bernie parish truth squad

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

BERNIE PARISH

Answering the uh... NFLPA Truth Squad - ha, ha, really, the Truth Squad? ha,ha,ha,ha

121 receive disability benefits maybe... The "Truth" Squad says I erred by only reporting the 121 disability recipients listed on the Supplemental Disability Plan. The "Truth" Squad says I "erred," I "erred," really. There are no tax or any other reports on the number of disability recipients anywhere. The only numbers are the phony ones that come from the NFLPA and NFLPA attorney Doug Ell in perjured testimony to Congress. The auditors of the retirement and disability plan the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Retirement Plan do not list the number of beneficiaries covered or any disability amount, not $20 million or any other amount paid to disabled beneficiaries. No number of retirement beneficiaries or disabled beneficiaries is listed in their strange incomplete audit, only the total "Benefits Payments" are listed at $53,332,266 for 2006, then $50,581,207 for 2005, and $49,030,378 for 2004. No number of retirement beneficiaries is listed in any Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Retirement Plan audit by Abrams, Foster, Nole, & Williams, P.A. And no number of disabled recipients is listed anywhere in Abram's other plan audits ever. The Dennis Curran, Greg Aiello, Harold Henderson, Roger Goodell, Carl Francis and Lanny Davis' "Truth Squad" all scatter self serving claims of $20 million or just under $20 million a year claiming it is paid to 90, 106, 121, 130, 284, 317, or 428 disabled NFL players the only number with any back up is 121. Unbelievably only 4 of whom are disabled with concussion or brain injuries out of the over 13,000 living who have played in the NFL. Those 13,000 players probably suffered over 60,000 concussions during those 13,000 NFL careers but only 4 collect disability today according to NFL witness testimony to the Senate last month. The Abram's Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan audit doesn't cite or even mention the "Truth Squad's" $20 million of disability benefits or any of the numbers strewed about by the NFL propagandist, let alone who the $20 mil is supposed to be paid to. I believe we have an action against Abram’s et al for the piece of _____ they call a "Financial Statement and Independent Auditors Report." We retirement Plan beneficiaries don't get an annual audit we get another NFL propaganda piece. The "Truth Squad's" self serving lies are never ending.

The Employers, the Clubs fund the retirement plan not the current players:

Current players do not contribute any of their salaries to the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Benefit Plan. Form 5500 for 2004 shows an Amount paid by employer column 3(b) $59,436,976 column 3(c) Amount paid by employees None (That would be the current players paid $0)Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan 2005 Page2 Column 3(b) Amount paid by employer $64,769,237 3(c) Amount paid by employees None (That would be the current players paid $0) Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan 2006 shows the same accounting Employer Contribution 3(b) $67,938,458 and column 3(c) Employee contribution None (That would be the current players paid $0).

Dennis Curran Senior Vice President of NFL told a Congressional committee that "In 2006 alone, the Clubs contributed $126 million to the Retirement Plan." The "Clubs" are not the "current player's salaries" even though the $126 million is pure fiction. How can the IRS report say employer contribution $67,938,458 and the NFL VP responsible for the accuracy of the IRS report say the Club's contribution was $126 million for 2006. Somebody is not telling the government or the public the truth. How about that "Truth Squad?"

Both the IRS tax forms and Curran the NFL Vice President who is over the plan he says, said " the Employers-the Clubs" alone fund the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan. Any reasonable person including a Congressman or Senator must conclude that either the Tax forms have been falsified and NFL VP Dennis Curran lied to Congress or the "Truth Squad" and all who claim the current players contribute a portion of their salaries to fund the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan are lying.

Baseball has had only one player retirement plan from the beginning. They didn't attempt to screw their older players. by diverting money into 2nd Career, and other splinter plans that include only the current and most recent players and exclude the older players. Now the NBA has acted and improved their retirement plan to a fairer level. Our NFL media fight moved the NBA owners to do the right thing. Now only the NFL owners are making a concerted effort to deny the benefits planned when the retirement plan was established based on the foundation asserted by Pete Rozelle that "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."

Despite the lies the "Truth Squad" has told about how the pre 1959 players were first left out (when the plan was founded) then later covered by the sacrifice of the NFLPA under Upshaw. That isn't true at all. *The real truth is that covering the pre 59ers was part of a lawsuit settlement over the NFL logo between the NFL Alumni group in Ft Lauderdale, Florida and the NFL. Dante Lavelli, another former Cleveland Brown, formed the NFL Alumni group in Ft Lauderdale because of the retired player's dissatisfaction, like the situation now, with the NFLPA. It was Lavelli and his retired player group who pushed for the pre 59 players to be covered. Upshaw wasn't even around yet when the initiated and won the logo suit with the NFL. Robert Smith of ESPN told a complete fabrication, an utter and complete lie about how the pre 59 players got covered by the pension plan. Gene Upshaw wasn't even involved and neither was the NFLPA except to object to those pre 59 players being covered. Upshaw and the NFLPA is one long stream of fiction and now they have hired a scandal manager to cover it up for them using their new "Truth Squad." I feel like we are back in Jr. High, "Truth Squad" my ___. Some of you might remember Lanny Davis wrote the book Scandal Management 101 and came up with the line "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," for Bill Clinton and without a stream of NFLPA scandals Lanny doesn't continue collecting his $900 an hour from your NFLPA and Retirement Plan assets.

Another thing you should know is that pre 1982 players receive only 34% of every dollar the "employers, the Clubs" contribute to the retirement plan while current players receive 66% of every dollar contributed based on the $250 per month per year vs $470 per month per year played for current players. Current players get 66% and that's not enough? Out of $7.1 billion you still have to divert money to the 2nd career and other plans that excludes pre 82 retired players? Hard to believe, the NBA just fixed their retirement Plan, baseball operated theirs as they should have all along, but the NFL continues to screw the guys who built the game and tore the retirement plan out of the hides of the greedy owners and gifted it to all future players including you current players

The 60% of gross is another NFLPA fiction. You only get 42.59% (53 players x 32 clubs x $1.5 million ave. salary according to Forbes Magazine. Each club gives $15 million for benefits according to NFLPA’s newsletter The Audible March issue x 32 clubs = $3,024,000,000) That is 42.59% of $7.1 billion not 60% where is the other 17%? 17% is over $1.2 billion. Who has it? $1.2 billion is enough to fix both the retirement and disability plans and leave you current players with all your current booty. Ask your agents to help you with the math.

Oh yes, $23 million in retirement benefits is only 0.003% of $7.1 billion. Visualize this it might be easier; an African Bull elephant weights 7 tons (See $7 billion like 7 tons) the amount the owners provide in retirement benefits to those who built their industry is equal to 9 mice or (4 size 10 ball caps worn sideways) in proportion to that elephant’s size. The NFL elephant is $7.1 billion. Is that graphic enough for even a Matt Stover to understand.

Bernie Parrish, Retired Players for Justice