Johnston joins fight for disabled NFLers, appeals to Goodell
IRVING, Texas — Daryl Johnston is one of the lucky ones. Despite breaking his neck opening holes for Emmitt Smith, he walks without a cane or a limp and is able to hold down a lucrative second career in broadcasting. Yet Johnston sympathizes with broken-down former players who need help with medical bills and aren’t getting it. His own experience with the system was eye-opening. So the former Dallas Cowboys star and current Fox NFL analyst jumped into the ongoing battle over disability payments on Monday, albeit with a twist. Rather than continuing the name-calling that has overshadowed many of the issues, Johnston went with a new tactic by making a plea to commissioner Roger Goodell…. “The system is broke and it needs to be fixed. That’s the issue,” Johnston said. “I think we have the guy as commissioner to get this fixed.”
I LOVE football. I grew up playing the game, and one of my dreams was to someday be an NFL quarterback. That dream didn’t quite pan out…something about being slower than molasses in January, I guess. I never lost my love for the game, though, and I’ll be a Minnesota Vikings fan until the day I die. Nonetheless, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to recognize that football is a brutal game that can and often does exact a brutal toll upon those who play it. Just how bad is it? Well, consider that on average those who have played in the NFL tend to die 10 years earlier than the general population. Footbal may be only one reason for that statistic, but the reality is that the human body was simply not designed for the pounding of NFL football. As players continue to get bigger, faster, and stronger, this reality only becomes more difficult to ignore…and yet there are those, such as Gene Upshaw, head of the National Football League Players Association, who do. It’s inexcusable and unconscionable, but it happens with disturbing frequency.
The ugly side of the NFL and the NFLPA is that they’re notorious for tossing broken players aside when they are no longer of any value. The NFL, one of the most profitable business ventures on the face of the planet, by and large refuses to accept responsibility for assisting those players left with debilitating, life-long injuries from their NFL service. Few players leave their NFL careers behind without some sort of lingering, and usually permanent, injury. That’s the price of playing professional football, and those who play the game understand and accept the risks involved. This phenomenon is nothing new, and in fact modern medical advances have actually made things better for players over the years. Still, the problem persists, because the NFL and the NFLPA continue to ignore the legitimate ongoing medical needs of far too many former players.
Now that this issue is finally beginning to get some well-deserved publicity, perhaps the NFL and the NFLPA will be shamed into taking concrete action. It doesn’t even really have to be much, relatively speaking. Just by throwing a small portions of their billions in profits at the problem, the NFL can begin to make a difference in the lives of those that have sacrificed so much of their health and their future. It’s about time that the league and the NFLPA (whose job is to represent the interest of players) to step up and do the right thing. One of the most profitable industries on the face of the planet shouldn’t be able to justify a system which leaves caring for the medical needs of former players to poorly-funded non-profit organizations. It’s unconscionable, inexcusable, and just plain wrong- the worst sort of corporate greed and malfeasance imaginable.
While you’re at it, shouldn’t someone kick Gene Upshaw’s @$$ for his complete dereliction of his duties as head of the NFLPA? He’s President of the NFL’s players union, and yet his interests are more closely aligned with ownership than his own constituency. On the issue of caring for debilitated former players, Upshaw- a former player himself- has been actively and openly hostile to those former players most in need of assistance. I can’t help but wonder how Upshaw manages to live with himself….
