Redskins Hall of Fame Linebacker Sam Huff slams NFLPA

Dave Pear’s Official Blog » Sam Huff is Mad as Hell (http://davepear.com/blog/?p=1339)

SAM HUFF SLAMS THE UNION
Posted by Mike Florio on February 14, 2009, 5:28 p.m.

Lost in the ongoing disarray surrounding the NFL Players Association’s search for a new Executive Director is the reality that certain former players continue to be upset regarding the actions (or lack thereof) the union is taking to assist those who made the game what it now is.

Our own view has been and will continue to be that former players should be entitled to assistance (from the NFL, the union, or both) if injuries incurred while playing pro football are affecting them from finding gainful employment, caring for themselves, etc.

But we don’t think that former players who have squandered the money made while playing in the NFL should be entitled to a handout.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s the latest development. Hall of Famer Sam Huff has teed off on the NFLPA in an open letter posted at Dave Pear’s web site.

Huff calls for former players to break away from the NFLPA, and to form their own organization.

“I think it is time we separate ourselves from this group of union leaders so to speak even though it is called the Players Association and make them pay the 28 million that they lost in court and we go our own way and tell them to go to hell the same as they have told us,” Huff writes.

There are good union and there are bad ones. Once it becomes about money and power, not about taking care of your people, or just juicing the system then it becomes a bad union. I don't know enough about the Player's Union to make a call on it. Unions can and will split sometimes once management gets corrupt and greedy.

If anyone is interested in Unions I recommend,

Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer & Herbert M. Morais.

More About Labor's Untold Story (http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/untold.html)

Good, shit is ridiculous.

i really see both sides of this. the N.F.L.P.A is working to cover , and protect the present day union workers. and anyone who has been covered by them previously. the old guys were never in the union. and while it would be nice to see them extend the help( and lord knows they have the resources) they aren't obligated to really do anything. maybe the current group is telling the union heads they don't want their money helping out guys they don't know?

IMO, if anyone needs protected and helped its the old players. They built the game and didnt make any $ (except for a few) doing it. They should be given top priority over the guys making big $ today.

As a side note, I get a chuckle out of the NFLPA being called a union. I never heard of any union (except the sports ones) that allowed their members to negotiate their own deals. If the NFLPA was set up like other unions then there would be LB pay and every LB would be paid at the LB rate. Likewise, RBs (and every other position) would have their own rate and the players would be paid according to that negotiated rate. It wouldnt matter whether one was a superstar or barely on the team, they would be paid at their position rate according to seniority.

i really see both sides of this. the N.F.L.P.A is working to cover , and protect the present day union workers. and anyone who has been covered by them previously. the old guys were never in the union. and while it would be nice to see them extend the help( and lord knows they have the resources) they aren't obligated to really do anything. maybe the current group is telling the union heads they don't want their money helping out guys they don't know?

I think one of the biggest problems is not that the NFl does not want to help out these older players but how to sheild themself from a massive dept that they might incure. Once they start to help these guys they are saying we are liable and that gets the ball started for every person who ever played to grab what they can from the NFL.

From what I have seen is that the people who have built this game into the most popular and lucrative sports business are being shut out and the players of today are reaping the benefit of this and not remembering the guys who came before them who have sacrificed far more than they will ever have to. Today's players don't know how good they have it. There should be something for the people who came before them and if the players union is unwilling or unable to represent them fairly, then they should break away and form their own organization that will protect the players.

Does the union even have an obligation to these players or is it more the NFL. This is a clip from Wikipedia and union did not have any power until 1968 and then had a lapse in their agreement from 1987 to 1993.

The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is the labor union of players in football's National Football League. It was founded in 1956, but only achieved recognition and a collective bargaining agreement in 1968. After a lost strike in 1987, the union was formally decertified, converting into a professional association in order to pursue antitrust litigation designed to win free agency for its members. When that tactic worked it reformed as a union and resumed collective bargaining with the league in 1993.

National Football League Players Association - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Players_Association)

There are times when making people decisions based on legality rather than righteousness, and humanity is folly, and to do so harms more than it helps. In this case, the "liability" gauntlet can and should be dealt with to bring about this change. To do otherwise is soley about the greed of todays players and comes wrapped in lawyerspeak