was talking about this with my friend yesterday.
the nfl is trying to fight this battle the wrong way--and in the end, they may lose some money because of it. im not willing to say it's too late, but it may be too late. and what i mean by that is, its hard to imagine a commissioner restoring the league to a more "violent" sport.
now, the way that i would address it: i think, first of all, you have to assume that a great many of these players that are suffering complications in their retirement age, like depression, anxiety, rage, etc. are feeling that way because their life has become invalidated. they went from the center of everyones attention and love, fame and fortune, to in most cases, lucky enough to get a job teaching high school phys. ed.
of course, some guys move on to broadcasting, and others move on to even better things (john elway,) but for the most part... 99.9999999... these guys are working at your local enterprise car rental place down the block. OF COURSE they're going to be "depressed" or "have trouble fitting in with society," or "snap at their friends and family." their entire existence and purpose in life has been ended, via a text from their agent 2 years ago saying: "no offers on table. stay in shape! gonna get you to that cleveland mini camp next spring!"
they hear a story on the news about "so and so's brain looked like a 90 year alzheimers patient" and all of a sudden quinn early is saying to himself, "damn, i could be part of a BILLION dollar settlement? sh*t, now that you mention it, i get headaches every so often too!" not saying these guys are gaming the system, or are not suffering--but more than likely, the majority of these guys are gaming the system, and are not suffering.
NOW, where does the NFL come into all this: the fact that they are a multi billion dollar company, and theyre too f*cking stingy to take care of their lowest common denominators. (welcome to america, right?) look, f*ck all this bad publicity that goodell seems to welcome. if you made me commissioner TOMORROW, i would create
THE NFL LEGACY FOUNDATION.
if you make an active roster for a total of 2 seasons worth of games (from the shortest amount of games available in a season during the time from when you were drafted to when you were last on an nfl roster,) and the total number of games you were on an active roster was less than 5 seasons, you are eligible for a 20,000$ a year pension.
every season you play after that nets you more money in your pension, with obvious escalator and penalty clauses, but not for amounts that would be egregiously high: (Brett Favre isnt going to be cashing a 1.5 million dollar check anytime soon.)
additionally, and more important, every team is required to create an alumni network, that acts essentially as a veterans of foreign wars office. the money to fund this is provided vis-a-vis the television contract, meaning it is earmarked by the league offices for each team to be spent only in this manner. the alumni network is open to any member of the team from the past, and meets informally once a week. if the team needs things like
- stadium to be shoveled before a game
- the stadium to be cleaned in general
- public relations in the community
- brand ambassadors
- janitors
- bus drivers
- laundry men
Basically ANY job that they farm out to minimum wage workers, they would be required to hire from their alumni pool. (this would, of course, replace their pension.) i think more than anything, these former players that have nothing need money and a purpose, like all of us. if a commissioner did this, all the lawsuits would disappear over night, and the game could stay the way it is/was.
I was going to say something when @
