No Contract, No Insurance: NFL Players Battle for Benefits

I was able to look at the general

manager team and say you know go

yourself like you know and you know I'm

like I'm leaving you know this is it I'm

done Nick this is the defining moment I

will never play football in this league

again and when I think of my teammates

who didn't have the education who don't

have the support system we didn't have

the other career opportunities that I

did they would have foolishly signed

that piece of paper and a lot of them

did you know and now they're broke and

now they're hurt and now they have no

means you know by which to support

themselves and they are totally screwed

I have horrible memories like where I've

run in and hit a guy at a wrong angle

and my neck just twists a little bit and

all of a sudden you know I knew what I

did you know shooting pains down my arms

into my leg not only would I want to

block the guy in front of me but it was

like I got to get out of here you know

in one piece like how am I'm looking at

the clock you know not thinking how much

more times left till we win this game

it's like how many more snaps do I have

to take and can I bite down you know on

my lip hard enough to try to make it

through these you know before before my

arms fall off and I bought into the

system with everything I had so much so

right away that I would have taken

probably anything that they put in front

of me and I had complete trust in the

medical staff you know by three years in

where I knew exactly how to like load my

doses you know I take 200 milligrams of

I excite ache you know 400 milligrams of

naproxen sodium you know after games and

stuff you go all the way to the

injectables you know where they would

shoot you up with toradol

I had a rack of orange bottles on my

counter that looked like something an

8-year old heart patient would probably

take every day

in football very little guaranteed you

know there's some signing bonuses but

most those contracts are you know you

get paid to play you know you don't get

paid to get hurt you don't get paid to

sit in on the training room sometimes

it's a garbage bag and a security guard

at the gate of the facility and says you

know I need your parking pass here's all

your stuff you know like the next day I

go to the doctor because I was hurt and

they were like yeah you don't have

coverage so my coverage ended you know

the minute I got pushed out of the

locker room you know and handed all my

stuff and it was over I mean there's no

you know there's no here's what you do

now here's what you do next you know

it's it's you're done and they've you

know tried to strong-arm me into an

injury settlement taking a few thousand

dollars you know when I have a contract

that's worth hundreds of thousand

dollars and I have medical bills you

know and I've you know I was put in a

room and told you know and this is the

other part of you kind of the collusion

that goes on here is if you know coach

has been the league for 40 years looks

you dead in the face and says you need

to sign a piece of paper or you know

I'll call every team and make sure you

don't play again I know everybody in

this league I mean that the deal they

offered me was wouldn't have covered the

cost of a single MRI and I would have

waived my life to my medical insurance

forever for a neck injury for $10,000 it

wouldn't cover ten minutes of having a

specialist look at it and you know

luckily I was in a position where you

know I had had a great education I had a

strong you know family there support me

and I was able to look at the general

manager team and say you know go

yourself like you know and you know and

I'm like I'm leaving you know this is it

I'm done Nick this is the defining

moment I will never play football on

this league again yeah I mean the the

concept of a multi-billion dollar

business trying to remove you know a

right that every worker has to win a

workman's comp in every state to

specifically say that football is exempt

from that which they pass now in a few

states it's completely insane that these

guys are profiting you know hundreds of

millions of dollars a year and they're

worried about paying for you know the

same insurance that we make a guy who

gets up on a ladder and paints a house

has to get for his workers that they're

unwilling to pay for that and I got you

know worker and Scot benefits you know

in the state of Georgia you know it was

like 700 bucks a month for

like 40 months the only bridge that a

league minimum making player had to like

get my stuff in a moving truck and get

to like a city where I'd luckily found a

job you know for them to say that you're

not disabled at all they cut you from

the team because you're injured and then

turn around and say but you're not so

injured that you deserve any

compensation for getting hurt while

doing your job it's unbelievably greedy

it's sleazy dirty and greedy