Former NFL players in court to seek better retirement benefits from NFLPA – NFL News
A group of the National Football League (NFL) retired players who were a part of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) have engaged into a legal fight with the Association to get the promised benefits, after their
retirement from the professional league.
The players believe that they and their other colleagues who were involved in the CBA negotiations with NFLPA were paid $300 to $500 million less than what they had been promised by the union.
A lawsuit against the union is now pending before the US District Judge, Susan Richard Nelson, in St. Paul, Minn. and the judge is due hearing oral arguments from both parties on Wednesday, February 15, 2012.
The NFLPA is seeking dismissal of the petition, while the players said they will continue to fight and push it for giving the players their promised benefits in their retirement age.
"I'm going to fight `em to the end," said Hall of Fame guard, Joe DeLamielleure. He is amongst 47 former NFL players who have signed their lawsuit before the federal judge, and are hoping for a favourable ruling.
The group is led by former Minnesota Vikings defensive end, Carl Eller, who estimated that the players have received upto $500 million less than what they were due to get.
Michael Hausfeld, the group's lead attorney said:
"The retirees don't begrudge the present players any income they merit, but at the same time they don't feel it was appropriate for the current players to essentially shortchange the retirees."
All those players have made the point in their lawsuit that they were pushed out of the initial stage of the CBA talks with the union despite that they as per a court order should have been included throughout the talks.
As a result of the talks a new CBA was reached between the players and union, which at the end saved the 2011 NFL regular season. At one point, it looked impossible due to lingering controversies and differences between the parties around the talk.
The agreement resulted in formation of a NFL “Legacy Fund” carving an additional amount of $620 million into new CBA, and it is expected to go towards pension increases of the retired NFL players.
The group leader, Eller, said that they were some mistakes made by them, which have pushed them back in their chances of receiving better compensations.
He said:
"A lot of us did make bad decisions. We had our chance. We had our day at the park. I know that I certainly made bad decisions, but the point is that players today are still making bad decisions. And they're making millions of dollars. So what I'm saying
is let's work together to minimize those decisions.”
He now hopes to be able to help the group receive all the promised benefits from the players’ union.
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