Second FoxSports.com Story Today Details Challenge to NFL Disability System and Duerson’s Tainted History With It
Demystifying Generic Depression Is Fine – But the Big Taboo With Duerson Was His Denial of Concussion Syndrome While on NFL Disability Board
August 16, 2011Houston Texans’ Cheta Ozougwu Plays a Full Quarter With a Concussion
August 17, 2011I just posted a review of a story on Dave Duerson by Alex Marvez of FoxSports.com. There’s also a second Marvez piece, “NFL retirement plan faces challenge,” http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/andrew-stewart-dave-duerson-nfl-retirement-plan-faces-legal-challenge-08151, and it is highly recommended.
As noted in Marvez’s other article and my post about it, former player Andrew Stewart has sued the Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Retirement Plan in U.S. District Court in Maryland. And Stewart’s attorney, Michael Rosenthal, is pounding hard on one of the themes of this blog: that the entire process was corrupted by our retrospective knowledge that retirement board trustee Duerson, who committed suicide in February, himself had chronic traumatic encephelopathy.
In all candor, I am less interested than some others in all the internal politics of the NFL Players Association. Maybe Duerson was a good guy, maybe he wasn’t. But he was definitely brain-damaged, he was in denial about an already deep body of research on football and brain damage, and he was in a position of power, ruling on the disability claims of brethren. Stewart and others are right about this, and those calling them names for pointing this out are wrong. I hope the dissident retirees achieve justice, in this Maryland courtroom and elsewhere.
Irv Muchnick
1 Comment
What dose Andre Collins, Robert Smith or Jeff Van Note know about disability law or vocational rehabilitation?
The answer is nothing.
1) Andre Collins is an employee of the NFLPA.
2) Robert Smith works on the NFL Network as an analyst.
3) Jeff Van Note works for the Atlanta Falcons as an announcer of their games.
These three guys are NOT qualified to make disability decisions because it is beyond their scope of expertise and ALL three present a GROSS conflict of interest.
Regards,
Dave Pear
Pro Bowl 1978
Super Bowl XV
davepear.com
footballvets.org