“Dollars for a Deadmen-What NFL Football has wrought”

 
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Suicides….Early Deaths…Crippling Injuries….Deteriorating Cognitive Skills.

 
Welcome to life after the NFL.

 
Do you know it has been over two years since the NFL and retired players reached agreement on the 935M-Concussion lawsuit, and not one penny has been paid out to ailing players or their families. Loved ones living with the trauma of watching their husbands, fathers, brothers dying a slow death.

 
The NFL’s Vice President on Health, taking part in a roundtable discussion with governmental leaders, NCAA officials, and health officials, said this week there is now a direct link between concussions on the field, and the CTE discovered in the brains jof deceased football players.

 
Boston University’s research teams have found CTE in 90-of-94 brains of deceased players, those who died normal deaths, those who died horrid deaths, those who took their own lives in suicide. Add to that, young college players, 45-of-55 on the autopsy table had CTE.

 
The NFL for years has been accused of looking the other way, not doing enough to protect the players, prevent these injuryies, or fund the type of medical research needed, till recently.

 
Many believe a coverup has part of the NFL game plan. Current NFL officials say instead, there was no medical evidence, until Boston Unviersity started doing research on deceased players in the last four years.

 
Now legendary linebacker Nick Buoniconti has gone public, asking the judge to reopen the settlement talks, and re-define the pay schedule for players, still alive, but suffering.

 
“What good is paying money to a player once he dies” was at the top of the letter? Buoniconti wants payments to players who are alive, showing cognitive suffering from Parkinsons, Alzheimers, Dementia.

 
Yes, players who killed themsleves, will see 4M given to their families. Those who died from cognitive diseases, upon autopsy, can receive anywhere from 2-to-5 million dependent on the disease.

 
But there is no money to be distributed to say, ex-Saints linebacker Steve Gleason, on death’s doorstep, with ALS. The players of the 70s, like Dave Pear of Tampa Bay, don’t get any payments now despite all the mental ailments they have.

 
Complicating the settlement is, there is no money goiing forward for players about to retire, who might wake up with problems at age 45 or 60.

 
So now the judge needs to consider the blueprint of the settlement, and whether it should be changed, because the NFL admits there is a ‘connection’, even while the word coverup is still being whispered.

 
It won’t make us feel any better about the way the lives of Junior Seau, Mike Webster, Dave Duerson and so many others ended.

 
But those still living, with post career problems, like a Gary Plummer, could be entitled to more medical funding help.

 
Dollars for a dead man makes no difference. Dollars to help one live out his troubled life, can.

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