Disabled NFL Players Say League Needs To Step Up

It’s a topic being discussed more and more around the National Football League, former players being denied medical benefits for injuries they claim happened when they played in the league.

Players like Brian Demarco, who played for Jacksonville and Cincinnati, can barely walk. He has been home homeless on 3-different occasions, and is suffering from a cracked back and nerve damage, but has yet to have a claim opened.

“This is corporate corruption at its greatest, says Demarco. “This is larger than Enron. Men are dying. People are dying. Understand that, they're dying because of this.”

So many players, who are injured here on the field of play, eventually need help, long after their NFL medical insurance runs out. And that's the issue as more and more players are spending all of their money on medical issues and eventually have to file for bankruptcy.

The NFL players association released a statement this week, saying "The individuals making complaints about the decisions regarding their lack of eligibility, were evaluated on the merits, and professionally respected neutral physicians found, in effect, that their alleged disability were not caused by injuries sustained playing football."

Former Cowboys Fullback Daryl Johnston has become a supporter of their cause. “When you go to a doctor, that is hand selected by the NFL in your host city, your not to bring in an MRI, your not allowed to bring in an X-Ray, you can bring in text, they don't want to talk to your doctor, they don't want any input from your trainers, they don't really want to know your injury history throughout your career, what we as players supposed to think of a system that's run that way,” Johnston explains. ”The system is broke, and what we have to do is start moving forward and get it fixed as soon as possible, and to do that we are going to need the NFL and the NFLPA to get this done.”

Johnston believes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodel is the right man at the right time to help the former players out, but it will take time, time that some of the players may not have.

Former NFL player Dave Pear, a pro bowl nose guard for Tampa Bay and Oakland, gets emotional when he talks about the leagues lack of support for their former players. “What the NFL does is,” he says, “they try to tell you what's wrong with us, that we're whiners, and we're crying and complaining. I'm crying for my family, I'm crying for me, those are the losers here, your family.”

Former NFL player and Coach Mike Ditka is responsible for setting up the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund which is helping their cause. The website, which takes donations, is Gridirongreats.org. It’s a nonprofit humanitarian organization which is overseen by a board of directors consisting of players who are advocates of retired NFL players’ rights and also include Gale Sayers, Joe DeLamielleure, Harry Carson, Willie Davis, and Tom Nowatzke.

The organization provides immediate aid, and support services, to retired NFL players who are in dire need due to lack of adequate disability, medical, and other issues.

Blake Bleavan Signs Contract To Pitch For Texas Rangers

Texas Rangers first round draft pick Blake Beavan spent the day on the golf course with his family, one day after signing a contract to pitch for the team.

Ranger’s fans were told of Beavan's signing during the eight inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Royals.

“Thank heaven for Blake Beavan. That's what rangers fans are hoping to say in x-number of years,” said Rangers Announcer Josh Lewin.

“It feels great,” says Beavan. “I'm so glad it’s out of the way. It took the stress off me, time to go play ball, get down to business and do what I've always wanted to do.”

Beavan is a recent graduate of Irving High School and pitched a perfect game in March against Irving MacArthur. His new contract with the Rangers includes a 1.5-million dollar signing bonus, and came just 25-hours before a signing deadline.

“Now the work begins,” said his Father Bill. “I'm not going to lie, he dedicated his whole life to baseball, and he did it at his own choice, and all we did is equip him as a family.”

After he was drafted, Beavan was the center of criticism for being too brash during a radio interview. His parents helped set him straight.

“They guided me,” says Beavan, “And the Hendrick brothers (his agents) helped me out with that stuff, and friends and family. I got advice from all over, kind of brought that into one kind of source, let it sink in, and you know talked the way I was supposed to. I made a mistake and realized what happened in heat of the moment kind of stuff, its good now.”

“Everybody that knows him, loves him,” says Michele, Beavan’s Mother. “The ones that don’t don't quite get it sometimes, but they get to it, once they sit with him a little bit, he's pretty interesting.”

Beavan is headed to Arizona to start his strength and conditioning program. He'll be part of the Arizona instructional league, but he's not scheduled to pitch in the Rangers organization until next year. He grew up in nearby Irving, Texas and has been cheering for the Rangers for as long as he can remember.

As a senior at Irving High School, Beavan threw 66 innings with 124 strikeouts and a 0.23 ERA. He was the 17th overall pick in the June 2007 Amateur Draft.

Michael Irvin's Acceptance Speech In Canton

Former Cowboys Wide Receiver Michael Irvin's induction speech at the NFL Hall of Fame on Saturday August 4, 2007, was one for the ages. Here is the transcript of his speech:

Thank you. Father, I’d like to thank you for allowing us all to travel here safely, thank you in advance for the same in allowing us to travel home.

Father, thank you for the man that you sent me to help me in Bishop T.D. Jakes, my spiritual father. I ask you now to put your arms around my Hall of Fame classmate Gene Hickerson and his family. Father, hold them tight and love them right. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Thank you.

I want to send a special love to all the people in Dallas, Texas, special love to all the Dallas Cowboy fans all over the world. Special love goes to my hometown of South Florida and all the Miami Hurricane fans, St.Thomas Aquinas fans.

I want to send love to every fan everywhere because you hear so often that people say, Oh, these are the guys that built the game. No. It’s your hunger and your love for the game, your love for what we do that make this game what it is. I thank you for loving the game like we love it.

Jerry, those were kind words. Thank you. You know, when I first met Jerry he had just purchased the Dallas Cowboys. He had a bit of a concerned look on his face. I said to him, I said, We will have fun and we will win Super Bowls. You see, I knew Jerry had put all he had into purchasing the Cowboys. That’s the way I see Jerry. He’s a man that’s willing to give all he has and all he wants to bring the Cowboy family Super Bowls.

Jerry, I appreciate your commitment to family, the Dallas Cowboy family and your own family. He has a beautiful wife, Jean. I tell her this. I just love her to death. Her spirit exudes beauty. Her mannerisms exude class. She’s one of a kind. Jean, I do love you.

They have beautiful kids, daughter Charlotte, son Steven and Jerry, Jr. Each have played a role in my life and I thank all of them.

A heartfelt thank you to the selection committee, especially Rick Gosselin and Charean Williams. Charean is the first woman to have a seat on the selection committee. Charean, congratulations to you.

These gentlemen behind me, these men, they inspired me to become the player that I became. As I spent this week with these gentlemen that I’ve admired growing up, I kept thinking about how gifted they are. Man, they’re gifted to run and cut, gifted to throw and catch, gifted to run through blocks and make great tackles.

And then I met their wives and their families and I realized that it’s not only about the gift God gave us, but equally important is the help that God gave us. It’s the people that God put in place to support us on our journey. So I will try to put the credit in the right place tonight and share with you my help and my journey.

I thank God for the help of my father Walter Irvin, whom I lost at the age of 17. He was my hero and he loved, I’m telling you, he loved the Dallas Cowboys. I woke up this morning smiling knowing that my father had not be here in the flesh but that he is in heaven watching and celebrating with his alltime favorite coach, Coach Tom Landry.

Also Tex Schamm, Derrick Shepard and Mark Tuinei. Those guys, we think about them here, we feel them here. They will always be with us.

Before my father made his journey to heaven I sat with him. His final words to me were, Promise me you will take care of your mother. She’s a good woman. As you’ve heard, my mother raised 17 children, most of whom are here tonight. There were challenges. But she would never complain. She always walked around the house and said, God has promised me that my latter days will be better than my former days. My mom and my Aunt Fanny, her oldest sister, they are part of my travel squad now.

As we travel, all they want is a nice room and an open tab on room service. When my workday is done I get to come by their room and we tell stories and we laugh and we have fun. We always end the night with them telling me, Baby, this is what God meant when he said, Our latter days will be better than our former days.

I can’t tell you how it makes me feel to know that God uses me to deliver His promise. I love you, mom. I love you, Aunt Fanny.

For better or for worse, those are the vows we take before God in marriage. It’s easy to live with the for better, but rarely can you find someone who sticks around and endures the for worse. Sandy, my beautiful wife, I have worked tirelessly, baby, to give you the for better. But I also gave you the for worse, and you didn’t deserve it. You didn’t deserve it.

But through it all I experienced the depth of your love and I thank God for you. I love the mother that you are, the wife that you are, I love the way that you take care of our family, our daughters Myesha and Chelsea, and our sons Michael and Elijah. I thank you from a place that I can’t mention, I can’t even express, baby, for keeping our family together. I love you so much.

My football family, as Jerry told you, began at St.Thomas Aquinas High School under the wise tutelage of a great coach named George Smith. George Smith dedicated 37 years to that great program. He’s a great man. I thank all the people at St.Thomas for believing in a young man like me.

And then I went on to the University of Miami. I think most of y’all know how I feel about the U. Yeah, the U. You better believe it. After that I was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys where I played and worked with some of the best to ever be around this game. For example, Emmitt Smith. Emmitt Smith is the alltime leading rusher.

The great thing about that, his rookie year he said to me he was going to become the alltime leading rusher. I doubted him like I think everybody would have. But what an inspiration to be in a room and see a man set a goal so high and then be persistent, be dedicated, and accomplish that which he set out to accomplish. Emmitt, you’re an inspiration to so many.

The third part and the third member The Triplets is Troy Aikman. My quarterback, our leader. Troy Aikman led us to three Super Bowls. When I said "led," I mean led, to three Super Bowls. He’s the winningest quarterback in the decade of the ’90s. If you talk to him and you ask him what’s his most memorable game, he will tell you that ’94 NFC Championship game that everybody’s talking about.

It’s a game we were down by 21 and we lost, but we never gave up. That’s the mark of a true leader. All he wants is for each player to give all he has all the time. That’s Troy Aikman.

That game is one of my most memorable games for all those reasons, but it had a little something extra for me. We were down 21. Troy came to that huddle with those big blue eyes and he looked up and he said, Hey, I’m coming to you no matter what. Whew, let me tell you. As a wide receiver, that’s all I ever wanted to hear. Just come to me no matter what. And he did, he did. He came to me no matter what.

But, Troy, you’ve always come to me no matter what, and I’m not just talking about on the football field. For that, you have a special place in my heart. You always will no matter what. I love you, Troy. I love you deeply.

As The Triplets, we received most of the press, the credit. But we were surrounded with some great guys, great players, talented guys. Guys like Darren Woodson, Dallas Cowboys alltime leading tackle. My Cowboy counterpart Jay Novacek, what a great tight end he is. Daryl Johnston, the unsung hero, Moose. Larry Allen and Eric Williams are two of the better linemen, if not the best linemen, to ever play this game. The big fella, Nate Newton. Jim Jeffcoat. And one of the best cornerbacks and the finest athlete I’ve ever been around, that’s Deion Sanders, Prime Time.

So, so many more.

You can’t accomplish what we’ve accomplished with just great players. You also need great coaches. And we had that. We had guys like Norv Turner, Dave Wannstedt, Dave Campo. My position coach, coach Hubbard Alexander, who is my heart. Coach, you took me as a young man out of high school, and I know I gave you a lot of mess through the years. Thank you for being there, Coach. And our head coach, he had always be my head coach, that’s Jimmy Johnson.

We worked hard. We had the best, and I’m telling you the very best, and I’m willing to take an argument with anybody on this, strength and conditioning coach in the world. His name is Mike Warsick. He has six Super Bowl rings. Six, people. Twice he has won three Super Bowls in four years, once with us and now with the New England Patriots. So if anybody wants to take an argument, I am a debater. I am here and ready.

Mike Warsick, you are, man, the very best. You put me back together from that knee injury. As we always tell each other when we say goodbye, MissPaw (phonetic), which means may God hold you till we see each other again.

I also walked on campus at the University of Miami the same day with our PR director, Rich Dalrymple. I know some of you are saying it’s fitting that you are tight with the PR director, Michael. But Rich has been a great friend. When I walk in his office now Rich has a picture of us. He has pictures of us at the University of Miami with this nice beautiful black hair, and then he has pictures of us now when he’s all gray.

He says to me all the time, You see these gray hairs? I say, Yeah. He says, You gave them to me. I tell him, I say, Well, you see those four championship rings you have? I gave them to you, too.

I have experienced all this game has to offer on the football field, the losing, going 3-13, even 1-15. In my second season the career-threatening knee injury, thinking I would never play this game that I love again. And even in 1999, the career-ending neck injury. That which football players fear the most.

But I’ve also had some beautiful victories. We won three Super Bowls in four years. I can’t tell you what that feels like. And we did it with guys that we loved to play with and guys that we loved. Folks, I’m telling you, that’s the true essence of a football family, and that’s exactly what we are not was what we are. I love all of those guys that I played with.

Since retiring I have developed a deeper awareness and understanding for this game. First as a fan and then as an analyst. That is why I’ve learned it’s so much more than merely a game. Thanks to ESPN. Thank you, ESPN, for giving me the opportunity to travel to NFL stadiums throughout this country, visiting with fans, and seeing this game from a completely different perspective.

The movie, Remember the Titans, is my favorite movie, staring Denzel Washington. I love the way in this movie the game of football brings those boys together, it unites those boys on that football field. It unites a whole town, black, white, old, young, rich and poor. It happens every year around this time in NFL locker rooms and NFL stadiums. So don’t tell me it’s just a game.

My favorite day was Monday, September the 25th, 2006. New Orleans, Louisiana, site of the Superdome. I watched our people who had suffered so grievously through Hurricane Katrina fill a stadium hours before a game and stay hours after the game. I witnessed those fans as they looked for each other, hugged one another and just be thankful to be in that stadium.

You see the game flexed its greatest muscle that day: the ability to heal. I experienced a football game that contributed to the healing of a city. So don’t tell me it’s just a game.

You know the Bible speaks of a healing place. It’s called a threshing floor. The threshing floor is where you take your greatest fear and you pray for help from your great God. I want to share something with you today. I have two sons. Michael, he’s 10, and Elijah, he’s 8. Michael and Elijah, could you guys stand up for me.

That’s my heart right there. That’s my heart. When I am on that threshing floor, I pray. I say, God, I have my struggles and I made some bad decisions, but whatever you do, whatever you do, don’t let me mess this up.

I say, Please, help me raise them for some young lady so that they can be a better husband than I. Help me raise them for their kids so that they could be a better father than I. And I tell you guys to always do the right thing so you can be a better role model than dad. I sat right here where you are last year and I watched the Class of 2006: Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Harry Carson, Rayfield Wright, John Madden, and the late great Reggie White represented by his wife Sara White. And I said, Wow, that’s what a Hall of Famer is.

Certainly I am not that. I doubted I would ever have the chance to stand before you today. So when I returned home, I spoke with Michael and Elijah . I said, That’s how you do it, son. You do it like they did it. Michael asked, he said, Dad, do you ever think we will be there? And I didn’t know how to answer that. And it returned me to that threshing floor. This time I was voiceless, but my heart cried out. God, why must I go through so many peaks and valleys?

I wanted to stand in front of my boys and say, Do it like your dad, like any proud dad would want to. Why must I go through so much?

At that moment a voice came over me and said, Look up, get up, and don’t ever give up. You tell everyone or anyone that has ever doubted, thought they did not measure up or wanted to quit, you tell them to look up, get up and don’t ever give up.

Thank you and may God bless you.

Michael Irvin Enters The Pro Football Hall of Fame

When he arrived for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, former Cowboys Wide Receiver Michael Irvin made sure his former boss looked his best. He straightened out team Owner Jerry Jones’ tie.

“How does it look?” Jones chuckled toward the crowd gathered behind the fence.

Jones would be his presenter while inside, former teammates and coaches, gathered to watch. I counted about a dozen, but there may have been more.

Dave Campo, a former Head Coach in Dallas, was excused by his boss, Head Coach Jack Del Rio in Jacksonville to witness the event. “I tell you what, he's probably the best overall competitor that I've ever been around,” said Campo.

Former Cowboys Safety James Washington said “When we didn't have to be there in the film room, he was there anyway, and the reason why he was doing all that is the reason you'll see him on that stage in a moment.”

Former Defensive Lineman Jim Jeffcoat was there as well. “Michael wanted to win in the worst way, and that was wonderful to see, and it’s wonderful to have teammates like that,” he said.

Irvin's most loyal fans made the trip to Canton, like Carolyn Price, considered by many to be the team’s number one fan.

“Michael signed this shirt for me, he autographed that, you see it,” she said. “We have Troy in, and we get Michael in, and then Emmitt has yet to come.”

The Cowboys now have eight former players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame; Irvin is the first wide receiver from the Cowboys organization. If you include Former Head Coach Tom Landry and Former Team President Tex Schramm, the number for Dallas is ten. But three was a time not too long ago that Irvin didn't know if he would ever be voted in and join the elite group.

“I sat right here where you are last year and I watched the Class of 2006, and I said, Wow, that's what a Hall of Famer is. Certainly I am not that. I doubted I would ever have the chance to stand before you today,” Irvin said during his speech.

Irvin's emotional address alluded to off the field incidents that spoiled his reputation, and apologized to everyone for his behavior, including his wife.

“It’s easy to live with the for better, but rarely, can you find someone who sticks around and endures the for worse. Sandi, my beautiful wife, I have worked, I worked tireless baby to give you the for better, but I also gave you the for worse, and you didn't deserve it. You didn't deserve it,” Irvin said.

After his speech, his wife Sandi talked about Irvin and his apology to her.

“I think tonight, he's going to grow even more past that, because I forgive Michael, totally. I know what he went through, is what made him the man he is today, and he's a good man, good man,” she said.

Saturday's induction clears the way for Former Cowboys Running Back Emmitt Smith, to eventually share a spot in the Hall of Fame with Irvin and Troy Aikman.

“I think the fact that each of us have had, or will have our own moment on that stage alone, I think is somewhat meaningful,” said Aikman.

Smith, who will be eligible in 2010 said “its a great tribute to the organization, to the leadership of Jerry Jones and what he's been able to accomplish, since he's owned the team, and its also a tribute to all the players, Troy, Michael, and hopefully myself, to be positioned for this opportunity.”

Irvin's speech turned out to be one for the ages, and talked about revealing a side of him never before seen.

“It was real. I needed to share, with all that had gone on in my life, and everything, I just wanted to let people know where I am,” he said. “So many people think he did all this stuff, and he's still in the hall, and they think I got away with something, I didn't get away with it, it haunts me, it haunts me all the time. It’s something I live with every day.”

Regardless of what happens from here on, he will always be a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.