Dave,
I've read your numerous posts and have had interaction with you before as a board director member of the NFL Players Association Former Players. In previous conversations I expressed to you that we are both trying to do the same thing and that is to do things for the betterment of Former Players. My attempts to try to reach you and to reach some kind of understanding were lost. Now a legitimate effort by DeMaurice Smith and the National Football League players Association to review your case has been trampled upon by your actions and words. It is unreasonable to expect that before a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached that a new disability plan can be put in place. The owners want to do away with the pension plan of the current players altogether, to make them take an 18% pay cut, and to increase the amount of games and damage their bodies take. All of your venom and attack have been at the NFL PA. It's interesting how there is not as much emphasis on the fact that it will take a new collective bargaining agreement to obtain any changes to the current disability plan. Changes which you think and you would have others believe are squarely in the hands of the NFL PA. That is simply not the case. I have read John Hogan's letter to DeMaurice Smith. There is no wrongdoing on the part of the NFL Players Association as it pertains to your case. The fault is with the current collective bargaining agreement disability plan. Not with any actions or lack thereof of the NFL Players Association. We have pledged to try to implement a new system of disability through the new collective bargaining agreement. That is something that DeMaurice Smith has spoken to us about as Board of Directors, Chapter Presidents, and members of the Players Association. Your attacks on the one institution that actually can do good for your cause is misguided, selfish, and destructive to everyone else who will have claims in the future. I have expressed to you my sympathies for the pain and suffering that this game has caused you. I and thousands of other former players who are just like you, suffer just like you, but do not choose to attack the NFL PA like you. Those thousands have decided to back the institution that has always been there for them. Not without mistakes, or misjudgments, but has always been and will continue to be there for them. This new NFL PA is not your enemy. No matter how much venom and misguided attacks you may throw our way. DeMaurice Smith's duty and my duty are to continue to fight for all current and former players’ rights and benefits. To create a system in this next collective bargaining agreement that will rectify the inadequacies that exists in the current agreement. The administration of today will attempt to correct the mistakes of the past. But we can only do that with the support of those of the past and the present. John Hogan spoke of my leaving before his presentation at the Independent retired football players’ summit. That was not of any disrespect for one disability attorney’s opinion. But because I have extreme confidence in this executive director, this players association, and this senior directors desire to make things better for all players.
While this might not be politically correct, to be honest with you, from reading your posts I don't believe that anything we do or say will be good enough for you. For example, we are advocating for a Legacy fund, that can help put money in the pockets of many former players and you attack that concept. Why would you attack the possibility that we could get the owners to repay the players what they owe? This is money that is owed to you and thousands of other players out there who participated in the building of this game but have not seen their benefits increase like the rise in value of the teams that they bled for. As I stated before, I will continue this fight along with the help of our elected leadership the NFL PA staff and our Executive Director until we have won. That is the only outcome that will be acceptable to me and to everyone that I'm associated with.
Nolan Harrison III
Senior Dir. NFLPA Former Players
LA Oakland Raiders
Pittsburgh Steelers
Washington Redskins
1991 to 2001
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