Roger Brown considers himself one of the lucky ones.
A successful businessman, Brown, who owns a restaurant in Portsmouth, does not have to rely on his NFL pension to make ends meet. That's a good thing: He receives $200 a month.
If pensions paid better, disability would not be such a hot-button issue among former players, many say. The average pension benefit for the approximately 2,500 former players receiving payments is $15,000 a year, according to former player Bruce Laird, the founder of Fourth and Goal, a private foundation that is working for changes to the NFL's pension and disability systems.
"That's hideous," Laird said. "It's hideous that the union can even look us in the eye and say that's good."
Many older players, like Brown, 71, get much less than the average. Brown played in an era where salaries were meager by today's standards - he earned $45,000 in his best year - and he opted to take his pension early, at age 45.
"They told me when I was in my early 40s that linemen that played 10 years would only live to be 50," he said. "You can't leave it in your will for your wife and kids. That's why I opted to take it early."
Pension benefits are collectively bargained and come from the players' share of league revenues. Laird said retired players do not have a place at the bargaining table. His nonprofit foundation is attempting to organize retired players into their own lobbying group, with increased pension benefits as their No. 1 issue.
Brown has had nine knee operations, including a knee replacement, and expects he'll need the other knee replaced soon. Still, he says that compared with some former players he knows, he feels like "a million bucks."
"If I had a comment to make, it would be that the NFL should increase the pension for the old guys," he said. "A company or business making $8 billion a year should be able to take care of the few of us that are still remaining."
- Ed Miller
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