Congressional Hearings on NFL Retiree Benefits: Did Anything Good Come Out of These?

Former Chicago Bears head coach and current ESPN analyst Mike Ditka continues to feud with the head of the National Football League Players Association Gene Upshaw over how much of an entitlement package badly injured former NFL players are entitled to. Ditka, who seems to be spearheading this effort, has the biggest problem with the way cases are heard and decided. Ditka contends that the doctors that are hired by the NFL are essentially company men, who will say whatever the league wants them to in order to discourage the former player from receiving a second opinion on their ailments.

Ditka has drawn figure from former players including Super Bowl winning safety Dave Duerson who played for Ditka. Duerson contends that Ditka never really cared about his players when he was coaching the Bears. Duerson says Ditka would swear at guys who were injured and basically call them yellow bellies if they would not get back out on the field.

Duerson who himself was a Chief Executive Officer of his own food company Duerson foods says Ditka has never been pro-union and never will be pro-union. Ditka disputes this by talking about how his father was a lifetime member of a coal miners union and how his father taught him to be respectful to blue collar folks because his family was blue collar.

People like Gene Upshaw admit that the current collective bargaining agreement that the NFL is currently under doesn't allow enough flexibility when it comes to retiree benefits. However, Upshaw and others seem to like to take shots at Ditka by implying that "Da Coach" as he is fondly referred to as in the streets of the Windy City is grandstanding to garner good publicity.

During the Congressional hearings that this subject matter brought Ditka was there and basically said that although this is a very important topic the United States Congress should be focused on more pressing matters.