why is it not workers comp???
Posted on 05/10/2013 4:15:58 PM PDT by Huntress
After 24 knee operations, the National Football League’s former Man of the Year leans heavily on a crutch. When Reggie Williams pulls up his pants leg, what’s underneath looks like the trimmings from a butcher shop. His right leg is so ravaged that it’s three inches shorter than his left. Worse, it’s uninsured.
Once, Williams was the NFL’s high ideal. From 1976 to 1989 he was a spring-legged linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals who set franchise records and played in two Super Bowls. Off the field, he was a civic-minded Dartmouth graduate who won humanitarian awards and served as a city councilman while he was still playing. He was so loyal to the game that he was a pallbearer at legendary team founder Paul Brown’s funeral. He would even be invited to apply for the job of NFL commissioner.
But now, Williams and his battered legs amount to a bill no one wants to pay. Since 2005 Williams, 58, has suffered a cascade of health problems he says stem from his 14-year football career, including multiple knee replacements and a bone infection, which he estimates have cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
Williams says he is unable to qualify for most NFL disability benefits, and the Bengals — the only team for whom he played — are opposing him in a workers’ compensation claim that would provide for his medical care. These tedious battles have transformed him from a league champion into a critic. “All they’ve done is fought me on everything,” he says, “including even sending me a Band-Aid.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The NFL and NFLPA should step up and support these players.
There isn’t a legal requirement, but a billion dollar a year business should do more for these guys.
Oh, Good God.... These players make exponentially more than 99% of everyone else. How about a little self-responsibility?
All NFL employees, coaches, players, etc. should pay into an insurance pool out of those large pay packages.
Players would pay a higher rate since they are more prone to injuries.
Too simple?
I do, however, think the NFL has at least a moral responsibility to help the players who sacrificed their health for the sport. They certainly have the means. During this man's career professional football became the most popular spectator sport in the country and the league and owners became very wealthy.
um... Obamacare?
why is it not workers comp???
The Owners get rich off these guys. Let the Owners pay.
I agree with you.
Duh -- either the player, team, or league, depending on what the contract said that they signed when they became players.
How much money did Reggie Williams earn during his long career?
It’s certain that it is much more than what the average working stiff made who had to take care of his own medical bills.
My God! You wanna know what’s wrong with this country????!!!!! Look at some of these dumbass posts (other than yours, which is 100% correct). On a CONSERVATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! website, half the posters think highly paid football players are entitled to welfare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are screwed!!!!!
They can foot their own bills.
That may be, and for PR reasons they may do just that...but...these guys are payed very well, they know the risks, they make their choices...now, because they their poor choices are catching up with them...they need more from others. Sorry, I may appear heartless, but excrement occurs.
All NFL employees, coaches, players, etc. should pay into an insurance pool out of those large pay packages.
Players would pay a higher rate since they are more prone to injuries.
Sure, in the future, but not retroactively. Sorry, but these guys get the best of medical care while in pro sports and the finest of creature comforts. And it seems to me they know going in the injury risks they face.
Damn right...
“On the refinery subject, I have always wondered why the Iranians pissed away so much money on Nuclear war when they could have built their own refinery.”
They make millions. I think they should handle it themselves.
Hmm. So let me get this straight. The players work hard to be good at their sport. What drives them, I assume, is the dream to be a pro some day. And what fuels that dream is all the big money they’ll make. So they make it to the pros. They make millions of dollars — by VOLUNTARILY participating in an occupation that they know will damage their bodies — and after they rake in their millions, they want someone else to pay for the injuries they sustained under their own volition.
Sound like a bunch of unionized Victim-ists to me.
My response? Pay your own bills.
Hey, half of FR screamed that principles didn’t matter and voted for Romney. then rah rah Ted Cruz for being a man of principle.
You expect consistency?
Are you trying to rob the market on exclamation points from Michael Savage?
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