Originally Posted by
greybeard
Many of my posts through the years have focused on the issue of injury in sport, and the often related union-management battles that have been waged concerning them, the latter falling within what was the area of my professional expertise. When economic warfare in the form of lockouts or strikes occur in professional sports the perspective of many is to side with management because they understand, wrongly I believe, that private sector unions have lost all employee support because the unions had won benefits in the past that were unsustainable. That perspective cannot stand as justification for the lack of public outcry against the NFL's continued fight that seems to know no bounds against taking financial responsibility for the dreadful consequences that have befallen so many former players and threaten so many others, including those who play the game currently and in the foreseeable future.
The issue that what I will call the Marino lawsuit brought to the fore with star power behind it is the long term and often devastating impact that participation can have that will remain asymptomatic for years. That lawsuit, with the star power attached to it might have at least brought the issue of what I regard as the NFL's opprobrious conduct back to the front pages and kept it there, at least for a while. Three days later, when a court rolled it into the class action lawsuit that has been settled but for the judge's approval make's Marino's association with the lawsuit moot. Marino's withdrawal at that point did nothing but make clear that, if he once thought otherwise, he was done with advocating for an issue that drove him to file suit in the first place. Who can blame him. The NFL brought the class-action plaintiffs to their knees, and what forum would even a person of his stature have for speaking out on an issue that is toxic to the media. It seems that the only way the NFL's nose will get bloodied, failing disclosures even more outrageous than those of recent weeks, is if Marino or someone like him gets hit with what has befallen so many others. That prospect obviously does not concern the NFL because it knows where the media and the public stand and why, and, after all, the guys assume the risk. Perhaps, maybe, someone of truly enormous stature will step up and things will change. "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, . . . ."