(2009) Football, the number-one spectator sport in America with over $7 billion in annual revenues, is a brutal sport in which most players during their relatively short careers will get injured, some seriously enough to be disabled. Former Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett describes a tackle as like "a freight train hitting a Volkswagen," and game footage of collisions between players confirms his statement. Worse, professional football is a cruel business when it comes to taking care of those no longer able to play the game.

In this 63-minute damning documentary of the NFL's Players Association from director Michael Felix (written by Collin Pittier, Josh Salzberg, and Ryan Sheffer), produced by three-time Super Bowl champion Roman Phifer, former players, most of whom performed in Super Bowls and have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, accuse the current players and their leadership of blindsiding those who went before, denying them not only fair settlements for disabilities sustained while playing the game but also of respect and dignity.

These warriors in their day played with primitive helmets and thin pads with fewer teammates, necessitating their having to remain on the field longer when hurting. Fifty-eight-year-old John Mackey (tight end from 1963-72, mostly for the Baltimore Colts) now suffers from dementia; his wife Sylvia, sitting beside her perplexed husband, speaks for him on camera.

Unapologetic for his bitterness over the NFL PA's lack of help or interest ("the money's there" - the organization has a $1.2-billion strike fund), Mike Ditka (12 years as a player, ten as a coach) slams Gene Upshaw, head of the Players Association, for saying he and his organization have no responsibility for former players.

Battling the NFL PA for recognition of amnesia, depression, and mental dementia, resulting directly from repetitive concussions Mike Webster (center for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs from 1974-90, died in 2002 at age 50) sustained while playing professionally, son Garrett and lawyer Cyril Smith were frustrated by repeated denials of disability claims before finally in 2006 the courts ruled in favor of Webster, ordering payment of $1.6 million to Iron Mike's family from the retirement fund.

After having to leave the NFL, Joe "D" DeLamielleure (central figure in the Buffalo Bills' "Electric Company" offensive line for O.J. Simpson), who supported his family by playing arena football and boxing in his 40s, speaks of the "ill-advised pension program," referring to his former teammate Donnie Green's being in the Union Rescue Mission, rehabilitating from drug addiction.

Following the first five years of a player's retirement, the league provides no further medical insurance, yet the onset of dementia and other life-changing disabilities often won't occur for several years. Warning current players of their failure to form a close fraternity with older players, Harry Carson (13 years with the New York Giants as a linebacker) observes that "at some point you're going to become one of us."

Others speaking out in interviews - Does the NFL want good ambassadors or sad stories? - include Willie Wood, Daryl "Moose" Johnston, Mel Renfro, Toby Wright, Bruce Laird, and Steve Atwater.

In The New York Times, Alan Schwarz reported on the NFL's suspension of its study of concussions and their cumulative effects on retired players.

"Facing heated criticism from outside experts, the players union and members of Congress, the N.F.L. has suspended its study of the long-term effects of concussions in retired players.

"The study, which began in 2007 and was to last through at least next year, was criticized for matters ranging from poor statistical sampling to conflicts of interest. For example, a co-chairman of the league's committee on concussions, Dr. Ira Casson, was performing every neurological examination while consistently discrediting evidence linking football to cognitive decline and dementia in N.F.L. retirees.

"The last three years have featured dozens of reports of players in severe cognitive decline, and several studies have found drastically heightened rates of dementia among retirees.

"In September, a phone survey commissioned by the league reported that players and their families were reporting diagnoses of Alzheimer's and other memory-related diseases at five times the national rate for men age 50 and above, and 19 times the normal rate for men age 30 to 49.

"The league, with Casson its primary voice, said that those studies and several that had preceded them were too flawed to be considered evidence of any link. They said that the Casson-led study would become the definitive work on the subject.

"Players like the Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson joined experts in health policy in questioning how Casson could be allowed to conduct all neurological examinations personally. They and many others said a study financed by the N.F.L. and run by its committee doctors was a conflict of interest."

From the other line of scrimmage, I will say I'm not completely sympathetic, for no one forced these men to become professional athletes (the NFL draft isn't like a military's draft, since everyone's a willing volunteer). They should have been or at least become aware of the tradeoffs they were making with their bodies and brains for the immediate glory and fat salaries. They should have realized that they wouldn't have a long career as football players and thus should have been investing in and preparing for making a living by other means once they were in their 30s, if not sooner.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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