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My story is not unlike thousands of other players before me - you play like hell until your body start to show signs of breakdown and the things that once came easy you no longer can do. You step aside sometimes willingly but more often than not, you're forced into retirement. Due to a significantly reduced level of activity, aches and pains that you only casually observed and shrugged off as an active player are much more pronounced as a retiree. Simple acts like getting out of bed, climbing into a car and bending to get the newspaper become laborious motions of pain and frustration. You pop a couple pain killers but the pain doesn't go away, in fact, the pain persist and you wonder - why won't the pain go away? You try and deal with the pain the way you dealt with it as a world class football player - you just dealt with it - and got ready for next week, but now it's different. There are no more games next week. Pain, one time your friend because it validated the pound of flesh you gave being in the mix on Sunday's, now validates your existence to a large degree as a former football player. If you were in the mix on Sunday's for several years, pain, in some from or another is the common denominator of all former players in the end.
Your wife or loved one finally convinces you to see a medical doctor to ascertain the nature of your pain and after an exhaustive examination, the first question the doctor has for you is - "how old did you say you were?" The x-rays, MRI, blood test and brain scan reveals a worn body well beyond its years. You file a claim with the NFL Disability Board to assist with your future medical care only to learn that your multiple injuries were deemed "Not Football Related" by the medical staff of the team for which you played. And, the claim is DENIED. What do you mean - Not Football Related? I've had no other profession for the last seven years, save pro football ... and it's Not Football Related? And that's usually how the merry go round starts ... and the beat goes on and on and on.
"Dignity After Football" is an organization of retired athletes and caring folks that are shining a light on the Farris Wheel of disability claims by former players. For too long the National Football League dirty little secret of denying athletes claims will be brought front and center and dealt with openly and with dignity for the player by (DAF).
Kenny Easley Seattle
Seahawks 1981 - 1987
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