Coaches Angry About Pension Move
NFL assistant coaches are highly upset about a vote taken by the sport's franchise owners at the annual league meeting in March giving each team the option to withdraw from the pension plan for coaches and other front office employees.
"We're just trying to get to the bottom of this and express our extreme displeasure," Larry Kennan, the staff director of the NFL Coaches Association, said in a telephone interview Monday. "Then we'll go from there."
There has been talk among some assistant coaches league-wide about a one-day walkout to protest the move, or of a renewed effort to form a union for the assistant coaches. Kennan said nothing has been decided.
"I don't know," Kennan said. "There's a lot of discussion amongst the coaches as to what we ought to do. I don't know what we'll do. But we're extremely upset about this, particularly the way it was done. I've been doing this a long time, and I've never seen coaches this upset."
According to Kennan, nine teams have withdrawn from the pension plan thus far and three others have it under consideration.
Indianapolis Colts offensive line coach Howard Mudd has indicated through the coaches association that he plans to retire because of the pension change, and Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore also is said to be contemplating retirement. Kennan said that "a number" of other assistant coaches league-wide also are considering retirement because of the change.
The owners did not announce the change during their March meeting in Dana Point, Calif., and Kennan said he found out about it from coaches.
The coaches' pensions would be collectively bargained if the coaches were unionized, and Kennan said there has been consideration given in the past to forming a union. The NFL's position on the subject always has been that the coaches are managers and cannot unionize. Kennan said that clearly is true of head coaches but might not be true for assistant coaches.
"I think anybody who would know anything about it would tell you it's a close call," Kennan said.
Kennan said it has been "unnerving" to many coaches to lose what was "a very good pension." He said he expects an increasing number of coaches to consider leaving the NFL for jobs at colleges.
Owners call the move a necessary cost-cutting measure in difficult economic times.
"It lets each club make our own decision about what type of pension plan we'll have for" non-playing employees, Houston Texans owner Robert McNair told the Houston Chronicle. "It's a move to get costs under control. What we're going to have is, basically, the standard pension plan in American industry."
By
Mark Maske
|
May 12, 2009; 1:45 PM ET
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League
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Posted by: edwcorey | May 13, 2009 11:28 AM
If you didnt pay some of the players more money than they can spend you would have plenty of money.
Pay the players a reasonable amount and give them a hefty pension too.Who says they are smart enough to manage large sums of money anyway.
Posted by: selfemployedbluecollar | May 12, 2009 10:25 PM
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"Pay the players a reasonable amount and give them a hefty pension too.Who says they are smart enough to manage large sums of money anyway."
I agree with the reasonable amount. But all players are college educated and are as capable of managing their money as anyone. How many of their names are on foreclosure notices or bankruptcy filings? Declaring either is an extreme and notable rarity.