Jim, may I remind you of Mike Webster. Centre for the Pittsburgh Steelers years ago. He asked family members to zap him. Why? he was then able to sleep properly. Mom's introduce your children into the game of soccer.
2
$140. for a Seahawks ticket, I really enjoy watching on TV, but I could never justify that money for a football game and if I was in that bracket I'd take a kid or a group of kids. Modern America has kicked its values to the curb in its world class greed. I think the Oregon Ducks cost about the same.
But the larger truth here is that this country has to bring economic justice to all its people. Until we accomplish that we are American fakes.
If we are so wonderful how come so many can't make it here anymore?
9
Maybe the great NFL legend should return to the White House and ask his BFF Trump what he thinks of retired NFL players existing on paltry pensions and awful chronic neurological and orthopedic injuries. In typical Trump listening fashion, Brown will talk, Trump will look away at some object, then turn and ask, "what position do you play?"
7
Let's face it. The history of American capitalism is rife with exploitation of workers, whether they are professional athletes or factory workers or public-school teachers.
Capitalism does not have to be this way. But in America, it is.
12
I'll always remember a photo of Y.A. Tittle (NY Giants) sitting on the field, legs spread, helmet knocked off, blood on his face. Not much glamor there that I can see, nor money apparently. Like ALL workers in physically demanding occupations, they should never be left to endure the long term after-affects in poverty.
5
All athletes and veterans enter a sick-care system at an early age already busted up with how many years to go to make it to Medicare at 65? We must have universal health care in whatever form in this country.
5
Agree; agree;agree..it is time this country start to take care of the workers and the middle class. Take care of these men when football was football and not the tripe it is today...Roger Goodell makes what $50 millions plus more the owners are billionaires like that creep Kraft...Let’s do what is right for these men!
2
Another "The world owes me something" point of view. Apparently personal responsibility is a character flaw nowadays. Sad.
6
One reason I stopped watching football, the other being the brain injuries.
5
“Mr. Brown was a running back ...”!? Jim Brown was a force of nature coming out of the backfield very often preceded by his pulling guards who also had speed and precision.
4
I'm glad you also addressed the players. The current players are just as greedy and immoral as the owners.
3
The difference between former NFL players and other workers is that these players "worked" in an era where salaries were infinitely lower and media/advertisement opportunities (especially for black athletes) were incredibly fewer than today's athletes.
What other worker has seen their own profession's salaries skyrocket like pro athletes? These players generated not only revenue for the league & owners, but as Brown argues, oiled the nostalgia machine that today's NFL drive much of the fans' enthusiasm and love of the game. Today's players & owners owe them a huge debt, quite literally.
3
I will take Goodell seriously about his concern for the game's early players when he takes a pay cut from his vampiric $40 million annual salary.
4
I've looked up these numbers. The starting NFL salaries is $480,000, the average years worked is 3.3 years. That's 1.5 million. I realize these numbers are before taxes, but so is the 3500 cheerleaders make. If the players invested $100,000 for 3 years when they were 25,26 and 27 they would roughly have 3.5M at age 65. This doesn't include the jobs they could make money from wages 30-65. Compare that with cheerleaders who also work at NFL stadiums make $3500 a year. The NFL needs to have a required financial class for all players. They also need to pay the little guys more, such as the cheerleaders, uniform cleaners, etc. Maybe the famous guys like Jim Brown can go to bat for them too.
8
Brown's incredibly lucid and compelling writing makes me a believer. This is something the league can and should do.
13
@Duke
Do you actually believe that Jim Brown wrote this himself? Jim Brown's comment about Roger Goodell is patronizing, gratuitous and no doubt intended to make sure Brown has a good seat on the dais the next time the NFL has a ceremonial dinner for retired players.
1
I'm watching 2 games right now. How many of those players have any sense of their disposable nature? I would guess most, but at the same time most of them are in denial. Much like many of us mooks out in the real work world. The saner among us know the hatchet is always looming, but we bow our heads and ignore it, hoping we're not the ones it falls on. We live each day in that weird place between feeling valuable, because of our efforts - and knowing we're disposable, ready to be flushed away, usually by surprise. Its infinitely stressful. Certainly one cause of an employees heightened stress levels.
NFL players need to be thinking for themselves, over their teams. Especially over the owners. Who truly dont give a used piece of athletic tape for them. Sure, they know they rely on the players, especially the better ones, who play well, but also capture great public devotion. Merchandise is a huge part of the receipts for the NFL. Especially the player specific stuff. That stuff can bring in profits for years after a player is gone. And what do the players get for the sale of their name? I'm guessing ungatz. Zilch. Only if they garner multiple product sponsorships do they get a shot at cashing in on their Brand. But how many players truly get that opportunity? A kicker? A no-name lineman? The grinders who play for years, often on multiple teams...they don't get as much.
The Players need to do more to protect what they can get, and avoid the pitfalls of the lifestyle.
2
Football is a stupid sport - as a former football player (8 years through college) and an All-District center and defensive end in Western Oklahoma, I think the sport is ludicrous with it's high serious injury rate and extreme division of playing positions.
I would encourage parents to direct their kids to other sports - rugby (which I absolutely loved and played for 27 year, starting in college at West Point) is a great alternative and a lot more challenging than American football. Time to end American football, a charade of a sport.
And why are most players wearing extremely short sleeved jerseys, even in freezing temperatures ?? - yeah I've heard it's to " Whether to intimidate opponents or prove that a bit of cold won’t stop them, wearing short sleeves is often a tactic of those wanting to stamp their authority on the game."
Another bit of ridiculousness !
1
The headline of the print edition "Football Pioneers Deserve to Retire With Dignity" makes more forcefully the point that several coments make, namely that most Americans today have no pensions at all and of those that do, hardly any get $2500 a month after severn years employment.
5
Jim Brown, you were one of my heroes when I played football in HS. You, Joe Namath, Fran Tarkenton, Mean Joe Green, Franco Harris, Mercury Morris, Larry Czonka...these were the people we wanted to be, but weren’t the athletes you were. It truly saddens me to read this, and as I watch SF vs. NO, I’m rethinking my relationship to the NFL and the sport. As a fan, we’ll do anything for our team (hear that NY Giants?), but this makes my head explode. Why should I support exploitation? When will the NFL end the Goodall era and get real leadership? Just want to let you know the fan base is with the players. Fight on...
8
Football is not a sport that is 'great'. It hurts the kids that play, teaches misogyny and brute force with close ties to the military industrial complex, fossil fuels, excessive consumption and rule of the oligarchs. It is past time to let this pathetic sport die, and adopt some better mythology and values for our crumbling society and world.
2
I can’t watch it and have not for years. I can’t accept that grown men who abuse women and violently torture dogs are allowed to play in this sport. I can’t accept a public that is fired up and incites players to bash in their opponents heads to the point of causing massive brain injuries in addition to life long harm to assorted limbs. Football is the epitome of our violent, hostile, uncivilized society and anyone who allows their minor male child to play it is not being a good parent.
7
Proving once again that as the US has continued to degrade itself with unaccountable government programs, from “no child left behind” to “the common core,” there are only two remaining paths to success in the US - the psychopath and the sociopath - as evidenced by the likes of Weinstein, Epstein and Trump. Oh, and let’s not leave old Joe “bootlegger” Kennedy out of the mix. So no surprise to see do much “Roger Goodell” in the NFL nonsense. Same, same for the bespectacled skinny little dude over at the NBA.
1
Of all the damaging things boys and men do to feel masculine, participant and audience, football is one of the silliest. The result is what it is. Why would it not be, regardless of who brokers the silliness?
I walked away from the NFL about a decade ago, now I wont even watch a game. They dont pay their own way, grift off the taxpayer for their stadiums when they have the money to fully fund themselves and then the human costs of the game with the owners and NFL proper doing next to nothing to take care of their own once they step away from the game. They are just modern day gladiators.
5
Sorry. NFL has always stood for NOT FOR LONG. We are all disposable Meat Sacks. The Beatings will continue until Morale improves. We, who are about to die, salute you.
4
Jim -
Appreciate what you are trying to do for the old timers.
But, why not put your good works to use for the future victims of the game. It's only a matter a of time before this "sport" goes away because the results of its violent and barbaric nature become to obvious to bare in a semi-civilized society.
Help end the game now before more lives are lost.
Peace,
Django
2
Football just needs to be forgotten, period. The games damages everyone who plays it, including the vast majority that never see a dollar, ever. repetitive hits to the head are BAD for you. The science is done, society needs to stop ignoring it.
2
As a fan, I left the game at the top after graduating high school in 1977 and never looked back...at the Kings of greed, the NFL.
Growing up, I was never much cared for the writer of this—by the time I was old enough to be a fan he had long left the football scene to become an actor, and it was too bad he couldn’t have read a line as well as a lineman!—but this piece is pitch perfect: revealing, sympathetic and exhortative without being sensational. A nice run right up the middle for a big gain.
1
Growing up, I was never much cared for the writer of this—by the time I was old enough to be a fan he had long left the football scene to become an actor, and it was too bad he couldn’t have read a line as well as a lineman!—but this piece is pitch perfect: revealing, sympathetic and exhortative without being sensational. A nice run right up the middle for a big gain.
Growing up, I never much cared for the writer of this—by the time I was old enough to be a fan he had long left the football scene to become an actor, and it was too bad he couldn’t have read a line as well as a lineman!—but this piece is pitch perfect: revealing, sympathetic and exhortative without being sensational. A nice run right up the middle for a big gain.
A Hall of Fame column from Jim Brown.
The owners and current players should heed his advice.
2
One of my friends was a "taxi squad" player for several years. He got basically nothing and worked as a plumber.
2
And NFL owners don't even create their own sports stadiums, so they are not even acting as capitalists, just government handouts and then pretending they are taking risks with capital so they get to enjoy the fruits of the labor of well paid serfs.
3
The behavior of the NFL is regarding its "heroic" warriors is endemic to our empire mentality. It is best exemplified by two poems, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Tennyson and "The Last of the Light Brigade" by Kipling. Hopefully, the NFL will take the same route as the NBA. I applaud No 32 for speaking out for his brothers in cleats.
The NFL has resisted all efforts to do the right thing for former players. The league’s weakness is it’s anti-trust exemption. A weakness legislator’s have cowardly avoided far too long.
1
I wonder if all these commenters praising Mr. Brown understand his true positions — e.g., he was a strong supporter of President Nixon, is a strong supporter of President Trump (says he “fell in love” with Trump and was sure Trump wanted to help black people) and has questioned the legacy and effectiveness of Dr. Martin Luther King. Forgive me if I question Mr. Brown’s judgment.
5
Add CTE to the lives of retired players, and the tragedy is compounded.
The NFL is punishing these men and their families for playing football, a game that, in far too many cases, left them with damaged brains.
A game that legitimizes violence as normal and fun, and is run by egotistical businessmen/owners, forgets some of the tools they used to pump up their fragile 'selves'?
Who cares, other than the Society that is being asked to pay the price for that normalized violence and ruined bodies, especially the replacement joints and CTE for the ones who never made it big and are now Medicare and the like?
Those increases in pension payments will be difficult to sustain with a shrinking stream of new players and fans. I quote from a recent NYT story.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/08/sports/falling-football-participation-in-america.html
"Over the last decade, the number of high school boys playing tackle football — the heart and soul of the sport — has dropped more than 10 percent."
"In Texas, the state that gave us $70 million high school stadiums and 'Friday Night Lights,' football participation is down 10 percent. Ohio has produced the fourth highest total of N.F.L. players, but participation has dropped 27 percent in the Buckeye State. Eight Ohio high schools were unable to fill squads to play even eight-man football last year. Kansas, stricken with budget cuts, has seen participation fall 13 percent. With that decline, expensive football programs have become an easy target for school boards looking to save money. The state now has 12 schools playing six-man football."
"Not only are high school boys almost twice as likely to sustain a head injury in football during a game compared with the next closest sport, but they also are more likely to get a head injury in football than any other injury in any other sport recorded in the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study."
Professional athletes are more really entertainers so when it comes to the sports reels they appear in they should all get residuals like SAG members, It would help a little anyway.
3
Jim Brown played for the Cleveland Browns. Art Modell requested an issue be placed on the ballot to provide $175 million in tax dollars to refurbish the outmoded and declining Cleveland Stadium. The taxpayers approved but Modell move the team to Baltimore anyway.
Modell's move to Baltimore came amid an unprecedented flurry of similar threats — and actual moves that fueled 12 new stadiums throughout the NFL. The Seahawks, Buccaneers, Bengals, Lions, Cardinals, and Bears used the threat of moving to coerce their respective cities to build new stadiums with public funds. — Wikipedia
The only NFL team not owned by the American oligarchy is the Green Bay Packers. And the NFL will not allow any team to be owned by the community, so that will never happen again. Unless you are rooting for the Green Bay Packers, you’re just rooting for a uniform and not the hometown team. And if you don’t build the billionaire owner a new stadium (welfare for billionaires) you just might wake up some morning and say, “dude, where’s my football team?” Sad.
4
As a younger person reading this column, I have just one question: What's a pension?
4
Football is very American in the way it is run. Till very recently, everyone but the college football player was making buckets of money. (In NJ, the highest paid public employee is the Rutgers football coach at 6+ million.).
Traumatic brain injury has been repeatedly denied. After it became untenable, a scraps were thrown to the players. Surprised about the pension system. There was this old 1960s song about Momma don't let your sons become soldiers. Well that should also apply to football players.
2
The NFL treats its long-ago, underpaid players the way our government treats homeless and broken veterans. “Use them and lose them” seems to be the common motto.
Mr. Brown doesn’t mention the NFL’s billionaire team owners, or the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). Roger Goodell is paid $32 million a year, for heaven’s sake. Goodell is “sincere,” you say, Mr. Brown? He’s sincerely disinterested in this cause. Short of shaming him and the owners into doing something, they will remain disinterested in the league’s used-up throwaways. If they had been interested in this cause, they would have already done something about it - long ago...
In the John McCain-sponsored Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, which Congress passed in 2000, one of the purposes of the bill, as stated within it, was to “protect the rights and welfare on an interstate basis by preventing certain exploitative, oppressive, and unethical business practices.” McCain had a heart, and the fates of ex-boxers troubled him.
The set-aside funds needed to help these men and their families in a way that would be significant to them would not even amount to a tiny rounding error in the profits the owners and Goodell rake in in any given WEEK.
Do we have anyone like Mr. Brown, or Mr. McCain, among our current legislators, who will speak for broken-down ex-football players whose pensions OUGHT to be embarrassment to current team owners, the NFLPA, and Goodell? And put forward legislation that requires concrete action?
2
We live in a deeply sick and unenlightened society. A shorter word for this is “insane.”
Essentially, we don’t see the interconnectedness between all people - all things, really. We treat others and the world around us like it’s separate from us, and therefore a threat.
So, it’s no wonder that other people are systematically left in the dust across all levels of society; if they can’t generate short-term profits for us, what’s their use?
2
And others suffer from injuries including traumatic brain injuries.
1
Thank you Jim Brown. You are shining a light on yet another inequitable system in the “land of opportunity.” And you have a mighty voice. I hope you and Colin Kaepernik can share ad space with Nike. That would send a powerful message.
I have no sympathy for these players when I see them driving Ferrari's, Bentley's and Rolls Royces while playing.
Or living in mansions with an entourage.
I have no pension to rely on. Do what I have to do?
Create your own retirement plan.
Duh . .. .
4
The difference between me and Jim Brown is that I will never make as much money over my career as he did - nor will I ever receive a pension. But I also won’t complain about that in the New York Times.
Eye roll-triggering entitlement. Next.
1
Maybe it’s time for another NFL strike - but this time linked to a broader labor movement where health care, retirement security, and workplace safety are guaranteed for all Americans.
I’d love to see the high profile NFL players strike right before the Super Bowl, and spur a nation-wide movement for American labor.
Until the players and fans say “enough!” the owners will continue their rapacious plantation system where the employees are treated as chattel and the fans as dupes.
Rise up, NFL players, and use your considerable influence to remake American labor - for all Americans!
Money vs. Humanity, when will it ever end.
1
I'm baffled that so much of the criticism of this essay is because Brown is speaking up for retired football players rather than other kinds of workers. But that criticism misses Brown's point entirely. He is pointing out a serious problem and a moral failing of the NFL and our culture, one that we need to address. Right on, brother!
2
Inflation has been such that it is modest to ask pensions to be doubled. When Mr. Brown was productive, prolific, and and a citizen activist there were "five and dime" stores. This century began with "dollar" stores. Most of the merchandise now in those stores average closer to five and ten dollars. Five and ten, once cents now dollars. A hundredfold more. Fiat expanded currency and credit more than value creation are producing more statistical illusion than real wealth inflating stocks and costs far more than wages, pensions, Social Security, and Social Sdrvices. Yes, double those pensions - at the least.
1
I cannot think of too many occupations that endure the type of physical punishment that Pro Football Players do. Yes, Mr. Brown did well after his football career in acting and endorsements.I do not begrudge Mr. Brown one penny. His good fortune is well-earned. But how about the hundreds, if not thousands of players who did not fare as well as Mr. Brown? Should they be neglected or forgotten? In my view, nothing is sadder than seeing a former sports hero in a wheel chair, living in constant pain, or living in humiliating poverty.
These athletes gave us years of thrills, excitement, and inspiration during their playing years and still do today in highlight films. In my view, nearly everyone who played the game and was associated with NFL teams or employed in any capacity, more often than not, had a short career. They deserve a decent pension.
1
Brown was big, strong, fast, and so the irresistible force on the grid iron. It was those who were trying to stop him who risked injuries. His career after football has been what he has decided and successful enough to never risk ending up like the unlucky players for who he is advocating.
He’s showing strong character to advocate for these men. Football teams work together to achieve success and all the players deserve a share of their productivity, revenues from the games, and none should end up with pensions that don’t provide for their needs.
2
The elderly NFL players should be taken care -- by their families and friends, first and foremost. The NFL teams that they played with along with the NFL itself should reserve a percentage of their profits for the NFL veterans. The NFL Player's Union and the individual players should kick in money. The US government should ensure that all people in the USA have decent healthcare, including dental care, proper nutrition, and decent housing.
2
Why is it there is always a bad vibe from the owners of the NFL teams, something about their core humanity needs tending to.
1
I hope football fans read this excellent piece by Jim Brown, as they have it in their hands to exert pressure on the N.F.L. by very publicly boycotting games, TV stations, advertisers, and N.F.L. merchandise until the situation is rectified. Unless the owners cartel concludes that is cheaper to do the right thing than not do the right thing, nothing will change.
Expecting the owners to do something right on their own is about as useful as expecting Facebook, ExxonMobil, Wells Fargo, or any other large commercial entity to do anything other than maximize their profits. (Even the N.B.A., the supposedly publicly "responsible" league, totally punked out, when one of their own publicly backed the freedom struggle in Hong Kong.)
Expecting the current players through their union to do the right thing depends a lot on what Brown says: education. After all, how many 20-somethings suddenly making big bucks in any field think about the history and current realities of those who enabled them to get to that point? I don't know the current strength of the players union, but I remember it as an abject failure, when the players went out on strike and the fans, for all practical purposes, didn't even notice.
1
@Steve Fankuchen
I would refer readers to the comment by Dobbs (currently #6 on Readers Picks, to which I replied:
@Dobbs
It's nice to see one of the top five (oops, six) most recommended Readers Picks actually stick to the topic at hand.
Pat Summerall and Frank Gifford made a living after football, but I don't know if even Charlie Conerly did, let alone the line that enabled him, Gifford, and Alex Webster to do their thing, as well as Emlen Tunnell, Rosey Grier. Andy Robustelli, and all the other guys on defense whose names I can't remember.
1
These comments are both tragic and naive. Tragic because so many people think $2500.00 is an enviable amount for a pension and naive because the "boss" in any successful large corporation makes an enormous amount of money; far more than the "little people" who work for them.
1
The NFL of today is as far removed from the NFL of the fifties as the IPhone is from the land line. Perhaps Apple should pay the retired employees of Bell Telephone.
2
Back in the day, we thought the pay those guys were getting was astronomical, and that includes linemen. I am of the same vintage, but worked in higher education. My pay as a professor was single digit percentage of what they were paid at the same time. I have no significant pension. However, I am financially well off, and live well without concern for expenses.
I wonder why there is such a difference? I know many like myself.
2
These players made millions during their active years and complain that their pensions are small while most the rest of Americans work for hourly wages and depend on meagerly 401k, if even that. No sympathy at all
3
Many of them made significantly less than “millions” and the average NFL career is shockingly short.
2
@Mary A then plan for the future like we all do, if you are not an A player you k ow you will need an alternative career
2
I was only 7 when the Dallas Cowboys started, I saw every game in the old Cotton Bowl. The Cowboys were pretty bad back them--losing most of the time--but the players were great athletes and great people who truly cared about their fans--esp. the kids. Eddie LeBarron used to visit (along with many other Cowboys) a city park near my home and he gave me lessons on how to throw a pass. He also threw me a few that I'm proud to say I caught! He made sure to praise me. Frank Clarke was another great (receiver). When I wrote him a letter to tell him what a fan I was, he wrote me back right away and followed that through the years of my childhood with many personal letters. In those days I could pay 1.00 and sit on the 50 yard line and I would go each week by bus (10 cents) with my older brother. Every game was played in the open weather on a grass field. The players were real people with heart and not entertainers. I loved them and loved the game as I do not now. How can you love a corporation whose only reason for being is to make money?
In my early boyhood days, I saw some of the greatest players ever to play football--most were on the other teams. But I loved them too. I will never forget Y. A. Tittle, Bart Starr, Caroll Dale, Paul Warfield, Sonny Jurgensen, Sam Huff, Jim Taylor many others.
But the greatest running back I ever saw was Jim Brown. Clearly, his greatness was not just on the field.
4
Thank you Jim Brown. It is a disgrace the way the NFL discards players. Even today the league minimum is $480,000. Free Agency is great for super stars, but the average player who has 5 year career is left with a lot of pain and little money. One thing the league could do immediately is permit teams to offer current players deferred compensation plans where a portion of their current earnings is owed to them for payment after they leave the game.
1
Are the players contributing to a pool for the pensions, or only the owners? If the players think it's such a great idea to give large pensions for a few years of work, then perhaps it should come out of their contracts, too.
1
Very well said. I hope current players and management read this and respond. Thank you Jim Brown.
3
Football ain't great. Nothing more enjoyable than thinking of December fans sitting in open air bleachers, drunkenly suffering while their heroes get brain injured.
5
Excellent article. Former players are lucky to have Mr. Brown advocating for their welfare, and here's hoping the NFL will do the right and fair thing and take care of those built it.
6
I don't know much about the football industry. Never cared to know. My idols are men like Robert Oppenheimer and Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss. And a couple of hundred other men and women who have advanced science and civilization, sometimes in spite of persecution by "the church".
However, the one thing I do know about football is this : it is a game played by young men in the prime of their physical strength and health. I know that they collect grossly distorted salaries and bonuses. And I know that many, perhaps almost all of them spend that river of money down and end up in circumstances that they never would have imagined when they were in their 20's and early 30's. They spend all their money on bling : fast cars, fast women, expensive wine and champagne, and houses they can't really afford.
This group of individuals is held up as a model for how people should live their lives. Our children emulate them. First, ridiculous salaries and then, later, penury. Reading this article has given me a case of empathy fatigue.
7
I love the old players, but Football is huge business. I used to be a big fan, but I don’t care anymore because of the physical damage it does to players of all levels. Business does not care about pensions, because it’s a cost. Owners only care about money and the the value of their franchise. The players union has power to insure pensions. As long as Americans love Football, rising ticket prices and ad revenues will be prioritized over any concern for the players. Sorry Jim, but you are like, yesterday, and in America it’s all about what can you do for us today.
2
Football is big business; capitalism writ large.
That makes all the players, broken bodies notwithstanding, nothing more than disposable commodities.
3
Another reason to turn the NFL off, this and beautiful fall days not watching TV. The inexcusable NFL labor situation has had me unplugged from football since the turn of the century.
7
I have a deep and abiding respect for Jim Brown as both a super star athlete and a civil rights activist, however, his recent appearance at the WH, and his omission of any reference to severe and life altering risks taken by football players leaves me deeply disappointed. I have long believed that the NFL represents the closest thing to the old plantation system of master/servant. I was taken aback when I read that Mr. Brown hopes this system will go on forever.
11
Thank you for this, Mr. Brown.
I watched your excellent performance in the film "The Dirty Dozen" the other night on tv. You seem to be one of the few still standing from that group of performers too.
6
Jim Brown gives Goodell and the owners too much credit. But he's spot on about the pensions. And that includes other industries as well, not just the NFL.
Come on Roger, step up. Do the right thing!
8
The NFL should increase benefits, they have the money, especially since so many of their stadiums are paid for and built with tax payer money.
3
Jim Brown, the greatest running back ever, is surely right about the unfairness he describes, but the much more important point is that tackle football should be abolished. It destroys many player's minds. And it is also a very bad cultural influence. It glorifies brutality. Athletics is supposed to develop character but tackle football develops bad character. This has been revealed in many stories of the brutal off-field behavior of many famous players, including Jim Bown.
6
No one is stepping up to do this on the owners' side, the NFL side. Maybe the television networks can get together (good luck on that) and demand a certain percentage of the television contracts go to a pension funding fund, let's say 4%.
1
When the NFL ends player careers for kneeling during the national anthem,
not surprising it leaves its oldest players to live out their pain and joint replacements in trailers.
Rot is not usually limited to one spot.
10
Mr. Brown is right to call attention to the pension and healthcare benefits issues of the pre ‘93 players. An organization with immense revenue and profitability should take care of its own period end of story.
As for the NFL, I gave up being a fan and wasting my time and money on that plantation-ownership-sport long ago.
7
Perhaps all of these players should have studied harder whilst on their athletic scholarships and pursued a different career path than the one that so often leaves them with broken bodies and brains. Is it worth betting the rest of your life for a few fleeting years of possible football glory and money? I thinketh not.
9
This seems rather harsh and the answer can’t always be more higher education.
For example, the US produces more lawyers and MBAs than can achieve careers in their related fields.
In the superstar professions - sports, entertainment, and increasingly academia - it is winner take all.
Should these guys have earned Ph.Ds? If they did, many of them would find a market that pays about as much per course as their pension check.
3
I consider Jim Brown to be the greatest player who ever put on cleats. His career at Syracuse, and then at Cleveland is legendary. The NFL needs to listen.
15
The notion that a successful business should allocate some of its present earnings to long since retired employees proposes a practice that is non existent among major businesses. The only reason to publish this piece is to make the NFL look worse, however unfounded the charges. I’d throw a flag on Jim Brown and the Times for piling on, move the ball back 15 yards with loss of down. Since it was 4th down, they turn it over. And since time has run out, they lose the game.
6
This is an excellent idea by Mr. Brown. The superrich athletes and the NFL should certainly take care of their own.
5
Jim Brown was the ultimate pro on the field and has continued to be one after walking away from the game. The man is all about human decency and dignity for all people.
10
And more broadly, everyone in this, the wealthiest nation on earth, deserves a dignified retirement.
21
Clearly these players have been used up and discarded. It shows what happens when owners control the labor market and refuse to treat the members of team sports as team members until the players make them. It also reflects how current players do not relate to former players. It’s a perfect example of how selfishness ends up leaving people exploited and used up. The players unions should have looked out for the retired players as well as the current ones.
7
Mr. Brown- Adding to your awesomeness every day. May your words begin uncovering the truth of how working folks who made this game great are forgotten in a world of suits and spin. I would also like your thoughts on how the gambling addiction of NFL fans has gone mainstream.
5
Thank you Jim Brown for so clearly stating the case for these players! I can only hope the NFL leadership has the decency to do the right thing here. I'll be following this story more closely now and will be very disappointed should they not.
5
I accept that the oldtimers need desperately help from a greedy NFL.
I reject that football was ever "great." It was many things, but this is a sport, not a war or a movement or a cause--except in the minds of its PR department, which has successfully molded the sport to match American values of grit, work, toil, sweat, and the search for meaning and glory in these basic conditions. It's a sport, and its competitive values have potentiated the patriotic values provided to America by other PR departments, flag makers, soldier makers, gun manufacture associations, schools, and commercial manufacturers of every sort.
8
Absolutely right. Especially considering the devastating effects of football on the brain.
Workers everywhere deserve more. But it is hard to imagine the players and the league cannot unite to provide more for the retired players.
2
"The N.F.L. commissioner, Roger Goodell, has said, “Nothing the league can do can ever fully express our appreciation to the players who helped build our league.” I believe he is sincere, but real appreciation would be an appropriate pension."
I could not disagree more with Brown's comment on Goodell. He is paid an obscene amount of money and is doing nothing but destroying the game. Maybe the game is working to destroy itself but Goodell is leading the pack.
4
Have to agree with Brown here. I've also espoused taxing the teams more and giving more of a share of the loot to the cities and states that build the stadiums, the roads, other infrastructure, provide the fan base etc. Too much greed in aMErica. We've lost our soul.
8
Mr. Brown overlooks the fact that these men had 30 or more additional years of work life after their football careers. In fact, the pensions he describes aren’t bad at all for 7 years of work (half years at that).
12
@Earl M
Many if not most players don’t have second career. They’ve been trained their entire life to play football and nothing else. The barely graduated high school, and made through college on the lowest GPA possible, likely with “help”.
Take for example the still active running back Adrian Peterson. One of the greatest running backs of the NFL and a league MVP. While he played for the a Vikings he had 8 children from 7 different women. He didn’t know any of his them, yet he paid pension to all of them - very noble of him, for sure. He was paid millions. Still, he managed to file for bankruptcy - while still an active player being paid millions! What does that tell you about his level of education?
Like him, there are hundreds if not thousands of other players. If you compound debilitating injuries, that leaves the players with a short 4-5?year career with no prospect of anything else in life.
5
@BWCA Why is it someone else's problem if you don't have any notable skills that are useful for most of your adult life? It is pretty patronizing to assume that most football players can't be self-supporting.
Thank you, Jim, for taking time to support past and current NFL players.
I had the good fortune to meet Ralph Branca and other former baseball players who worked to start BAT, a group to assist older players
https://www.mlb.com/baseball-assistance-team/about-bat
Does something like this exist for former NFL players?
In summary, today’s player needs to be educated about NFL history as soon as they join the league. Perhaps they would be more open to revising the Pension plan in a way that would more equitably provide for the former players.
This would require leadership from NFL commissioner. Too bad Bob Reynolds was not selected as NFL commissioner, he understands fully how you can achieve multiple goals within a Pension plan.
1
He discreetly avoids talking about the fact that many football player's brains will be mush by the time they collect that meager pension. the league should not only increase the pension amount but have a medical program to care for those who made the game what it is today.
10
Football is a plague, on the players, and on nutso fanatics who enjoy watching other peoples' children shorten their lives with horrendous injuries, followed by poor aftercare, and even poorer pensions. I haven't watched it for 25 years, because it is completely uncivilized. It is the very best example of vulture capitalism. Our own hunger games.
11
Football is the gladiators and lions of the past hundred years. It should be banned. The “fans” are deplorable.
15
This is a graphic example of the end result of our American system capitalism. The work force in America suffers from many of these systematic ailments. The NFL players are, in many instances, a worst case scenario. We all need relief from the greed controlling our nation’s top one percent.
Dump the Electoral College!
7
Thank you Mr. Brown
Well said.
1
to the NFL: you can do better...so...just do it.
5
Isn't it time that American football find an appropriate name for itself? "clutchball," "shoveball," "tackleball,"? Whatever, and leave the name football to the proper sport played mostly with the feet, the universal sport of football. Let the USA join the human family.
3
The current NFL is awash in cash. It is a corporate behemoth that was built on the broken body parts and cranial injuries of players I idolized growing up. What’s wrong with rewarding their legacy? Do we really want to see our heroes living toothless and in trailers? Obviously they should have planned better. But when you’re young it’s easy to overlook the financial needs of the future. How many NFLers of yesteryear had to work second jobs in the offseason? How many baseball players? Follow the example of the NBA. The NFL should step up and do the right thing. They’ve got the money.
7
Of note, Jim Brown could arguably be considered the greatest running back of all time. His career per rush carry is 5 yards, accomplished over nine years. He left at the top of his game.
Times have changed and he benefited from those old days in ways current players only could wish. His girlfriends, the domestic violence and temper he exhibited would be censured today. He got a pass for his non-playing activities in the 1950s and 60s and it certainly did not harm his career.
Jimmy Brown was my idle growing up in Cleveland and he seems to have matured later in his life. I agree that those old NFL guys deserve the support recommended by him to the NFL.
63
@MSD Yeah, like his personal life is relevant to getting justice for the players whose income was peanuts compared to the pay today.
7
@MSD
I, too, grew up in Cleveland in the 1950s and 60s. While I can't say Jim Brown was ever "my idle" (your words), I did cheer and look forwarded to seeing him on the field. He was a phenomenal athlete. I have fond memories of the $21.00 I spent from my part-time job in 1964 to see Jim Brown and Browns in the 1964 NFL Championship Game (the then "Superbowl").
But let's not get carried away about Jim Brown "maturing later in life." I believe the issue here is Jim Brown trying to enhance his legacy among his retired peers and the current crop of younger players. He will get longer ovations when he attends ceremonial dinners.
If Jim Brown is really concerned with equality and fairness issues, maybe it's time for him to explain his past treatment of women, his endorsement of Richard Nixon, his current Oval Office visits and support of Donald Trump and criticism of Martin Luther King for organizing "parades."
Did the NYT actual prints this essay on its Editorial Page? Did Jim Brown actual write this himself?
7
@MSD What does a vague recitation of past issues unrelated to football have to do with Brown's point?
10
Mr. Brown is correct. The popularity and financial success of pro football is definitely attributable to the nameless (except to ardent fans) players who toiled for paychecks equal to what players make for each snap played, as Mr. Brown points out. Let's hope the league and the players union recognize the contributions of these players and step up to the plate.
2
Most of these players presumably had 30-35 year post-NFL to work, earn, and save.
5
Two thoughts:
There is no comparison between the NFL and the NBA. The NFL is an owners' league (as is MLB) and the NBA is a players' league.
There is also no comparison between NFL owners and NBA owners socially, politically and economically.
No Fun League is still appropos.
1
This seems like a no brainer. In the spirit of Christmas, Goodell and NFL owners should do the right thing and take care of these guys.
2
Great article by probably the greatest player game has ever seen. Coincidentally, when Jim Brown was setting records at Manhasset H.S. I was a year or two behind him @Paul D.Schreiber H.S,in Port Washington, and even caddied once at Plandome Golf Course with his father in the same foursome.Bur what Mr. BROWN says is true,and it brings to mind one of the Green Bay Packers's star players, Willy Woods I believe is his name who helped his team win its first Super Bowl but is now allowed to waste away in a retirement home doing his best to overcome his injuries.Never understood why VINCE LOMBARDI, DON SHULA or other coaches have not spoken up on behalf of older players who, were it not for them would never have achieved the fame they have achieved. Same goes for star quarterbacks who have done well, but have yet to hear of Dan Marine, Joe Montana coming to the aid of other players in dire straits financially.Same indifference seen in the NHL. There is a player, Joe Murphy who made millions in his career, but went off the beam because of injuries on the ice and is living in the streets of a small town in Ontario!What about the broadcasters of games who have also enriched themselves because of the game but who have not stepped up to help those suffering injuries, made infirm as a result of their actions on the field?Reluctance to help is wide spread!
3
@Alexander Harrison I know why Vince Lombardi hasnt spoken up: he's been dead almost 50 years
3
@Giants10 But, "autant qu'on sache,"Lombardi never defended older retired players when he was alive.But I was writing generally that there should be more support by the NFL, very successful players, and anyone connected with the game for those on the field who made it all possible, and likewise for the NHL.Not every injured NHL player was or is as lucky as Kevin Stevens who was waylaid by injuries, took to drugs to assuage the pain and then was helped in his rehabilitation. One senses an esprit de corps among opposing players on the field when they all shake hands after a game, but when there are those in need at retirement,who is around to help besides one's immediate family?Included among the most "coupables" are the players unions, which I believe are telecommanded by the owners.
2
At first I was wondering how in the world Jim Brown could expect Roger Goodell -- one of the greediest men alive and who has shown concern for players' physical and mental condition only when forced to -- to do the right thing and increase retired player's pensions. Then I remembered that he endorsed and voted for Donald Trump. For a guy who has done some key advocacy work over the years, especially in the area of racial justice, it's befuddling how Brown can put such blind trust in two rich white men who have never exhibited any interest in anything but their own egos and the bottom line.
8
Professional football is a violent, dangerous sport. Players need to understand their careers will be short and they must be prepared for life and work after their playing days end. As much as players from decades past need reasonable pensions, they need medical coverage for the damaged bones and brains they suffered to entertain the fans and enrich the owners.
They need to earn their college degrees; they do need to establish second careers with jobs that qualify them for retirement benefits. Not many people will be set for life from 3-7 years of work for their first employer.
Jim Brown is right, the athletes should share in the profits as well as the glory. That's a negotiation between a monopolistic league and a powerful players' union.
I agree today’s owners should help the players of JBrowns generation. As for the current players, knowing what we know now, is it possible to quantify a profitable compensation given the risk of immediate and long term debilitation, longevity and player value enough to immunize the owners from any responsibility?
As was noted in the comments people who work hard their entire lives get small retirement benefits and less than generous medical care in retirement while huge profits are reaped and hoarded away in the pockets of the market places big winners.
1
A $2,500 a month pension is good for seven years of work. Most Americans have to work 20 years to qualify for a pension and 30 years for a full pension.
11
@William Case
Seven years of concussions, torn ligaments, broken legs, and even becoming a quadriplegic.
Give me my 42 years of boredom and my three grand a month.
3
I think this is a good point, particularly since Jim Brown is making it for others, not himself. We could use a little more of that.
7
As a retired teacher with a $1,740 a month pension, my first impulse is to sigh and wish I had an NFL pension, but such a reaction would only serve the oligarchs. Rather than fight among us for scraps, the real fight is wealth inequity that has some Americans owning ten homes and others living toothless in trailers. I'm a Mainer. I see both the toothless and the decadent.
16
You make a career choice you have to live with the consequences.
I spent 21 years in the Navy and I don't get a whole lot for a monthly pension...I do get base access and decent enough health care benefits.
Why isn't that verbiage put inside the contracts? I mean if a player gets hurt playing? They get treatment for that injury until it's healed. Nobody should live in pain.
Save your pennies for a rainy day should be the message to all sports players. You never know when your last day could be due to a debilitating injury.
What has Mr. Brown been doing about this? I appreciate the man and his accomplishments, but being perhaps the most famous player ever, surely he can convince someone to bump up those pensions?
1
@Scott Franklin Sigh again.Scott, see my post above yours and read the surgeon's post two notches down. Rather than bemoan why we workers don't have more, we should stay focused on the greater math, how the richest 1% own half the world's wealth.
6
First, under Jim Brown’s name it says running back for the Cleveland Browns 1957 to 1965. It should say, greatest running back ever, and this is coming from a NY Giants fan.
As far as the pension inequalities, Mr. Brown is fighting an uphill battle. Most fans today only care about their Fantasy League or how they made out on their gambling apps. As far as the current players, when you see the insanity that goes on in the end zone after a touchdown or after making a routine tackle you can rest assured that the plight of the older retirees is not on their radar. As far as the league is concerned, they are playing a waiting game. If they stall long enough most of those complaining will be dead and they’ll have a pre-game moment of silence and pat themselves on the back. The real sin is that the amount of money needed to fix
this situation is “chump change” given the amount of money that the NFL has. Sad.
3
1st, let me say that Jim Brown was one of the most exciting players to watch EVER! I played fullback in high school (and college), and wanted to be like Jim Brown. Nothing but respect for his athletic abilities.
His ideas about pensions for football players, though, don't impress me.
I was a surgeon for 43 years before I retired, and was a little like a navy seal, working all hours of the day and night to save an occasional life. Every patient I operated on was a potential risk to my health, with a slip of the knife or needle giving me hepatitis or aids (I was lucky....I dodge those bullets!). I did my share of pro-bono work for the un-insured. I got no pension for these years of sacrifice and hard work.
Perhaps if these old "soldiers" had invested their money better, saved better, and maybe even got other jobs after they retired, they wouldn't need the NFL to take care of them when they got old.
I went to graduate school at the age of 55 to learn another profession if I couldn't do surgery forever. Fortunately, my health held out so I could do surgery right up to the age of 73 when I retired.
Sorry, but these men played a game they loved, and knew the risks. Younger players certainly can negotiate better pensions, but the older ones should have just planned better.
Lucky you! You’re an educated person and hopefully used that education to prepare yourself for life and retirement. People whose talents are primarily physical often don’t have skills that help them prepare for a long and financially rewarding life but they are no less worthy than the truly fortunate, like Jim Brown, who has both physical and mental gifts. Besides, just like not everyone can be a successful surgeon, not everyone could have helped generate the untold billions the NFL owners enjoy.
7
The NFL has the money to increase the pensions of older players and it should. Many of the commenters act like increasing the NFL pensions of older players will increase their taxes or take money out of their bank accounts. Instead of criticizing the down on their luck football players for not saving for the future let’s encourage the NFL to reach out and give these players a hand by increasing their pension and providing them with health insurance.
2
@doc, you risked your life and served our country and we should all be thankful for your service. Thank you. You were also had the option to take those skills into private practice and use them to become financially successful, especially with the experience you gained as a surgeon in the service.
You may not be aware, but many if not most NFL players in the sixties and seventies worked regular jobs in the off season to support their families. They did not make the huge salaries of this day and age. They did not have the option of investments or 401K that we have now. Going back to school, as you did, was not an option. They certainly could not have anticipated the medical system we live in now with difficult access and high costs. That’s a double whammy for someone whose job as a football player was a set up for lifelong medical problems.
Some of these players did do better than others and are surviving beyond being toothless in a trailer park. But it seems like a billion dollar industry could do better in the “trickle down” of its success to the worker bees that built it.
And frankly, that should apply to more than just football.
1
There are many ways in which the NFL disregards the humanity of all Americans. Steve Almond wrote an excellent book "Against Football: One Fan's Reluctant Manifesto." His painstaking research exposes the NFL's racism, homophobia, misogyny, normalization of aggressive violence and exploitation of local communities' taxes to reap obscene profits. It's interesting to me that we are finally questioning football, not because of all those reasons, but because we've started talking about the League's shameful treatment of players' physical and financial health. To me, it just confirms that we still care about the sports heroes we put on pedestals more than we do about all those communities who are not in that privileged spotlight.
5
Only a living pension may mitigate the wreckage caused by the serial exploitation of athletes in this society, particularly by this professional sports corporation, the great NFL. An entertainment corporation that professes undying admiration while stuffing bank accounts on athletic backs, all the time loudly complaining about how much all these heroes get paid for the privilege of entertaining everyone with their exploits. Then it's out of sight, out of mind. On to the next young phenom who has been well primed with laudatory headlines of warrior status due to amazing abilities to ignore injury, keep calm and carry on.
Do the right thing and help these aging warriors we all talked up to live with the dignity they deserve.
3
This is not the plight of only retired football players but it is the plight of many retired workers. The distribution of wealth in the NFL is typical of American corporations. Billionaires who oversee a system that creates retirees collecting no pensions, 401K's and almost anything but a defined pension. The future looks bleaker for the retirees of the future many of whom are private contractors or gig economy workers.
310
@M.R.
Exactly right. Mr. Brown is correct, but what is the plight of former NFL players who played 12 or 14 games (back in the day) each season compared with construction workers and fishermen and roofers and concrete finishers and farm workers and packing plant employees and many others who toiled far longer than football players, in greater degrees of danger, and whose knees and backs and limbs are now racked with pain thanks to a lifetimes of hard physical labor? In comparison, I'm sorry, NFL players have it good. At least they get something. But the rest of us? Even those who don't put lives and limbs at risk are on squirrel wheels of toil with no reward at the end because they weren't as smart or as lucky as others, even though they worked just as hard, and maybe harder.
Mr. Brown is correct in that the NFL has made tons of money without adequately compensating those who made it possible. But there is, I think, a far greater and far wider injustice going on in this nation.
39
@M.R. - Thanks for saying this. I would love to have a guaranteed $2,500/month pension coming to me in old age. It is criminal that a multi-billion dollar business can't do better by the players (workers) who made it great, but it's actually a slightly better deal than many Americans are getting.
15
@Katie Taylor Almost nobody gets a pension anymore. And rather than provide a pension that goes away on bankruptcy, how about they pay better and you save. And government stops giving these teams (and many corporations) our tax dollars. Capitalism operates on risk, not on free money which corrupts everyone, harms the tax payer, harms business, and harms politics.
5
Football players receive a pension? Who knew? Most workers today have never even heard the term much less dreamed of $2,500 a month from an employer. An employer they worked a few years for in their early-20s. I personally saved one company millions of dollars once and I won't get one dime in retirement. In fact, they're probably still using the program I wrote. I was getting paid $12 an hour without benefits. Where is my blocker?
Look I have nothing against pro football players. I know the job is tough. However, pro football players should be fighting for labor in general. Not just themselves.
I ask Jim Brown if he's every wondered how much the guy drilling cleats onto the players shoes gets paid. What about the person scrubbing game balls with a horse brush. How about the guy who peels industrial tape off the players' pads while the players go home and sleep. The guy doing the coaches laundry at 2:00 in the morning. People picking up the players towels from the locker room floor. These really are jobs someone has to do. They don't come with a pension.
Mr. Brown needs to expand his thinking a little bit.
289
@Andy I agree...$365/month for each season played = $175k/year for a 40-year career...not too bad of a pension.
8
@Andy
The players to whom Brown is referring aren't todays millionaires. They were yesterday's working stiffs who had to work at other jobs during the offseason.
And perhaps Andy needs to expand his thinking. Specifically, is it helpful to set the former NFL players of Brown's era (who made a few thousand a year) against today's workers, thusly distracting from the real issue: The greed of the corporate overlords who exploit and oppress both of them?
Any event, thanks for doing the work of the corporate class for them. If I were you, I'd demand a slice of the pie. But don't be surprised when you don't get one.
47
@kellyk2 I don't understand your response. Do you actually think the players to which Jim Brown refers had 40 year careers? In the NFL? Seriously? Maybe owners of teams, but not players.
51
In the end, most football players, like most American workers are disposable.
Yes, some of these players made football great for those who love it, but the same can be said for the bricklayers, farm workers, steel workers and auto workers etc. These people made America great, they built our cities, feed us and clothed us as a nation, of course they didn't enjoy the idolatry of workers like sports players, actors, musicians and the such, but they all sacrificed their lives and bodies.
We forget our heroes, and we forget what senior citizens in America did to sustain the nation.
189
@Michael Piscopiello
Stop comparing low skilled jobs with highly skilled professionals.
2
@Michael Piscopiello Given today's lack of pensions, the roll back of benefits for younger workers and the weakness of unions, it will be even worse when those currently in their 20s-50s retire -- if they can retire at all.
14
@Matk
Why should we stop comparing low skilled jobs with highly skilled professionals? Won't the (so-called) low skilled workers still need to survive in their senior years? Still need a place to live, afford to go to the doctors, eat food?
And why disrespect workers who work with their hands? Maybe they're more highly skilled than you want to recognise. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say low-formal-education required jobs?
20
Good commentary by a good man, with the exception of Mr. Brown's belief that Commissioner Goodell's platitudinous statement of appreciation is sincere. I have heard many such inert bromides in my life, and no longer believe that we should allow lack of action to be combined with claims to value others work. If Goodell appreciates these men, there is a way to show it. Then his statement will carry some weight. Until then it's just self-serving blather.
86
@Robert He's being polite -- and politic.
Fantastic piece, Mr Brown, and the sincerity of your concern shines through. Keep pushing the NFL to do what is clearly the right thing, and all fans of the NFL (especially the older ones among us) should follow your lead.
1
This has been an issue for years. Gene Upshaw always stayed that he represented current players. The difference between Chris Paul and Upshaw says it all.
1
Johnny Unitas came here for a fan sports show. The local newspaper noted that he was signing autographs for $5 each, and that he did these shows in order to supplement his retirement income in order to live. I was saddened to see to one of childhood heroes, and also recognized that if someone as good and well-known as him had to do this that others of less prominent fame were in far worse condition. The NFL has a long history of human exploitation that continues as strongly in these times.
165
@Mike Jerin : Good point about Johnny Unitas but he did own a restaurant/hotel outside of Orlando in 1970's where we stayed when I was with LS which was called "Johnny Unitas's Golden Arm Inn,"so perhaps things could not have been all that bad for him!But most NFL players are millionaires today, but they earn it!
I have no pension - I had to sacrifice and save on my own, and I'm not complaining. My choice. I understand it's a mere pittance compared to the benefits players get today, but $365/month for every year I worked sounds pretty generous to me.
3
Excellent piece, heartfelt and convincing. The NFL should do more. So should our entire nation. We are the only major developed nation that does not provide an affordable healthcare system for all its citizens. Everyone, not just once physically powerful men, deserves affordable healthcare. Let's develop a plan, and tax ourselves appropriately, and stop insisting that only the rich and powerful get what they deserve while everyone else has to beg.
2
I salute and respect Jim Brown, both as an athlete and an activist.
That said, pro football has now literally outgrown its ability to protect its players from grievous bodily harm. It has in effect become a blood sport. I went from being a huge fan to not watching it at all - ever.
There is no longer any excuse for watching pro football.
85
@Vesuviano
Well-put. I gave up watching pro and college football many years ago and find that I do not miss it. It is truly a blood sport. I wanted to play football when I was in high school, but my mother was absolutely opposed. I am thankful that she won that argument especially after observing some of the injuries my student-athletes have suffered over the years. Football should be relegated to the sports graveyard.
12
@Lucien Dhooge
Either end it, or do the only possible things to make it safe. Restrict the size of players based on the positions they play, and limit the number of years that a player can play.
Some of the greatest NFL games ever played involved teams whose players topped out at about 270 pounds. The helmets and pads provided adequate protection under those circumstances.
But now, with most linemen well over 300 pounds, and players at all other positions correspondingly bigger as well, their brains and bodies can't be protected.
Either make the game safe or end it.
8
@Vesuviano Oh, please! These men know what they're getting into nowadays. They either love the game or the money they'll earn or both. As long as they'll play, I'll continue to watch.
2
Thank you for highlighting this injustice to the early NFL football players. Based probably on today’s salaries, I had no idea that many of these earlier players made a relatively low wage. As you point out, the NFL should mimic the NBA regarding pensions for all players, especially those from the 60’s to the 80’s.
1
I'll watch some football today. I hope some of the announcers mention your column.
Jim Brown was my hero when I was a kid. His autobiography was my bible. I wanted to be like Jim Brown, toughest man around. Being tough was primarily lesson but there were two more lessons his book offered.
One chapter was about his years at college where he followed in the foot steps of another black athlete who failed to live up to the university standards. Mr Brown was constantly being told not to be like his predecessor although the only thing that the two had in common was their skin tone. Judge people by who they are, not by the color of their skin.
Another chapter explored how the toughest man in the NFL could be invited to a exclusive country club where everyone treated him as an equal until a little white girl reached out for a hug and while returning that affection Mr. Brown felt the entire atmosphere in the room changed. Racism in America, invisible lines to this day. Play the sport and don't be "uppity" or express anything that goes against the narrative that we are all equal. Sound current?
Finally Jim Brown was the man who destroyed my ability to hero worship any man when he was rightfully accused of multiple cases of sexual abuse against girlfriends and lovers. Lessons learned.
39
"The National Basketball Association understands this. The N.B.A. has pensions that are three times the N.F.L.’s, and in 2017 the N.B.A. and its players agreed that every player, whether from 1966, 2006 or 2019, would receive the same pension amount — and free health insurance for life."
Well written and correct Mr. Brown.
What is good for the NBA should be good for the NFL.
2
Jim Brown, the best EVER...and never shy about speaking out. From civil rights to his fellow veteran players, Jim has always been a beacon of light. If justice is ever served for these men, I hope Jim gets some credit. Why not start a foundation? Just print the address and my check will be on its way.
1
Agree, 100% with Jim Brown. The players played in an era of maximum brutality and minimum medical attention except to provide pain-killers to keep them playing. Share the rock, share the wealth.
1
Jim Brown, glad to see you use your voice for others that deserve more. And, it is an awesome voice. This white guy baby boomer awe struck as a kid.
Great running back (the greatest), civil rights activist, I assume now a solid citizen. The problem: The NFL is a corrupt enterprise, "criminal element" from boardroom to player to coaching staffs, top to bottom, a purveyor of boredom (that's right, I don't watch), publicized by clowns like Jerry Jones. Hopefully some of the NFL's billions will trickle down to its crippled ex-players. American football: a dinosaur sport headed hopefully for extinction.
I used to watch Jim Brown run the ball for the Cleveland Browns. He was the biggest star in the game. Now he is using his name to try to help his fellow footballers; he's a star once more.
2
Totally agree with the message but the NFL needs a better messenger. Jim Brown is a woman beating chauvinist, having been convicted of multiple acts of domestic violence.
Agreed, in the past pro players not only in football but other sports were underpaid, treated live slaves and with poor benefits.
Now it is just the opposite, obscenely , grossly overpaid, PED upped who will leave a team because they are only getting 29 million and not 30 million a year.
1
I am curious as to the identity of the NY Jet who played for the Jets' Super Bowl team and now lives in a trailer and cannot afford a dentist. Perhaps knowledge of his identity may spur a philanthropist to help this individual pending any action by the NFL.
I suspect back then if you had to tackle Jim Brown you knew you were getting brain damage. Brave souls. Nobody forgets watching him play. He just flattened Roger Goodell. Should have happened years ago.
One of a number of reasons not to watch the NFL
A televised NFL football game performance is a classic symbol of everything America has become. From the game opening military regalia down to the incessant “Drive Bigger” SUV and pickup truck commercials. Mr. Brown admirably points to another symbol of America - greed’s dominance over quality of life. If only testosterone could be converted into a renewable energy source.
2
Good luck, because I predict the parallel for most players is really Bob Kraft at a strip mall for sex with a trafficked woman. Money, sex, and an underclass is never kind to its workers or honest about physical health.
Thank-you, Mr. Brown. I hope you can get as much yardage on this worthwhile campaign as you did on the field.
2
Jim, sorry about your profession and meager pensions retired NFL players receive. A rather small segment of our population. Let me name some other professions with meager pensions. Steel workers. Coal miners. Automobile workers. Some Walmart employees. Some McDonalds employees. ................
4
@jwgibbs chinese workers who make the shoulder pads.
In a just and moral world, Goodell would long be out of a job and possibly jailed for fraudulent business practises. He is the poison that Jim Brown won't identify because he's too much a gentleman.
Mr. Brown. Your editorial today is the truth. You have always spoken the truth. Grew up in Cleveland. You and your colleagues built the NFL. Shameful treatment of those that built the league. And now CTE proven.
It isn't just footballers who have gotten shafted. I worked for a community hospital for 11 years...my pension: $296/month. When our facility was taken over and our defined benefit plan became a defined contribution plan, there were a couple of years when the powers that be cried poverty and didn't contribute matching funds (3% maximum). Darn good thing I have always been frugal and provided for myself and my family by saving 20% off the top and contributing to IRAs every year.
"The fate of the foot soldier is to die alone on the battlefield and then have his name misspelled in the paper." - W.T. Sherman
How many Americans continue to sacrifice unappreciatedly for the benefit of those who will come later? Take part of the wealth tax and give it to the families of veterans, and use the rest to fix the unfunded pensions in this country. Then pay off the federal debt and start over.
Dear Mr. Brown, A dear friend's parents took him and me to Wrigley to see The Bears play "those other guys." That was the only time I saw you play for Cleveland. It was as thrill to see you run behind the butt of a blocker, shed tacklers, get taken down after 6-8 tough yards, stay down for a two count, then bounce up and run to the huddle.
I loved you then, and I love you now for your courage. Thank you, thank you.
Mr. Brown - all of you including the current crop of players are simply being "played" by the white owners of the teams. Despite all the wonderful athletic talents that all of you brought or bring to bear, you are being treated as little more "football coolies". It is the sporting equivalent of racism.
1
How will the owners afford their super yachts if they buy into this?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/billspringer/2019/12/07/dallas-cowboys-owner-jerry-jones-357-foot-long-superyacht-spotted-inlondon/#4f86a6908969
1
Life is tough, Jim. Imagine all those teachers who worked 25 or 30 yrs, at modest wages, and now live on pensions paying less than $2000 per month. I honestly wish you the best of luck in trying to get NFL players and owners to part with some of their cash, but, honestly, NFL revenues today are no more derived from your legendary achievements 50 yrs ago than they are derived from the more work of teachers of that era.
How about, instead, you give up on Trump and his absurd tax policy and support an increase in Social Security taxes? To help that poor tight end in the trailer and his many retired-teacher neighbors?
148
@maqroll It's not a sympathy contest between teachers and football players. Teachers need greater support in this country, but they don't get concussed or get busted knees, shoulders, and ankles on the job, and they can keep working for as long as they want.
8
@maqroll I have family members retired on NY teachers pensions pulling in 40-50+K a year plus full social security plus IRA accounts. They had tough unions to represent them. They are banking it, not spending it. Let's concentrate instead for a moment on the huge support staff including stadium workers, ticket sellers, groundskeepers, parking lot sweepers and bathroom cleaners who take temporary jobs with no pensions to fill in their other retail and service work also with no pensions. What does life look like for them in their 60s or 70s? A lot worse. These little social security increases each year are a joke for them. Or rather the joke continues to be on them...
14
@Steve Eaton There's an easy solution to that - touch football. It's just as exciting and so much less damaging.
2
And its these older players, who should be teaching the younger players (even those still in high school) how to better prepare for the inevitable; their being out of the game, sooner rather then later, very likely hurt, certainly not as folk-heroes.
If the older players can teach the younger players anything, its the basic lesson that the rest of us Joe/Jane's out in the regular work world know all too well. You are always disposable. If Tom Brady were to lose his touch by the end of this season, he's a goner. Same with any of the other "stars". Most assuredly to all the other unknown mooks regularly on the field, or waiting on the sidelines. Disposable is the underlying theme written on your contract.
Better prepare. Better to save the pennies, and not waste it on all the Bling and stupid excessive life-style choices. Sure buy Mom a new car, pay off the parents mortgage. Put the sister thru nursing school. But save the rest! Invest it wisely, with professional help, that isn't the brother, or the Uncle of a neighborhood 'Bro. Find a true professional! Ask your team owners who they use!
Wake up to the facts, that you're about as lucky as lucky can be...that you made it to the Pros, and make more - even if its not the top tier, then you'd likely have earned in a regular job, had you not survived the rigors of college ball.
Be fully aware of how likely you are to be gone sooner rather then later. Use your lucky break wisely.
25
It's so obvious that these retired players deserve consideration for the salaries enjoyed by today's players. Fairness and respect!
Jim Brown is one of the great men of the last half of the 20th century. He is so balanced and fair he is one of a kind and needs to be listened to here. He is also the #4 Sport Illustrated athlete of the 20th century behind Ali, Jordan, Babe Ruth(a consensus top 3) and holds so many football, lacrosse, and even high school hoop records it is unbelievable. A very well written informative article.
When arguably the best player ever to cradle a football under his arm speaks, the NFL should listen. The league and its former players are a microcosm of the country: rampant socioeconomic inequality, income disparity and a panorama of haves and have-nots. It’s a no brainer that with the information available now that minimally, if any group needed lifetime medical insurance it’s former professional football players. And Mr. Brown, sir, when I was a kid I hated for the Giants to lose but when they played the Browns, watching you run the ball was so enchanting that I often forgot the score. Thanks for that, and for your exemplary post-football life of service. (And for The Dirty Dozen)
2
Hear! Hear! Great words from a great player.
May we all live long enough to see genuine pensions for all so that we may grow old with dignity.
I think most of the blame belongs on the players of the past 25 years. Owners only care about how much money they have to pay out in order to generate the revenue they receive. Owners don't really care who they have to pay that money to.
When players and owners negotiate, the players could be a little less selfish and bargain for an increase in pensions to those players before 1993. Instead, the players ignore those old players and seek to add even more to their already enormous.
For 2017, the NFL average salary was about $2,700,000. The median was about $870,000. Following are the 2019 minimum NFL salaries (which vary depending upon years of play):
Rookie: $495,000
1 year: $570,000
2 years: $645,000
3 years: $720,000
4-6 years: $806,000
7-9 years: $930,000
10+ years: $1,030,000
@Errol
Two things:
1) The average career of an NFL player is 3.5 seasons.
2) Unlike the NBA, NFL contracts are NOT guaranteed.
Way to step up Jim Brown! This is a disgrace. The NFL prints money. Use their leverage with their TV partners to share some of the pie for better pensions and healthcare. Hard to believe anyone would oppose this.
27
@Pat
I moved to Katonah's Wood Road in 1969 as a child. How idyllic!
As a kid, before there was an AFL and Buffalo Bills, Cleveland was the team on the TV every Sunday. I remember counting Jim Brown's yards every game, hoping he'd hit the magic 100. He'd drag 1, 2 even 3 defenders with him. There was no one like him and hasn't been since. Many other runners were shiftier, amazing to watch, like the Sweet Walter Payton Brown mentions. But if you absolutely had to move the ball on the ground, there's been no one like Jim Brown. This piece drew my attention immediately to see what he had to say. That he's speaking out so eloquently now for others only increases his stature in my eyes. Good for him! And he's right about the imbalance. Let's see if the greed of the NFL has any shred of decency and moves now, in this next round of negotiations, to right this wrong. With him raising awareness, a lot of people will be watching.
27
@allseriousnessaside
Yet it was the unsung heroes, the linemen, who made it possible for Brown to have such an amazing career, yet they've been thrown under the bus.
1
@allseriousnessaside
My goodness!!!. Another misguided commenter: "That [Jim Brown] speaking out so eloquently now for others only increases his stature in my eyes.
Please see my comment elsewhere it these comments: "If Jim Brown is really concerned with equality and fairness issues, maybe it's time for him to explain his past treatment of women, his endorsement of Richard Nixon, his current Oval Office visits and support of Donald Trump and criticism of Martin Luther King for organizing 'parades.' "
Two comments: first, the NFL Players Association needs to confer with, and learn from, their colleagues in MLB (who have the best pension plan in the US, bar none) and the NBA. There is much to learn. Second, Jim Brown is the greatest football player who ever lived. Period.
Another example of those at the top not sharing enormous profits with those that actually produce the goods. The problem it would seem is more complex. The N.FL. Requires a huge system outside professional football to provide the athletes. At the high school and college level, programs have been developed that spend too much time on the sport and not enough on education. Too many athletes leave the sport without the education needed to find a profitable second career. The average carrier in pro football is about 3 years. Without a decent education,retirement can be difficult.
3
Once again, the great Jim Brown demonstrates to all of us the best sports has to offer by using his considerable talents and notoriety to help others in need. Thanks for this thoughtful Op-Ed piece Mr. Brown. Hope the NFL listens and supports its retired players better in the future.
5
Thank you, I remember you and Sam Huff going at it in Yankee Stadium.
The NFL is run by a man who makes over $30 million a year and by many Owners who make big profits from their franchises.
Then there are the Players some are many huge salaries.
It’s hard for me to believe that all of these folks couldn’t dig into their pockets and help those who made the game great!
5
I was not a fan of Jim Brown, mostly because he was usually on "the other side" and destroyed my team, but I agree with what he's saying here.
4
What is so "great" about football ? It does a good job of scrambling grey matter inside the helmets of players. It's a waste of a Sunday PM not to mention a lot of money too.
4
@USMC1954 I tend to agree with you, and no longer watch football (or any other sport), but millions of people watch it and make a lot of people wealthy
@USMC1954. That scrambled gray matter is just one reason why the retired players need better pensions and free health care. They did not know what the players of today know
6
Who is this guy?
"A standout lineman from the storied 1970s Minnesota Vikings played 17 years and gets just $2,300 a month (he took some of his pension early)."
I was a Vikings fan as a kid, and I should know the answer.
Lost lost interest after four Super Bowl losses. Not simply lost interest, but have looked at the NFL (not for long) in many different lights.
I will always be a fan of the players. Thank you Jim Brown for this contribution to my favorite newspaper.
4
Full disclosure, Jim Brown was my biggest sports hero as a kid.
Mr. Brown is absolutely correct. And, it is clear that the responsibility for the unfair situation belongs both to the team owners and to the enormously paid players over the past 2 decades. Indeed, perhaps the larger portion of the blame belongs on the players than on the owners.
3
The predicament of the early NFL players sounds like that of most people in just about every money-making enterprise.
8
@Panthiest
Perhaps, but unlike most enterprises the current employees are in a position to do something about it. Unlike your average employee, NFL stars/multimillionaires have a fair amount of leverage in negotiations, and could include increased pensions for early players as a goal.
6
@Chet Though there still are plenty enough average folks who work for very rich corporate businesses/executives, (look at what happened to Boeing when 'the suits' took over. Not same issue, but it is an issue of unfettered/unregulated capitalism).
God willing, Dems will fix some of the disparities.
no tears for men with a solid pension, AND probably social security AND medicare. many Americans envy that. the astounding suggestion that that isn't enough is just that-- astounding
8
I have loved football since I was, well, can't remember. The last four or five years I have been losing interest in the sport. At an ever increasing rate, What should be entertainment and good fun, has become the epitome of greed. And that is just one of many negative aspects. This article reads true, and is yet, another brick in the wall.
6
Hear, hear. As usual, Jim Brown is a great man as well as the greatest runner in football history.
10
It isn't only about the financial challenges of their predecessors that current players care little about. They also ignore all those players with broken brains and broken bodies which also fits with the myth the NFL and the owners want to present.
At the draft, I'd like to see some of those former players get up on the stage and tell those young players what they have to look forward to.
9
Well it's certainly an interesting position on Mr. Brown's part. The young men who chose to play this game retired at the average age of 29. While they were no longer able to play football, were they also no longer to earn a living? How many of them completed their college degree? Did they go back to school and invest in themselves? Why did they think seven years of (hard) labor would set them up for life?
I appreciate the gross disparities of earnings between the rank and file players and the owners, but are there any industries that remunerate their workers for life after a seven year tenure?
I am not opposed to these players seeking and receiving better health benefits, especially as many of their health concerns are due to football related injuries, and surely some increase in pension benefits is warranted. But the real takeaway from Mr. Brown's piece is that all workers need to act in unison to protect themselves and their futures from the rapacious nature of monopoly capitalism.
27
Well said sir. The NFL could certainly do more especially when you juxtapose the paltry sums doled out to those players of the 60's,70's and 80's against some of the very generous pensions that many fortunate former civil servants and municipal employees receive each month. Not to say these are not well deserved but the NFL, unlike many states and municipalities, has the money which could certainly very quickly ameliorate this injustice. As an aside, just ask Roger Goodell to justify this situation and his rather generous paycheck when he heaps accolades on those gladiators of yesteryear. Jim Brown, no equal now or then on the field, and a beacon of truth when it comes to advocating for his peers.
7
Amazing and eye opening. Mr. Brown's logic is inescapable. It makes one wonder what is wrong with the NFL that they haven't fixed this problem a long time ago. How could they be so hypocritical to let it get to this point while making their centenary celebration films? If the NFL does not move forward on these points then it is the duty of football fans to boycott games and the purchase of team paraphernalia. Shame on every team owner, every current player and every NFL fan if this isn't rectified. Anyone of these 3 groups can fix this on their own - without the others. Owners - do the right thing. If not - players sit out. If not - fans stay home. Problem goes away at either juncture.
4
Thanks, Jim. You, Bill Russell, Kareem and many others were not only great players but leaders for right for all Americans. You truly embrace Martin Luther King's message from the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice.
11
Brown also has long history of abusing women that we shouldn't forget.
2
i agree with brown, but he was more than a football player who player from 1957-65.
best NFL player i ever saw.
one of the few athletes who retired at the top of his game.
outspoken at a time when it wasn't usual.
also had a few brushes with the law.
8
@brupic
correction....who playeD from......
anyone who loves the history of the game should be able to enthusiastically get behind this plan - it will take the support of great coaches, players, and owners to push the money machine that is the league to support the plan. I’m hoping to hear from the men I admire in support of these guys. Shame on anyone who forgets the veterans of this game.
3
Troubling to hear this, but problematic throughout our country, not just the NFL.
17
I respect Jim Brown’s message but few people of any walk of life are inclined to imagine themselves as older, decrepit or impoverished. Our society does everything in its power to distract us from the inevitable. Paying homage to those who came before is appropriate but old age comes to everyone. A fair number of my peers are in similar straits as mentioned in this article without lucrative football careers beforehand. Save and invest.
4
And why should football be any different? After all, Football's greatest fans - ie. REPUBLICANS have forgotten what made AMERICA great.
16
My family moved to Manhasset when I was in the eighth grade and Jim Brown was a high school senior. I had grown up in the Deep South and this was the first integrated school I went to. Everyone knew who Jim Brown was and turned out to watch him play football and lacrosse on a regular basis. He was also involved in student government. An amazing home town hero. We followed his career at Syracuse and later when he played for Cleveland. I knew he had gone on to a career as an actor and spokesman for business. Interestingly I was thinking about those days recently and wondered if he was still alive. Obviously he was one of the lucky ones who didn't suffer brain damage.
For all those who have written to say the players deserve nothing and should have saved or invested better, how many of them were lucky enough to get the education Jim Brown did? How many of them weren't able to save and invest because they didn't earn the humongous salaries so many get today? And how many of them are suffering today because of head injuries?
Thanks for all the great memories from my youth that you provided and thanks for standing up for your fellow players who were not so fortunate!
34
Well said sir. The NFL could certainly do more especially when you juxtapose the chicken feed doled out to those players of the 60's,70's and 80's against some of the very generous pensions that many fortunate former civil servants and municipal employees receive each month. Not to say these are not well deserved but the NFL, unlike many states and municipalities, has the money which could certainly very quickly ameliorate this injustice. As an aside, just ask Roger Goodell to justify this situation and his rather generous paycheck when he heaps accolades on those gladiators of yesteryear. Jim Brown, no equal now or then on the field, and a beacon of truth when it comes to advocating for his peers.
5
I am all for these retired players getting increases in their pensions, but what did they do after they retired? Did any of them get a job that provided pensions, or provided an income that would help prepare for their future?
Most retired in their 30's if not younger and had plenty of time to set a new career path.
7
@John H: Those are fair questions but beside the point here. Regardless of what retired players did or didn't do after their playing days, they should be receiving more from a league that is so fabulously wealthy and that owes so much of its development to them.
No one turns on a television set on Sunday to Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones, and their ilk play. And they are wealthy enough independently of football that they don't need any money from that side hustle. It is immoral for folks like that former Viking lineman to be struggling.
But alas, the situation described by Brown is a microcosm of American society writ large: shameful needless suffering of the many juxtaposed with excessive and obscene richness of the few.
13
In the face of the NFL self-promotion, relentless product advertising, and the medical revelations of recent years, to overlook former players is either unawareness, or simple greed. It is only tolerated because real fans of the sport aren’t aware of it, and current players don’t yet have that broader perspective. The cause merits a TV advertising campaign every Sunday at halftime.
6
I commend you for your interest in helping your fellow NFL veterans. Without doubt, the NFL should step up to pay the medical bills for these older men for treatments necessary due to injuries they sustained playing NFL football.
3
Jim Brown as a running back may have been the GOAT.(greatest of all time). He was smart enough to quit in his prime. And left football with his brain cells intact.To his credit he successfully pursued acting and promotion post football and does not need the paltry NFL pension for the pioneers of the game. But many are in dire straits. When Jim Brown speaks the league must listen. I hope so.
21
The players always made more than I did. Why didn't they save and invest wisely like I did?
3
@Bob
There was a great many years when pro athletes in most sports made less than their counterparts in regular occupations, thats why many of them worked in off season-that's if they were physically able. It seems you have no realization of what FB does to ones body, especially at that level of play.
11
I get what you're saying Mr Brown, but I too worked in occupations that were detrimental to my health and now in my 60's my ONLY source of income is social security. The company that willfully poisoned me and ruined my nervous system will pay zero dollars toward my old age retirement. The countless companies who used my youthful exuberance to load and unload trucks and freight cars will offer me nothing.
So tell us again why former NFL players are so special and more deserving of lifetime benefits the rest of us have almost no hope of ever seeing.
12
Here's a reason: Your successors are likely not making tend of millions of dollars of your sweat as today's players enjoy of the sweat of Jim Brown and house brothers.
11
@Martino
I too worked in occupations detrimental to my health but this article is about pro FB not "my occupations", so lets see your concerns when that's the topic at hand.
Social Security?, Mine, even though I easily earned a full payment gets docked down to a measly ~$400 monthly because Regan tried to save SS by taking pensions from people like me. Mine is docked because I get somewhat meager a teachers pension having left a lucrative skilled trade to teach for peanuts, sometimes life's not fair, huh?
Now, the subject is football please...
9
The full spectrum of retirement funding abuse follows Mr. Brown’s story and yours. My wife taught in school systems for 28 years but manage to work during those years and after retirement from teaching to generate enough social security credits. However, because she has her school retirement annuity her normal social security is reduced by an “offset” (a monthly cash penalty) and she is disallowed spousal benefits if I die first. In other words, after years of service to the nation in low-paying teaching positions she gets less social security than if she had done nothing for those 28 years. Go figure. And I might add, we should honor our school teachers’ contributions to society far greater than NFL players. Almost every child is a better person after a year of school and he or she will build on that year as the next begins. No one is better off at the end of the football season. The saying in Cleveland is, after all, “There is always next year.” (And it will be just about like the last ones!)
10
Kudos to Mr. Brown. There is a reason for everything, whether it is the vanishing of glaciers or the vanishing of the mane who made the pay and benefits of today's players possible. Very few of those players of yesteryear are the television admen of today; but none of them who are suffering today's medical issues for yesterday's entertainment deserve to be in penury. The league and the union are making an end run on their obligations to those who made today's entertainment and paychecks possible. Disney still makes money from showing of Mickey Mouse cartoons as old as the NFL, but celluloid characters never age, infirm or die broke. Every hike of the ball should be a focal point of this injustice Mr. Brown brings to our attention.
9
We are all sympathetic to those who age without a good source of income; that is why Social Security was created. It's difficult to feel the same degree of sympathy for players who overwhelmingly fail to save for their future and who obtained no useful skills other than playing ball. Even successful football players rarely make it to their 30s, and to expect that 10 years of paid work should support one for the rest of life is not economic reality.
7
You obviously know nothing of football salaries from the 60's, 70's and to a degree the 80's. Players from the 60/70 often had of season jobs to make ends meet.
@Dr B Yeah, definitely the players’ fault for not saving for a rainy day. I mean, what were they thinking? They all should have gotten endorsement contracts or Hollywood agents, as Mr. Brown was fortunate enough to do. Then those of us who sit in judgment could focus our righteousness on others who really deserve it.
1
I believe that the majority of players today lack a knowledge and regard for the history of the sport they play. All too soon they will become a part of that history and possibly endure the same issues and concerns that many of their predecessors currently experience. Early in my career I realized that one should leave a place in better condition than when one found it.
6
I’m not a fan of football but if the amount spent on “stars” was spread throughout the industry there wouldn’t be a problem.
The guy who gets crushed by the opposition is just as deserving of a pension as the crushers because they both produced the enjoyment for the fans. Real Hero players back in the day weren’t royalty for the most part just everyday Joes,isn’t that what we want?
3
@John
So in your world the movie extras would earn much the same as the featured stars? That's never gonna happen.
Good cause especially considering total equity value of the NFL. Jim Brown's charismatic personality and "woken" status is even more powerful than his athletic prowess as evidence this essay. Obviously, not lacking in intelligence or guile, Mr. Brown throws down the ethical gauntlet to the league. I'd advise owners and management to listen carefully to Mr. Brown as his advice is priceless going forward. There are few things that compared to broken down athletes that suffers at the hand of glory while youthful but endures the scourge of an embattled body with the remainder of life.
12
"Most N.F.L. players who retired before 1993 receive a pension of about $365 a month per season they played, meaning that the typical seven-year player gets about $2,500 a month. Thousands get considerably less, and have stories you won’t see on network broadcasts."
And most people who work full-time and pay taxes for five times that many years (i.e. 35 years) would be thrilled to get $2500 a month in Social Security retirement benefits. Football players earn a multiple of the salaries and wages that their fans make. If they fail to put any of that away for a second career or a rainy day, that's on them.
13
@Earl W. Perhaps "most people" should organize and demand better pay and benefits from their employers then? Professional athletes have done so in the four major US sports and their financial prospects have gotten much better.
12
@Earl W.
Actually, the former football players to whom Brown is referring were for the most part working class stiffs who held down other jobs in the off season.
And few, if any, other jobs take the physical toll extracted by slamming one's body against other extraordinarily big, strong, and fast human beings. Most men in their physical prime could only last at the most a handful of plays against these individuals before suffering a serious injury. Imagine doing so for several years in order that those "most men" might be entertained for a few hours each autumn Sunday.
4
@Earl W.
apples and oranges comment above...
Not surprising the NFL and Roger Goodell force retired players from long ago to suffer the indignation of poverty and lack of medical and dental care.
That the NFL has $ Billions and sits idly by as its ex-players struggle for survival is a testament to corporate greed.
Thank you Jim for standing up for men who are unable to stand up for themselves.
Brown wasn't simply lucky he had two post-football careers, he was a bright, talented guy who figured out how to capitalize on his football career.
37
Herein Jim Brown's words run for yet another touchdown. 9 seasons and 9 Pro Bowls, Played every game every season, 12,312 yds rushing, 2499 receiving, 126 TD's.
And he is still The Man in the best sense. Doing for his fellow men.
80
@Speakin4Myself In action, after a tackle, he always got up very slowly, looking like he was staggered and down for the count. Yet up he stood and again he punished his tacklers with strength and speed far beyond his peers. And now, a class act, blocking for all those of his time and before. We take a knee to you, sir.
3
@Speakin4Myself And Jim Brown still holds the NFL record for highest career average yards per carry.
4
No citizen of the greatest nation in the world should go without medical care. Read today’s article on how capitalism thrives in the Finland economy by taking care of its workers and families.
167
@Tim
Easy to say, hard to pay for in the USA.
@Tim
no citizen in the greatest nation in the world goes without medical care.
canada has had it for years; ah, maybe you meant france, no? australia? hmmmm, spain? sweden?
better be more precise.
5
@brupic
another correction...should've read.... 'no citizen in the greatest nation in the world should go without medical care.....'
Good for you, Jim Brown.
The story you tell is the story of America gone wrong in many areas. We are supposed to be a community, a civil society. This rich and poor gap has to end.
Imagine just 1% of the billions would double the pensions. Why would this take more than a minute to accomplish in a normal society?
52
My high school friend John Brodie had a stroke not to many years after retiring from playing quarterback of the 49rs. He had taken to golf, and smoking cigars, and some suggested that was the reason, but we now know it was from all the concussions he had suffered while playing. He got beat up pretty badly being sacked many times. Last time I saw him was at a class reunion, he was getting by financially, but not a multi millionaire like today's players.
34
These men planted trees whose generous fruit others eat, and they are given scraps if anything.
It looks greedy and selfish for the NFL to laud these men in word - but not in deed. It would be a rounding error in their NFL accounting department to do the right thing here.
Thank you, Mr. Brown, for putting the light on this injustice. Hopefully young players will join your chorus, too.
84
@Laura "It looks greedy and selfish for the NFL to laud these men in word - but not in deed." Wrong. It is greedy and selfish for the NFL to laud these men in word - but not in deed.
1
When I was five years old I played a game in our Arlington basement: "Jimmy Brown." To me, Jim Brown was football. I hope the NFL has the courage to take care of the players he played with, those that built the league.
28
Whats more shocking - to those who don't pay this matter any attention - is that no former players along with some ethical financial experts and lawyers, have not better rallied to the players causes!
Who's stopping ex-players from organizing a retirement, slash, forced out by injury investment, post-game life-advisory firm?
We (fans and players, their families) all know the league doesn't give a hamster tail hair, so move on and organize better! The Players Union clearly has fumbled the ball...so fill the niche and Organize!
Where are the Entrepreneurs? There is a clear business opportunity here, with player/investor ownership as a driving force. Health care, family services, investment services/advice! Take a cue from the owners!
I've been screaming this for decades...but its only at a TV screen. How can I see this opportunity, and no one else?
I applaud Mr. Brown, et al, efforts - but while you're doing that - ORGANIZE!
12
Organizing only helps if you have some leverage. What leverage do old football players have? Pity is not much to stand on nor very dignified. Not sure you read the part about former players not able to make ends meet, but that reality is not an attractive market segment for the opportunities you seem to see. Plus, it's a tiny market to here much income.
2
tom. you miss my point. you create leverage, you don't wait for some one/group to give it to you. the players, retired or not, have the ability to organize outside the league. and the union...if only to create a self serving organization. work to provide sound advice to athletes at all levels. The League and Player's Union ain't doing it, so make things happen outside of them. The League won't do anything unless the legal system intervenes, and that doesn't look likely with the way the courts are being stacked with Conservative judges. Who then to rule against employees, and Independent Contractors like the players. The Players Union is a bust.
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thank you Jim Brown.
we shall see if the PLAYERS insist that that the old players are treated with respect. i suspect that many of the players care only about themselves and insist on more money for themselves, their fancy cars, many mistresses, expensive cars, etc etc.
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This disregard for the welfare of former employees is not limited to the NFL. The oligarchs who run the US view labor as a disposable commodity.
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@Jack be Quick And at least initially while still playing, players make huge sums of money.
If society and individuals weren't so concern with being ostentatious likely they would have some saved.
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@yessar Dude, you're not getting this. The linemen and most of the rank-and-file players from the didn't make tons of money, didn't drive big fancy cars or live in oversized houses. They made a living, got beat up for it, and are now pushed aside by those who can easily afford to help them.
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Amen, Mr. Brown. You need to be given a microphone at every NFL game, meeting and awards ceremony to shame the league into providing for the men on whose backs it was built.
I hope to god that someone reads this article to Dion Sanders, Tom Brady, Bill Belichek, Michael Strathan, et al, and they publicize this until the NFL makes this right.
I suggest that you contact El Prez at barstool sports as I know he would be behind this to help the building blocks of one of the great pastimes in America live dignified retirements.
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I remember seeing Jim Brown as an All-American lacrosse player from Syracuse at a college all-star game back in the Fifties.
He ran through the opposing team's defenses like they were kids
-- which compared to him they were -- and scored a couple of one-handed goals throwing underhanded,
Probably the greatest lacrosse player anybody's ever ever seen.
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@A. Stanton If lacrosse had ever become a viable pro sport, Jim might STILL be playing. I saw him then, and I still follow the game. There's never been anyone even close...and the same for football!
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I've been a pro football for many years and relished the simplicity and seemingly genuine personalities that made the game so interesting. Those were the early years of "pro" sports. I heard yesterday that Babe Ruth was earning 100.000 a year while the average player was earning 2,000 Such were the vagaries of the sports business back then. Before the unions were established and evolved into the gold mines we see today.
While the early players were on the field for love or money that was their choice. Just as it was my choice to work in the fiancial services industry for 30 years.
I too started on the bottom and worked hard to aspire to bigger and better. Mine was a full time job year in and year out. I could make a weak argument that my employer was able to grow significantly on my efforts and that of my counterparts.
The years I spent on the job did earn a pension based on my earnings, not the earnings of my employer that were in the mega millions.
American history and the evolution of industries is ride with tales of exploitation. Such were the foundations of every industry. Nowhere have we seen the ability or earnest to claw back to be compensated for any such imbalances perceived or real.
A 2500. monthly pension is likely greater than a vast number of wage earners are now receiving for their part in building this country. NFL players deserve no better just because they opted to play and not earn. Their choice, not the NFL.
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@Nick
The math doesn't work for many players as careers tend to be short, not long enough to make the 2500 the commonly seen amount. Then there's the medical issue of a very violent sport even when your not a pro. Talk to my shoulder, hip, hands, fingers,elbows,feet, or knee docs? And I only played to the college level.
Difference being you got to spend decades in your chosen profession siding you the opportunity to work until social security kicked in, or build a substantial nest egg, or both. Football players don't get that luxury. a few hundred dollars a month for years between 30 to 67 is not much to live on.
Dear Mr. Brown,
You were one of my biggest heroes, alongside my jazz music heroes, when I was a child living abroad on the one medium that connected me back to my country: the silver screen. Later, when my family repatriated, I discovered your football career and, in time, learned how things work in sports and the music business.
One might think both are very different from each other, but they really aren't. Artists, just like sports figures, even when they've had success in their careers, often times end up poor and abandoned when they need care at life's end. Dizzy Gillespie, who gave this nation - the world - so much, who died of pancreatic cancer at the end of the 1980s, needed help getting care.
The structure of the NFL and other sports leagues is inherently extractive of those who participate in it. Players spend a relatively short time of the best years of their lives giving up their bodies in the name of a sport. They, by all rights, should be cared for in the same way unionized and non-unionized workers are, with a pension at age 62.
Not only do these players need a voice, but strong labor unions that work together to claw back the equity that has been stolen from the American worker over these past decades. France is is the midst of a general strike. America has yet to have one and exercise the power of its labor force in the face of the most unequal time in our history.
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