Brian DeMarco fights NFL Players Association for disability pay

Filed in archive on June 12, 2007

Courtesy CBS

Brian DeMarco is a broken man, and he's just 35.

DeMarco retired from a brief career as an offensive lineman, with spine and hip injuries so extensive that he had to have a titanium rod inserted into his back.

A mere shadow of his former self, the hobbled DeMarco is asking the NFL Players Association for disability pay. DeMarco believes he's facing a lifetime of gargantuan medical costs, and he doesn't have the money.

Gene Upshaw, head of the NFLPA, isn't offering the assistance DeMarco wants. Upshaw claims the NFLPA is not turning its back on DeMarco and other disabled players. In fact, the NFLPA produced copies of checks sent to DeMarco over a seven-month period, totaling close to $10,000 for help with DeMarco's mortgage.

This isn't enough, according to DeMarco, who has new advocates, now joining his fight against Upshaw and the NFLPA.

Former NFL player and coach Mike Ditka and the Gridiron Greats, a new organization that represents needy former nfl players have begun to speak out against Upshaw and the NFLPA. They say the money the NFLPA has sent is not the issue. Rather, it's the enormous future health care costs that DeMarco faces.

DeMarco and his family -- a wife and two children -- have exhausted the millions of dollars DeMarco made in his four-year NFL career.

Is this the NFLPA's fault? Is it the NFL's? Mike Ditka says, yes, and he wants new NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to do something about it.

Taking care of these disabled players should be Goodell's legacy, according to Ditka.

There are many other issues to consider, though.

For example, is it the NFL's responsibility to manage the millions of dollars that players make? Or should DeMarco have done a better job providing for his future?

It's an interesting philosophical debate.

Meanwhile, Brian DeMarco and his family still need help, and someone in the professional football family needs to give it to them.