As we learn more about the disastrous effects football can have on people’s health, particularly once their playing days are over, more players are speaking out about how little the NFL does for retired players.
Players are often left on their own to deal with both physical and mental pain that comes from repeated blows to the head, and the NFL has done more to fight the facts of the reality than actually help players. Settlements supposed to help players have become a sideshow.
Former NFL star Ed Reed says enough is enough. He gave a wide-ranging interview on The Rich Eisen Show, touching on why he thinks nobody—the NFL or the Players Union—does enough for players.
Reed said that he still loves football and would keep playing if he could. However, he said that the NFL doesn’t do nearly as much as it should to help players, noting that the league does as much as it can to squeeze money out of players’ pockets, but that the players are the ones bringing in the money.
“There’s a reason why the NFL is not the players’ league, which it should be,” he said. “We’re the ones that put all the things on the line. You’d have made your billions.”
However, Reed also said he hasn’t raised this issue with the union, because the union is all about politics and he’s not into politics. While it’s true that the NFL Players Union has a lot of issues, it’s also the only way to force the NFL to make changes. It’s unclear how else Reed thinks the changes should be made.
That said, even if Reed doesn’t create any change on his own, it’s important that more players stand up to the NFL. Those who do are often blacklisted, as Reed notes.
“We need to do more as a country,” Reed said. “I could put the country on blast, and then I’m Colin Kaepernick and I’m not right. But is he wrong? He’s not wrong. So I’m not putting us on blast. I’m blasting the information that needs to be out there, public service announcement, to young kids who play this game, parents that have got their kids playing this game, the owners who are leading this league, the commissioner who is the president of this league. We need the people who are behind them to support us. Come on now, enough is enough. We need to start making the right changes.”
That starts with awareness, and any time players like Reed use their platforms for good, it’s a step in the right direction.
