Former Bills great upset with Upshaw

[YardRat]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070606/SPORTS03/706060346/1007/SPORTS



NFL union head Gene Upshaw has never been one to hide his emotions. An ex-NFL player thinks this time he's gone too far.

Buffalo Bills Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure said he takes literally a remark Upshaw made about wanting to "break his ... damn neck."

"He is the head of a union. He has the wherewithal to do it," DeLamielleure said Tuesday.

Upshaw made the comment last week to the Philadelphia Daily News. DeLamielleure, a former guard who was part of Buffalo's "Electric Company" offensive line in the 1970s, believes Upshaw has ignored the needs of former players.
"Our pensions stink," the 56-year-old DeLamielleure said.

He and fellow Hall of Famers Mike Ditka and Lem Barney held a pre-Super Bowl news conference in February to air those concerns.
Upshaw notes that pension payouts have increased and a plan has been enacted to help former players with dementia. He told the Philadelphia newspaper last week that he was tired of DeLamielleure's criticism.
"A guy like DeLamielleure says the things he said about me; you think I'm going to invite him to dinner? No. I'm going to break his ... damn neck," he said. DeLamielleure, who lives in Charlotte, N.C., said the comments frightened his family.

"He can't patch it up — ever," DeLamielleure said. "I had to explain what it means that someone wants to break Grandpa's neck."

[Night Train]

Good for Joe D, standing up for the old guard who played for peanuts and get a small pension.

With all the sick $$ being made, kicking back a little to the players who made me love this game is only right.

[Devin]

There appears to be a lot of former players upset with Upshaw. Didnt he and Mike Ditka get into it a few weeks ago?

[Michael82]

Upshaw is on the edge of the building and will get pushed off soon. It's only a matter of time until he becomes another Bob Goodenow. :snicker:

[Wys Guy]

Good for Joe D, standing up for the old guard who played for peanuts and get a small pension.

With all the sick $$ being made, kicking back a little to the players who made me love this game is only right.

Indeed. The entire pension thing should be an albatross of shame hanging around Upshaw's neck.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Goodell will do something before Upshaw ever will.

[Wys Guy]

What I don't understand is that it would take so little money relatively speaking to take care of this.

I mean what was the entire league's payroll for players back in say '70? IDK, but I must assume that it's a tiny fraction of what it is today.

[G. Host]

Upshaw appears to be completely in sync with NFL team leadership - everything is designed for those who make the big dollars; forget who got you there as well as the rank and file. Not someone who I'd vote for as Union rep if I was a player.

[blackonyx89]

The owners are money hungry bastards and they don't care about the old NFL players who put their bodies on the line and that league on the map. Hook them up with a decent pension! I hate to say it Ralphie boy's guilty as well.

[TigerJ]

According to the Washington Post (as reported by Chris Brown) congress is getting interested in the NFL veterans' pension plight because of Delameleure's vocal activism. Good for Joe!

http://buffalobills.com/blog/index.jsp?blogger_id=1

JOE D'S CRUSADE GOING TO CONGRESS: Joe DeLamielleure's crusade against the NFLPA to provide more financial assistance to retired players is making it's way to Congress according to the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602644.html). There will be a subcommittee that will have an oversight hearing on the issue. Both Commissioner Goodell and NFLPA President Gene Upshaw have been invited to the hearing. Joe D. has led this fight with the likes of Mike Ditka, Jerry Kramer and other former NFL players.

[Dr. Lecter]

The owners are money hungry bastards and they don't care about the old NFL players who put their bodies on the line and that league on the map. Hook them up with a decent pension! I hate to say it Ralphie boy's guilty as well.

Joe D disagrees with you. He made a point yesterday to say the owners are not the problem, that the players union is.

[TigerJ]

The owners are money hungry bastards and they don't care about the old NFL players who put their bodies on the line and that league on the map. Hook them up with a decent pension! I hate to say it Ralphie boy's guilty as well.

Delamielleure completely exonerates the owners. He says the recent CBA gives players 60% of overall revenue, which is more than reasonable. The remaining 40% is not all profit. Most of that gets eaten up in other overhead, I'm sure. According to Delamielleure, the pension benefits to which he refers should be coming out of that 60%.

You beat me Dr. Lecter. I left mine up though because it includes percentages.

[Dr. Lecter]

If years from now the salaries for sportswriters go through the roof, am I entitled to a pension increase funded out of the pockets of my successors? I would think not. No more than I’m entitled to load up on Berkshire Hathaway stock at 1982 prices because, yes siree, I really meant to buy a bundle back then.

I feel for the National Football League’s long-ago retirees. I really do. They’ve been wronged in major ways, particularly when it comes to disability payments, which are grudgingly dispersed only to those who meet a stringent set of requirements that ignore the harsh reality of their plights.

An hour-long conversation I had with former Buffalo Bills guard Conrad Dobler in April drove home the point on the medical front. The retirees from less lucrative days have a major gripe that needs to be addressed on the issue of disability qualifications. There are, according to a new release on nflplayers.com, 284 NFL alums collecting some form of medical disability. The numbers, given the vicious nature of the sport, fail to add up. The alums have a strong case.

But the assertion that those same retirees warrant pension hikes because pro football now wallows in riches is an attempt to overwrite a lack of foresight with the benefit of hindsight. The NFL Players Association has been in operation since 1954. Players since then had every opportunity to negotiate contract terms that would protect them over time, perhaps correlate their pension payments to any subsequent growth in NFL revenues. That they failed to do so is not all the fault of Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFLPA since 1983, although he’s the man at which a group of vocal retirees, which includes former Buffalo Bills Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure, is pointing the finger.

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/93183.html

[TigerJ]

I disagree with DiCesare's article. If the retired players were demanding pensionsamounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year would be one thing. They aren't. Current pensions amount to about $13,000 a year. Delamielleure suggested $35,000 as a reasonable amount. Yes, it's more than double, not quite triple current amounts, but it's a pittance against the 60% revenue that current players are getting.

[Historian]

Upshaw's still trying to figure out how his Raiders lost that Monday Nighter here in 1974...

Tool.