http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/17159276/national-basketball-players-association-fund-health-insurance-ex-players
Out of the blue, this came across the wire. Great action by the current players. Will go for all retired players with at least 3 years experience.
This is the first US pro league to do something like this.
Wow, this is a great move. I wonder if the NFL will follow suit at some point, given all of the concussion issues
The NFL...doing the right thing? That's rich.
It's not the NBA (owners), it's the NBAPA (players). It's coming out of their 49%-51% revenue split of BRI.
It won't be the NFL (owners), but you got to think the NFLPA (players) might step up.
It will be more difficult for NFL players. There are as many players in training camp in five teams as there are roster spots in the NBA. NFL players get paid less on average, which probably means union dues form a higher percentage of their paycheck. Careers are shorter, which means players a) make less money, and b) would be insured for a longer period of time. Finally, NFL players are much more likely to experience health problems, so the insurance would be considerably more expensive.
this seems to be a bit of a red herring to me.
exactly how much do you think current nfl players would have to pay each for such a program? i doubt it is going to be a large percentage of anyone's salary.
besides, they are also investing in their own futures since the current players would receive this benefit eventually.
it makes sense on many levels.
I think it could cost upwards of $100 million a year to do what the NBPA is doing. There are approx. 12,000 living former players. Suppose 2/3 would be covered, that's 8,000 players. It sounds like the NBPA is giving out top-of-the-line insurance. Given the risk pool that NFL players could collectively be in, $10,000 per covered player isn't unreasonable. Furthermore, the NBPA plan covers family members for players with a certain amount of service time, so the amount of covered individuals would rise further. So yeah, $100 million per year. That's probably $55-60k per active player. That'd be over 10% of pre-tax salary for a LOT of players.
I don't see the NFLPA replicating this any time soon. Maybe something smaller scale, like a subsidy for uninsured former players to purchase insurance on the marketplace. But with all the health issues NFL players go through in retirement, it would be very expensive to cover them as a group.