A retiree makes his case against NFLPA

NOW THAT the National Football League has settled its labor issues, the season has begun and everything appears right about the league.

Almost . . .

Last week, 28 former NFL players, including Chuck Bednarik, filed a class-action federal lawsuit against the NFL Players Association, seeking at least $5 million in damages. The lawsuit alleges current players interfered with negotiations on the new collective bargaining agreement and kept money from the retirees.

NFLPA spokesman Carl Francis said the union had no comment on the lawsuit.

Bob DeMarco is in agreement with the lawsuit. DeMarco was a standout offensive lineman during his 15-year NFL career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Rams from 1961 to '75. He was a Pro Bowler three times and twice was named as a first-team All-Pro.

He is, in short, part of the building-block generation that helped turn pro football into the $9 billion-a-year behemoth it has become.

For that, he receives a pension of $1,684 per month.

In the new collective bargaining agreement, he said, it has been proposed that the older players receive an increase of $114 a month per year played. That would increase his annual gross to around $40,000.

DeMarco outspokenly believes that he, and other pre-1993 players, are being shortchanged.

"They're splitting $9 billion. And they're increasing the benefits for them. They have tremendous benefits, besides the pension fund. Plus the fact they're making millions of dollars [in salary]," he said by phone from his St. Louis area home. "Then they're saying, and I don't know if this is true, that in 10 years they could possibly be making $20 billion a year. To me, it's a joke. A total joke."

This is an issue that the league and players association would like to see go away. But while it's not getting the attention it did while the most recent collective bargaining agreement was being negotiated, it won't. Not with the increasing focus on player safety and the mounting evidence of long-term health consequences from playing football.

Last July, the Tampa Tribune wrote a series called "Broken Bucs" that detailed the shocking maladies being faced by players from the 1979 worst-to-first team. Last month, several former players joined in a lawsuit that was filed against the NFL and two equipment makers alleging "callous indifference" and "ruthless abandon" regarding their well-being.

DeMarco has an issue with the league but is particularly pointed in his criticism toward the NFLPA, especially former executive director Gene Upshaw.

A player representative in 1967 and '68, he's quick to admit that the football players brought this on themselves because of a lack of solidarity during bargaining years ago.

"Compared to baseball, my God, it's ridiculous. But you know what? I've got to give credit to those guys. They stuck together and Marvin Miller was a good organizer and they did it," he said. "I got into some hellacious arguments with guys about crossing the picket line. That was our problem. We didn't have the [unity]. The owners knew that.

"And they're still doing the same thing because the guys today, they don't care. They don't know about the history of the game. They complain about four exhibition games. Hell, we played six exhibition games for 50 bucks a game and they took out taxes. We [netted] $37.50. And they're complaining about four exhibition games, which they [barely] play in."

To be fair, many older baseball players also feel that they should be getting a larger slice of the pie. This is where the argument falls into a murky area between what is legally required and what should be done simply because it's right.

DeMarco points out that football players have less security than their baseball counterparts because the colleges act as a free feeder system. Major league teams, by contrast, have an investment in their players because they maintain a minor league system.

"And basically the money wasn't there," he added. "Even the owners. They were making money but not the millions they are today."

The most compelling argument, though, is the avalanche of data on how poorly former football players age. The dementia. The joint-replacement surgeries. DeMarco turned 73 last week. He has two torn rotator cuffs. He's had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his knee and has occasional problems with his hip. And admits he's one of the lucky ones.

He played golf recently with two former teammates, Irv Goode and Herschel Turner. They figured they'd had 15 surgeries among them.

DeMarco understands that, in some ways, he's kicking into the wind. The only real leverage players have is to go on strike. That's obviously not an option for guys who have been retired 20, 30 years or more. And now that football is back, there's no real urgency to give them more, especially with labor peace guaranteed for the next decade.

"Now the season [has started], we've been put on the back burner again. And the longer it goes, I figure the less we're going to get. Out of sight, out of mind, you know? That's just the way it goes," he said.

Still, he hopes. Former Browns defensive back Bernie Parrish field a class-action lawsuit in 2007 over licensing issues; each affected player got about $14,000. "And now he's going after them again," DeMarco said. "He's the only one who has done a damn thing for the players. All these other people, all I hear is a lot of rhetoric."

Right now, he believes, it's all about clock management. And delay works in favor of the league and union.

"They hope we all die off, which is probably going to happen in the next 20 years," he said with a sigh.

It would be easy to dismiss DeMarco as just a cranky old guy, but he's obviously paid his dues. Now he, and many like him, are wondering when they're going to get what they feel they have coming in return.