NFL players' union fires away at Bears over workers' comp, but argument is weak, misguided

Illinois is the only state with a workers' compensation law that offers wage differential to professional athletes until the age of 67.Since 2005, the five major professional sports teams in Illinois have paid more money in workers' compensation claims...

NFL players' union fires away at Bears over workers' comp, but argument is weak, misguided

Illinois is the only state with a workers' compensation law that offers wage differential to professional athletes until the age of 67.

Since 2005, the five major professional sports teams in Illinois have paid more money in workers' compensation claims than teams in any other state — 41 percent higher than the next-closest state.

Though the first two sentences sound like boring bureaucratese, remember those pertinent facts. The National Football League Players Association conveniently has ignored them.

The NFLPA grabbed the bullhorn again Friday and blasted the Bears, easy targets that they are, for supporting workers' compensation reform proposed within Illinois Senate Bill 12.

You can criticize the Bears for raising ticket prices last week, a 2.6 percent average increase impossible to defend. You can question the direction of a football team that has experienced a decade of decline since Super Bowl XLI, as the Tribune did last Sunday. But NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith targeting the Bears for their perceived role in pushing this legislation fits the oral equivalent of piling on.

It's unwarranted and unnecessary. The more information the NFLPA's attacks bring to light, the more Smith's comments fall somewhere between incendiary and irresponsible. The wage-differential issue has nothing to do with football's concussion crisis yet seeks to take advantage of the public skepticism created by it.

Fed up by Friday afternoon, the Bears finally provided clarity courtesy of the team's general counsel, Cliff Stein, perhaps the man at Halas Hall most qualified to be team president. In a drop-the-mic, 35-minute teleconference, Stein articulated the impetus behind the Chicago teams' interest in the legislation and all but rolled his eyes at Smith threatening to steer free-agents away from the Bears if the bill passes.

"I can say right now, that not one time in my 22 years (of contract negotiating), on either side of the fence, has any player or agent ever looked (deeply) into 'What are the workers' comp laws in your state?'" Stein said. "In Illinois, they would be attractive if they did.''

That's the irony. If Smith had wanted to direct NFL free-agents to a home with a favorable wage-differential law, he likely would use Illinois' distinction to lure players to the Bears. Only 13 states offer wage-differential benefits; 37 do not. None offer a payment period as long as Illinois', an abnormality that cried out for reform.

Injured workers in Illinois can claim benefits known as a "wage-differential award,'' roughly two-thirds of the difference in wages before and after their injuries. The state caps that number at $1,075 weekly, or $55,900 annually, until the age of 67.

DeMaurice Smith Mark Tenally / AP

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith before a game in New York on Jan. 1, 2017.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith before a game in New York on Jan. 1, 2017.

(Mark Tenally / AP)

In a letter to Illinois state senators signed Jan. 27 by all five Chicago major pro sports franchises, the teams outlined why it favored reducing the age limit to 35. The 32-year reduction could save teams as much as $1.7 million per athlete over the life of the payments, but the proposal also reflects the reality that nobody plays until the age of 67. The law wasn't crafted with athletes in mind.

"I think the state realizes this is an anomaly in the law that needs correction,'' Stein said.

According to Stein, 95 percent of the approximately 12 claims involving the Bears since 2005 have been handled by the same Chicago attorney the team did not identify, implying attempts to close a legal loophole exploited by an opportunist. The exceptions obscure the spirit of the rule, which originally was intended for plumbers and pipefitters and blue-collar workers — not necessarily NFL players making a minimum of $450,000 with an average career life span of 3.5 years.

"No athlete really should expect to be paid his compensation through age 67,'' Stein said.

Agreed, yet judging by the tone of his voice, Stein felt more steamed by the misinformation the NFLPA persisted in peddling. The most egregious example came when Smith suggested on the "Spiegel and Parkins Show,'' on WSCR-AM 670 that Senate Bill 12 endangered the medical benefits of NFL retirees. Smith proclaimed that changing the law would "take away (former players') right to health care that every worker in the state of Illinois is entitled to.''

"A false and misleading statement,'' Stein said, stressing the Bears never would support a measure depriving NFL retirees of medical benefits.

In a teleconference earlier Friday, NFLPA officials also raised Stein's ire by misstating that pro teams don't pay workers' compensation benefits out of their own pockets. It was the latest misstep in a clumsy anti-Bears campaign intended to squelch a bill still awaiting a vote on the Illinois Senate floor.

The NFLPA started complaining about Senate Bill 12 at Super Bowl LI in Houston but has yet to attach a face to the issue, failing to present an example of someone treated unjustly by virtue of the workers' compensation laws in Illinois. In the past four years, the NFLPA said they had identified 76 cases where a professional athlete had filed for workers' compensation — but only five involved NFL players subject to the current Illinois law.

Yet that didn't stop Smith from maligning the McCaskeys and making empty threats about influencing NFL free-agents who, frankly, only care about money and opportunity.

"I will tell you from the bottom of my heart that this union will tell every potential free agent player, if this bill passes, to not come to the Bears," Smith said.

I will tell you it is wasted breath, and the best arguments begin with facts.

dhaugh@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @DavidHaugh

94-year-old Virginia McCaskey, daughter of the legendary George Halas, is the matriarch owner of the Bears.

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.

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