From Sports Business Journal-
Compensation at the NFL Players Association rose 58 percent in the 2007 fiscal year to more than $17 million, the group’s most recent tax return shows.
Some of that increase includes the previously disclosed doubling of Executive Director Gene Upshaw’s take, but pay to the union’s 93 other employees during that year rose 41 percent as well, according to the return.
Upshaw said that a number of key executives left the union in the past several years, and they were entitled to take their retirement benefits upon their departure. And he added his pay reflected bonuses that he earned as far back as 2002.
The disclosure comes at a time when the union has been under heavy criticism for not doing enough about retired players with disability and other needs, so predictably, the compensation figures drew fire.
“It is excessive, it is greed,” said Dave Pear, who retired in 1981 and said he has been turned down for disability several times despite severe injuries and frequent calls to the union. “It would be wiser to spend that money to hire someone who would pick up the phone.”
Compensation at the NFL Players Association rose 58 percent in the 2007 fiscal year to more than $17 million, the group’s most recent tax return shows.
Some of that increase includes the previously disclosed doubling of Executive Director Gene Upshaw’s take, but pay to the union’s 93 other employees during that year rose 41 percent as well, according to the return.
Upshaw said that a number of key executives left the union in the past several years, and they were entitled to take their retirement benefits upon their departure. And he added his pay reflected bonuses that he earned as far back as 2002.
The disclosure comes at a time when the union has been under heavy criticism for not doing enough about retired players with disability and other needs, so predictably, the compensation figures drew fire.
“It is excessive, it is greed,” said Dave Pear, who retired in 1981 and said he has been turned down for disability several times despite severe injuries and frequent calls to the union. “It would be wiser to spend that money to hire someone who would pick up the phone.”
