Whereas today's NFL players will qualify for severance pay, an annuity program, tuition reimbursement and a fund designed to help cover some future medical bills on top of their pension check, Dobler and others allege that the union and league are ignoring older retirees who played before salaries soared.
"It's as if we invested in this company called the NFL and we watched it grow to $6 billion in sales, yet our stock is still only worth $100," Dobler said.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday March 01, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 54 words Type of Material: Correction
Sports pensions: An article in Tuesday's Sports section said former NBA player Bob Elliott was 55 and lived in Phoenix. He is 51 and lives in Tucson. The article also said Elliott earned $22,500 in his rookie year, matching the league minimum in 1977. But Elliott never disclosed his salary for that rookie season.
Last year, Pro Football Hall of Fame member Herb Adderley protested his $126 monthly pension check as "below poverty level." A recent pension upgrade approved by the NFLPA will boost monthly checks for all retirees by a minimum of $50, but the former Packers defensive back says it isn't enough and is refusing to wear his Super Bowl and Hall of Fame rings.
The other big leagues also have drawn criticism.
For years, the NBA had different pre- and post-1965 service requirements: five years before; three years after. A new agreement -- in addition to increasing the maximum annual pension benefit for a 10-year veteran from $124,000 to about $170,000 -- will make pensions available to dozens of players who accumulated three or four years of service before 1965. The plan also includes a death benefit to a player's widow.
Even baseball's gold-plated pension has drawn criticism from some former players -- unrest that dates to 1980, when the MLB Players Assn. reduced the time it took for players to qualify for a pension from four years to one day.
The rule change didn't help players such as Carmen Fanzone, a third baseman for the Chicago Cubs during the 1970s. Fanzone, now 65, was cut by the Cubs just a few weeks short of the four years needed to vest. Baseball has talked about making the one-day rule retroactive, but it hasn't yet happened.
"It used to eat me to death thinking about it," said Fanzone, who carried a trumpet with him on the road and subsequently earned a living and a pension as a professional musician. "After I got cut, I called every club, but got no answer. Then I broke my ankle and couldn't come back."
Craig Skok was luckier. A pitcher who for years knocked around the minor leagues, Skok knew it was highly unlikely he'd ever be called to the big leagues. So he made his own call -- to Ted Turner, then the Atlanta Braves' owner. Turner agreed to put the left-hander in the bullpen for two weeks, and even though Skok never entered a game he thus qualified for a $1,000 monthly pension.
