NFL Alumni Head George Martin Hopes To Unify Ex-Player Groups

Martin Says Commissioner Has Embraced NFL Alumni

Former NFLer George Martin Friday started his new job as NFL Alumni Exec Dir, and in the role he "hopes to unify the various ... groups that claim to speak for ex-players and push the NFL and the Players Association to improve what many former players say is an inadequate pension and disability plan," according to Michael O'Keeffe of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. Martin said of NFL Alumni, "We are not a union. We are not looking to be an arm of the union. We are looking to be an advocacy group, to sit down and discuss the variety of needs that retirees have with the commissioner's office and the NFL Players Association. We want a voice in all the contemporary issues that have come to light, most notably concussions. We want to have a dialogue with the NFL about how that situation can be improved. Of course, we don't want to forsake our lineage with the NFL Players Association." Martin added, "It is going to be my responsibility to make sure we have discussions about those issues and many more. More importantly, it is going to be my charge to establish some infrastructure on the alumni side that is responsive to its constituents." Martin said of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, "We have an interested, pro-active commissioner who says he is willing to sit down and discuss these things, and even more important, address them. We are going to take this optimism and see how effective we can be. This is a new era of collaboration. ... We feel great because Roger Goodell has embraced us with open arms. He's looked at our agenda and he thinks it has merit. That's a great start" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/18).

JOINING THE CAUSE: In Boston, Christopher Gasper reported Patriots QB Tom Brady is an alternate player rep "for the first time in his career," and the "active union involvement of Brady, one of the NFL's marquee players, adds clout to the union." It is "rare for a player with Brady's lofty status and marketability to expose himself to a potentially contentious situation." Brady said, "It just felt like the right time. I think our executive director (DeMaurice Smith) provides some very strong leadership. I think you need strong leaders in the players; I've been around a while, and I've seen a lot." Patriots LB and alternate player rep Adalius Thomas said of Brady, "It definitely adds power to it because of his status in the league and the respect he has from owners to coaches as well as players" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/18).

Writer Feels Johnson Could Be Buyer In Free Agent Market In '11

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING? In N.Y., Judy Battista wrote of a potential uncapped NFL season next year, "I don't think the uncapped year is fully understood. I don't think the change will be as significant as you might think." Battista: "In talking to owners about this over the last few months, my impression is that they think there are two owners who might go on a spending spree with the cap: the Redskins' Dan Snyder, who makes frequent free-agent splashes, and the Jets' Woody Johnson, who has gone on a few spending sprees in recent years. The rest of the owners will probably not go crazy. ... I don’t think small market teams have to worry about a fundamentally altered landscape and I don’t think we have to worry about the end of parity either" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/18).

ISSUES ABOUND: In a special to PARADE, the Washington Post's John Feinstein noted the NFL is "confronting a number of critical issues," including the "impending end of a union contract; questions about the future of drug-testing; player misbehavior; the danger of brain injuries; and the expansion of the league itself, in terms both of where teams play and how many games they will play." Goodell "may worry about the future of the NFL, but he isn’t going to let anyone see him sweat." Goodell's suits are "always perfectly tailored, and his tie always looks good," and "with his wispy blond hair, he appears younger than his 50 years." Goodell "has been far more stringent about player conduct off the field than" former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, but some "have criticized Goodell for not doing more to force owners to relieve financial pressure on ticket-buyers during the economic crisis" (PARADE, 10/18).

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: The N.Y. DAILY NEWS' O'Keeffe reported the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has summoned Goodell and Smith to Capitol Hill "for an Oct. 28 hearing on football head injuries." U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who serves as Chair of the committee, "called for the hearing earlier this month, after the results of an NFL-commissioned survey that determined that retired NFL players may suffer from dementia-related ailments far more frequently than other Americans were released." The names of additional witnesses "will be released later this month." NFL and NFLPA reps said that the league and union "will cooperate with the Judiciary Committee and its staff" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/17). Meanwhile, author Malcolm Gladwell discussed a recent article he wrote for The New Yorker about the affects of repeated blows to the head on the athletes. He said some "ex-athlete's brains look like a lot like the brains of people with Alzheimer's," and some "percentage of football players are going to end up in the dementia ward by the time they're 50." Gladwell: "I don't believe that football will be played 10 years from now the way it's played now" ("PTI," ESPN, 10/16).