Our Anonymous Athlete is an NFL veteran and former Super Bowl champion. He'll periodically share pro football's deepest secrets with the Daily News.
I don't know how this whole NFL labor issue is going to shake out. I have no clue whether there'll be a lockout or not.
But I do know this. Some of the things the Players Union has done haven't helped. We're not as united as we should be. Some players care what happens, others don't. The rich guys that are making all the money, they're saying, "I'm in a pool. I'm good." But the other guys, the guys who aren't making $10 million a year, those are the ones who are worried about all this.
The guys who make money on teams, they're the ones that actually have some control. It's not the guy that's making a million dollars. It's the guy that's making $8 million. If he goes to the owner and says something, they'll listen.
The QBs, if they all got together, 32 deep, and said something to the owners, if they say, "Hey, we're not having this s---," the owners will listen.
But you don't hear that, and some guys hardly seem like team players. Look, the big-name players on the team say they're team players. Well, if you're a team player, take a freaking pay cut. You're a team player, making $12-15 million, but you won't take a goddamn pay cut.
And then Roger Goodell looks good. He says he'll take a dollar for a year. All of a sudden, I'm getting emails asking can I live off a dollar a year. I'm like yeah, if I made what he had made, like $10 million a year, had all my bills paid, fine.
If some big-name guy would show up on TV and just say something (like Goodell) we'd be fine. But you haven't heard that. They don't want to give up their contracts.
And yet there are players tweeting, and we're having issues with ourselves out in public. That's what the owners want! They want us to fight!
And while we're doing that, we're losing important things. All the talk is about money, but I'd take a pay cut if I could have my
benefits. I don't know how many guys could say that, but that's what's important.
The 18-game season, I can live with. But the benefits is what's going to hurt. What's going to happen to our insurance? Right now, we have this great Gene Upshaw plan. You get at least $25,000 a year from the league, all the way up to $300,000. That money is sitting there for you, for health insurance, for your family down the road, when you're finished playing football and your COBRA (insurance) is up.
Thank God for that.
The way things are for retired players, that was a great idea. They might take that away, too. (The owners) already didn't pay into that this year, because it was an uncapped year. So we didn't get any retirement benefits or anything. That money went back into their pockets.
Not that we could do anything about that, because that's the deal we signed (for the uncapped year), and we shouldn't have. I've seen a lot of contracts, and it shouldn't have given them this leverage. We gave them too much leverage.
I just hope everything works out. I mean, the rich players will be fine, but some of the other guys, you'll see them filing for bankruptcy. It's crazy, but you'll see some guys having money problems.
Now you see all these emails coming from the Union, for seminars and internships and workshops. I did those when I got into the league. But for some guys, I wish they sent emails three years ago. A lot of guys never had nothing, so they didn't know to save.
Me, I'm fine, but I feel for a lot of guys. Unity is all we have. Brotherhood is all we have. It's us against the owners.
I hope we get that.
Got a question for him? E-mail him at websports@nydailynews.com
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