Ready for a break from nonstop coronavirus coverage? Here you go. NFL players will vote on the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and are expected to approve the owners’ proposal this weekend, which would ensure labor peace for the next decade.
An agreement that would run through 2030 was sent to roughly 2,000 active NFL players to vote March 5, and it will pass when voting closes at midnight Saturday if a simple majority of members of the NFL Players Association vote “yes.”
While most of the attention surrounding the CBA has centered on the addition of a 17th game some time between 2021-2023 and the expansion of the playoff field from 12 to 14 teams, there’s parts to the CBA that retired players are much more interested in for obvious reasons.
The deal reportedly includes $2 billion in enhanced pensions for more than 11,500 former players, in addition to expanded healthcare benefits.
Former Buffalo Bills player Joe DeLamielleure, a Hall of Fame offensive guard who used to block for O.J. Simpson, says his NFL pension would nearly double to almost $60,000 per year if players ratify the 11-year extension of the CBA.
If the proposal is rejected, $300 million in expanded pension benefits for 2020 would be off the table, pushed down the road for consideration whenever the owners bring an updated labor proposal back to the players.
“We are in limbo,” DeLamielleure, 68, told USA Today recently. “We need the money. It would be our luck that it doesn’t pass now and we’ll have to wait until next year. But by next year, looking at actuarial tables, there will be 300 guys who die.”
DeLamielleure has long been an outspoken advocate for improved pensions for NFL players, but retired players don’t have a seat at the bargaining table. That means improvements essentially come from the sense of duty of current players and NFL team owners, and through public pressure applied by former players, who as USA Today notes typically compare the NFL benefits to better packages afforded to former MLB and NBA players.
While DeLamielleure says he’s “disappointed” with the enhancements in the currently proposed CBA, he added, “I’m glad we’re getting something, but it’s never been right.”
Back in the 2011 CBA negotiations, a “Legacy Fund” was established to which team owners make contributions. The fund benefits more than 4,700 former players who were vested in the league’s pension program prior to 1993. The NFLPA tried to build on that by pushing for further improvements to former player benefits in this next deal.
Retired player benefit examples
Here are some reported examples of what could change for retired players if the CBA is approved, as well as some additional examples from the current CBA:
- Pension plans for former NFL players will increase by 10%, while 401K matching will see an initial increase of $30,000 followed by annual jumps. Players will be eligible for vision coverage as part of their health care package for the first time and receive increased tuition reimbursement, among other improvements. Source: Fox Business
- A 10-year veteran who retired in the 1970s or 1980s would see their pension increase from the current level of $43,000 to $72,000 by 2025. The pact also makes roughly 700 players who played at least three years before 1993 and are currently not vested to receive any pension, to receive up to $22,000 per year by 2025. Source: USA Today
- Many football players receive a pension, a severance package after 12 months off the field, an annuity, a separate retirement benefit known as a capital accumulation plan and a 401k with a generous employer match (as much as $2 for every $1 the player puts in, up to $28,000 of employer matches a year). The 401k contribution limit for individuals is $19,500 in 2020, which means football players could contribute as much as $47,500 this year. Source: Marketwatch
- Currently, some inactive players collect up to $135,000 year, or $11,250 a month, in disability benefits from the NFL. If they also receive, say, $2,000 a month from Social Security, they collect $13,250 a month in disability payments. The NFL wants to end that “double dipping” and reduce the players’ NFL benefits by offsetting the amount they receive from Social Security. So a player who now receives $11,250 from the league and $2,000 from Social Security would see his football benefit fall to $9,250. The size of that NFL benefit would shrink further over time as the player’s Social Security disability benefit rose to account for the cost of living and as he started to receive his pension. Source: The New York Times
- The new CBA calls for establishing a new network of hospitals in every NFL city for former players to receive no-cost physicals, preventative care, mental health counseling and outpatient orthopedic services. Source: Sportsnaut
- The amount an athlete gets from their pension or severance package is tied to a few factors, including the player’s salary. Pensions are only accessible beginning at age 55, Shear said. If they delay withdrawing from their pension, the benefit will be higher. Source: Marketwatch
- Former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who retired after 16 years this past season as the highest-earning NFL player ever, could collect about $107,280 a year once he turns 55, according to a Society of Actuaries analysis of the NFL Players’ Pension Plan. Comparatively, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs could expect $26,160 a year beginning at age 55, and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo would receive $48,720 a year at 55, if they were to retire today. Source: Marketwatch
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