Payback?

NFL players are not legends. They are not champions. They are circus acts. They do not retire to stud. They are not afforded the lush confines of a zoo. The athletes are ground. Once unusable, they are silently paraded into a pasture and shot.

Ted Johnson suffers from an amphetamine addiction, depression, headaches, and post concussion syndrome. Willie Wood has endured back, neck, spine, and hip surgeries. Mike Webster died broke and homeless. Former coach and tight end Mike Ditka encapsulates the disgust of witnessing these atrocities.

"It's a disgrace," Ditka said. "The owners ought to be ashamed of themselves. The owners are financiers, and they are all about making money. They don't care about the history of the game. [NFLPA executive director] Gene Upshaw? Come on. You can get somebody off the street to do what he is doing, and you will pay him a whole lot less. You've got [players] today making millions of dollars. All we are saying is we got a lot of guys that started this game that have a lot of problems health wise and mental wise. I say help them out. Help them out. Let them die with a little dignity and a little respect."

The NFL is a cash industry. The organization is America’s most profitable sport. With that stated, they do not guarantee contracts. They cut players without warning. The average career is thirty-six months. Hall of Famers laid the billion dollar foundation. Yet, they are crippled, crumbled, and dying. They are not visible. They are not even afterthoughts. They deserve more.

Football is celebrated. The violence is glorified. The violence producing warriors are celebrated. Then, the celebrating ceases. However, the effects of the violence do not. As Ditka stated, the NFL is money. The question is why have they not compensated those who made the wealth possible?