Kansas City’s free alternative, The Pitch, printed an article about ex-NFL players and their struggle to get insurance. It highlights a few players and the injuries they received.
And Mike Ditka is part of (and main spokesman for) an organization (the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund) that is trying hard to make sure that former players are able to get the care and help they need. These guys weren’t paid much, didn’t get retirement benefits, helped build the league, and now are suffering the effects of all those collisions and injuries. There have been two games I watched live this season (Broncos-Bills week 1 and a Texans game a couple weeks ago) where I thought there was a real chance that a man could be dead there on the field.