Responsibility to Retired Players Becomes an Issue

What responsibility, if any, does a company have to an employee after retirement, especially if the average employee retires before age 30?

It’s a question being debated in the National Football League, where former players seek answers to fears about their mortality rate and other post-football problems.

A majority of 440 former players responding to a survey by The Times said that the NFL has little or no long-term interest in its players. But then again, should it?

The National Football League Players Assn., which has asked the NFL to co-finance a longevity study of its players, says yes.

“I think the player should be aware of the facts and circumstances of playing,” Gene Upshaw, NFLPA executive director, said. “It’s like a guy working in a nuclear plant or a guy working around asbestos. He should at least know the dangers of it and then make a decision.”

The NFLPA, and a majority of the former players surveyed for this story, said that playing in the NFL is detrimental to a player’s long-term health and might even affect his life span.

The union has offered to share expenses of the longevity study but maintains that the league has no interest in the subject.

“The first thing they say is that there’s no evidence that anybody dies at age 55,” Doug Allen, the union’s assistant executive director, said. “We respond, ‘Well, let’s get some evidence to see what the effect is. What are you afraid of?’ There is a number. There is some evidence. Let’s quantify it. They say we don’t need it, it’s a whole lot of poppycock.”

The question has its political overtones, of course, especially in the wake of a 24-day player strike last fall and the fact that the union and NFL Management Council are still without a collective bargaining agreement.

Numerous requests for interviews with Jack Donlan, executive director of the Management Council, and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, were turned down.

But John Jones, a spokesman for Donlan, denied that the council was not interested in the study. Quite the contrary, he said.

“The Management Council indicated last year in collective bargaining that it agreed to participate with the NFL players in a mortality study,” Jones said, reading from a written statement.

“Player mortality records since 1959 already exist as part of the pension board files. These records have been made available to the media. Discussions of this collective bargaining issue were of a positive nature. It is disappointing that the union has sought to portray this as anything but a positive action.”

Joe Browne, a spokesman for Rozelle, agreed and said, “There are indications that such a study could be part of a final collective bargaining agreement.”

Browne added that other player concerns, such as the NFL’s role in preparing players for their transition from the game, have been addressed. He said recent increases in severance pay have eased the burden.

“The severance money addresses that to a certain degree,” Browne said. “That’s money meant for acclimation, for the post-NFL career.”

The Denver Broncos acknowledge that most players are not prepared for the transition to the business world and have responded with a program called “Active Roster,” which matches current players and their interests with leaders in the business community in the hope that it someday will lead to job placement.

Bronco owner Pat Bowlen said the NFL owes the players something.

“I do think we have some responsibility,” Bowlen said. “A lot of owners might disagree with me. I can understand why they might.”

But Bowlen thinks the owners’ role is limited to current, not retired players.

“Our responsibility is to make sure they know they’re going to have to do something,” Bowlen said. “I think the NFL can do better as a league in really getting the player better equipped for life after football. Here again, we can’t force somebody to do something.”

Though the Broncos’ program may be unique, Browne added that several other NFL teams, including the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots provide on-staff counselors to assist players in this area.

“(The Broncos) are not the only ones that are doing something,” Browne said.

As for a player longevity study, Allen of the NFLPA says the reasons for the NFL’s not wanting the study are obvious. And despite NFL claims, he insists that the league does not want the study done.

“I think they’re afraid that we will expose what we find out publicly and afraid we’ll insist on changes as a result of the information,” Allen said. “And they’re right. But that’s no reason for them to say no.”