'Moose' wants NFL commissioner to stand up for those who can't

By JIM REEVES Star-Telegram Staff Writer

 

IRVING -- There was a time when Brian DeMarco, all 6-foot-7, 320 pounds of him then, could sprint downfield from his three-point stance, pulling as the lead blocker in front of Bengals running back Corey Dillon, and bury whatever linebacker or cornerback got in his way.

I mean, BURY them, knock them halfway across the foorball field, and then zero in on whatever other unlucky defensive player who might get in his way.

On Monday, it took everything Daryl Johnston and Conrad Dobler had to help DeMarco out of his chair, so he could painfully, a slow step at a time with a cane helping him keep his balance, take his place at the podium.

It would be the second time in the span of maybe 10 minutes that I would see a grown man weep, and not just any grown men, but two of the toughest ever to play professional football.

Forget Michael Vick for a moment. He's being taken care of as we speak. This is the dirtiest story in the NFL, the one that commissioner Roger Goodell wishes would just go away, the one that NFL Players Association director Gene Upshaw prays you won't care about.

It's about how the league discards its players like so much used up pieces of meat. It's about a union that, if you believe what you hear, sold out the very players who built it.

That's why Upshaw and the Players Association began their own spin doctoring Friday, after word of Monday's news conference by Mike Ditka's Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund began to spread.

I got a phone call from a Players Association official, asking if I had any questions about the upcoming news conference I was scheduled to cover. I asked him to e-mail any information he had that might help me write my column. He did, sending a brief report on each of the players scheduled to speak at the press conference, explaining why their disability benefits had been denied.

The reasons were varied, yet similar. Didn't meet percentages. Can still work. Even the ludicrous claim that DeMarco has never filed for benefits (his file has apparently been lost).

"Think about that," DeMarco said. "I've been homeless three times in the last four years. You think I wouldn't apply for help if it was available?"

For four months, DeMarco, his wife Autumn and two children lived in a storage shed in Austin. They had one space heater and the children slept between them for warmth. Another time they lived in a vacant house. There was no electricity, so they used candles for light. The water was still on, but only the cold.

When Jennifer Smith of Gridiron Greats, founded by Ditka and a handful of other former NFL greats, arrived in Austin to help the DeMarco family, she found no food in the house. Not a cracker. Not a can of Vienna sausage. Brian and Autumn hadn't eaten in days, giving their food to the kids instead. They had 75 cents between them.

It's a staggering story, but unfortunately, it's not an isolated incident. According to an article in the September issue of Men's Journal magazine, tax records for 2006 show that of more than 10,000 former NFL players, only 121 of them receive disability.

Johnston's presence at Monday's press conference gave it even more credibility. As Smith pointed out, he's in a high-profile position as one of Fox's lead NFL analysts.

The system, Johnson said, is tragically flawed.

"It's a process that is set up to deny [benefits]," Johnston said. "The reason I was denied is that I can still work. That's not what this is about. This is not about holding a job."

A new bargaining agreement handed the overseeing of the disability and pension system to the Players Association a few years ago. Instead of helping the players, things have only gotten worse, with charges of conspiracy, corruption and fraud being tossed around among ex-players.

There is no spin doctoring here that can help the Players Association look better. There are too many severely injured players, too many surgeries, too many knee, and hip, and elbow replacements, too many spinal fusions, too many post-concussion syndromes and too little help coming from the very funds that are supposed to be in place to help these men.

Where's the money going?

"Good question," Johnston said. "There's supposed to be about $1.3 billion a year there that no one can seem to track. That's why there's speculation about fraud and corruption.

"These are hand-selected NFL doctors [who are denying benefits]. You can't bring in MRIs or X-rays. You can't bring in any information except text. What are we supposed to think?"

What's needed, D.J. said, is some consistency in the process.

"What's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong," he said. "Whether you have a job or not shouldn't matter. What your economic status is shouldn't matter. Either you qualify or you don't qualify, and we have to get standards put in place that are level across the board."

If there's a white knight in sight, Johnston says it's Goodell, who has made a positive impression in a short time. His father, Charles Goodell, a Republican congressman, effectively ended his political career by speaking out against the war in Vietnam. Now the former players hope Roger Goodell will follow in his father's footsteps by taking up their cause and righting the obvious wrongs that are being done by the NFLPA.

"The people who are denying disability are the Players Association," Johnston said. "The owners have given them that responsibility. The NFL is still the NFL, and if we've got a guy in Roger Goodell, who I believe is who he is, then his power trumps the NFL in this situation.

"He gives us hope. And right now, that's about all some of these guys have to hold onto."

Once they were strapping young men, playing a game with incredible physical skill and ability.

Now they have been stripped of their strength, of their pride and of their dignity, many of them forced to grovel and beg to keep their families afloat.

Oh, their tears Monday were real. So, unfortunately, is their pain.