not the teams, not the owners, and certainly not the one organization charged with looking after the athletes, the NFL Players Association (NFLPA)

...fewer than 3 percent of the men who played in the league succeed in getting disability benefits.

...a typical career lasts three and a half seasons, or just half a season more than the minimum to qualify for a pension.

Full pension pay outs start at 55, which is around the time the average former player dies, two decades sooner than non-players.

"Strap a helmet on, run headfirst into a wall, then do it again 35 times.  That's what I did every Sunday afternoon."  "You can't make the club form the tub."
-A common cry amongst coaches that urges players to play, even while hurt - Former Dallas Cowboy and current Fox NFL analyst Daryl Johnston

"When I broke my neck doing what I was trained to do, the league and union told me to get lost."

-Johnston on his difficulty in obtaining disability benefits

"The second I couldn't play I was dead meat to them.  It was "So long, see you later, and don't call us."

-Johnston on the league's attitude toward former players

"We paid the price and thought the game would pay us back, but the league and union sold us out."
-Mike Ditka on the aftermath of NFL careers

"There's so much money in this g**damn game, and no one gives a s**t about these guys."

-Ditka on players being left behind

"The NFL is the worst-represented league, on the players' side, in pro sports."

-Joe Montana in a 2006 newspaper survey of Hall of Famers

This is odd behavior for one of the highest-paid officials in the history of organized labor.

"You sit out a game and I'll f****** waive you.  I don't want cowards on my team."
-DeMarco quoting then-Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Tom Coughlin

"He (the doctor) stuck that four-inch needle up under my rib cage-six big shots from my rib cage to spine, and suddenly I couldn't feel a damn thing."

-DeMarco on how his injuries were "treated" in that same Baltimore game

'I came over to the sideline and the team doctor...sends me back in the game.  He says I had a broken neck...but he said I was a hypochondriac and there was nothing wrong with me..."

-Dave Pear, former Oakland Raider, on medical attitudes during his era in the NFL

"Unless you're in a wheelchair like Darryl Stingley, you won't get the benefit."

-Pear, quoting an NFLPA representative on his chances of getting disability benefits.  Stingley was a New England Patriot receiver who became a quadriplegic as a result of an on-field collision.

"I went form being the return champ in 1982 to being unable to bend my knee by '84...I was home on my front porch at 26."

-Mike Mosley on his injury issues that derailed his NFL career

...without a word of warning, the pension board cut him off.

The end of Mosely's disability benefits

"They took it all from me, and never even gave a reason.  If you talk to (Gene) Upshaw - and I tried like hell to - could you ask him how he lives with himself?"
-Mosley

"That's the trick they pulled on me.  They shopped and shopped till the found a quack doctor who would cross me off the list."

-Mosely on the NFL's doctor shopping that cost him his disability benefits

"Gene lies and lies, telling the young guys today that they'll have nothing to retire on if he pays us (the retired players)"

-Former Cleveland Brown Bernie Parrish on Upshaw's approach

"It's a colossal failure of leadership by Upshaw, who simply refuses to admit he made mistakes."

-Cy Smith, lawyer for the estate of ex-Pittsburg Steeler Mike Webster, on the comparison of NFL pensions to pensions in other professional sports

"It just tears you apart to see 'em (former players) like that, and then have the league claim it didn't come from football."

-Ditka on the state of some of his peers

"We had a drill with the Vikings where they mimicked concussions..."

-Former Minnesota Viking Brent Boyd

"...they wouldn't open this can of worms (granting disability claims for head injuries) because the problem was too widespread."

-Boyd quoting an NFLPA representative from his disability claim

"If I am like this at 50, what's 60 going to be like?  Is that when the union finally cuts us a check, to have someone come in and change my diaper?"

-Boyd on his current condition

"Every reputable expert says that blows to the head'll cause damage if they happen enough. But the NFL happens to have the only neurologists who say that the jury's still out."

"They'll go to their graves denying that concussions hurt guys...Gene (Upshaw) will do and say anything the owners want, as long as he gets his money."

-Boyd on the stance of the NFL and their collusion.

"What Brian needs - what all out guys need- is for the league and union to honor their obligations."

-Jen Smith on where the responsibility lies

"If Jennifer (Smith) hadn't stepped in when she did, we'd've been out in the street with our two kids."

-DeMarco on his family's fate without GGAF assistance