[sportscurmudgeon]

Certainlythe old time NFL players in need should be taken care of by the league; it's hard to come up with a solid argument against that. So why hasn't it happened?

Obviously, the owners would prefer not to spend any extra money on players who aren't on the field and helping to generate revenues. Even the "old-time owners" who nominally aren't in the football business as a way to make boatloads of cash would prefer not to do that. So how come they spend even the first dime on these players?

Well, the NFLPA negotiates this kind of thing into the collective bargaining agreement. But the NFLPA is made up of CURRENT players and the CURRENT players are far more concerned with getting money for themselves than they are in putting some coins into the pockets of the "old school guys". So this is not an issue that the NFLPA is going to "go to the mattresses" over.

The result is that the retired players really have no leverage in the negotiations and no real advocate for their cause. And that's why they have been largely ignored over the years.

Give credit to a bunch of the retired players who have done well for themselves (Ditka, Staubach, Elway come to mind) for speaking out and becoming advocates for some of the other retired players who are living in refrigerator boxes under bridges in cities. And give credit to Roger Goodell for maneuvering to get this item near the top of an agenda to deal with issues that affect the image of the league. The NFL has a charitable foundation that spends about $20M a year on various projects; maybe they should spend a similar amount on top of what they spend now on their former players - and coaches - who are in need?