It truly is disgusting how the NFL has treated past players who paved the way for the game today. Each year I continue to hope it will change...

Mike,
Exactly what is the status of John Mackey? He was a hero of mine when I was growing up...man, could he break some tackles. I recently saw something about a John Mackey Foundation. What is it?

thanks

this is my first time on this blog, though some may knoe me from Roch's blog. todays blog, i dont have much to say about, and i knoe im a few days late with my post, but i think we need to trade Mason. if we dont its a huge mistake for several reasons. Clayton (who is our # 1 receiver) is the same thing as Mason, except younger- and no team needs2 posssession receivers who run good routes and have escapability. you need your other guy to be a tall/speedy deep threat thats (Williams- he is our # 2 guy) which leaves Mason an unhappy 3rd who could be a # 1 on many other squads. He is certain to be cut for cap reasons either next year or the following year anyway. i understand next year our cap situation is even much worse then it is this year. So get something for him- we dont need him at all. what we should have done was trade him to San Diego for LT's backup runningback, then we would still have those picks we lost for Mcgahhee (not that i dont like the aquisitiuon of Mcgahee, given that we will get a couple of those picks back due to free agents we lost last year and this year).

No, Mr Preston wrote Mac was HOLDING OF on taking meds for dis-n-dat. Just sayin. I 'met' Mac once on his (accompanied) way in at Owings Mills Mall, and the bestest favor I could do him was to just leave him and his lady 'lone. The man needs to write a book. What is it about Arizona?

Goddell should make each individual franchise responsible for the pensions of their former players. League owners would probably be against such a move, but it makes perfect sense that the organizations that profited from a player over the years should foot some of the bill for his post career care.

The NFL is going to examine the rules of overtime in the hopes to give the team that wins the coin toss a tough time to win the game. 65% of the time, the team that wins the coin toss, wins the game. They say they will move the kickoff back 5 yards. Thats all...

I like college overtime a lot better.

If we are to truly treat professional athletes as men and not disposable slabs of meat running around for our enjoyment, then shouldn't we assume they've made a conscious decision to enter their chosen profession? And, like any of us, are they not aware of the short and long-term implications of their career choice? If they wanted a job with a better pension plan, why didn't they apply at the closest General Motors plant? I don't hear these guys sticking up for us fans when tickets prices and concessions are constantly raised. I have no sympathy for people who happily reap the fame and rewards that come with being a professional athlete, then, once their playing days are done, cry about how badly they were taken advantage of. These are not indentured servants; they're adults making conscious career choices in a free society.

Perhaps nowhere else does the NFL better reflect American society than in the base display of greed that accompanies the League's glorification of money. The pathetic attempts by players from a bygone era for a piece of the billion dollar pie are almost as difficult to stomach as the excuses offered by the current golden boys of the gridiron. The weak, greedy justifications set forth by the modern NFL are reminisent of the social battles that took place at the turn of the century.

Jack London's Iron Heel, a social commentary on the economic injustices of the Gilded Age, could just as easily describe the battle between the old and new NFL. London's description of Jackson (see Herb Adderly), the workman whose arm was mangled when caught in a machine, perfectly describes the plight of some of the old guys: "I found Jackson a meek and lowly man...[with a] note of the nascent bitterness within him. They might-a given me a job as a watchman". The excuses offered by Smith, the foreman of the Mill , are close to the League's and Union's current unstated rationale: "...there were many accidents (injuries) in the Mills (games) and [our] policy is to fight to the bitter end [any attempt to pay the old guys]".

The refusal of the current players (and owners) to help the old guys is really no different that the injustices of Enron and its ilk, the increasingly unequal distribution of income between the haves and have-nots in our country and the inequality in social class throughout the United States today and in the past.