NFL Players Hope Disability Fund Will Lead to Policy Change

Two NFL players — Matt Birk, of the Minnesota Vikings, and Kyle Turley, of the Kansas City Chiefs — have been aggressively raising money for the nonprofit Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund to help retired players who are disabled by football-related injuries, reports The New York Times.

Mr. Birk and Mr. Turley have each given $25,000 to the fund. But they said their long-term goal was to use the fund to help overhaul the current Players Association policy regarding disability benefits.

Mr. Turley told The Minneapolis Star Tribune, “every player in the league is at risk of becoming a retired player every day that you’re on the practice field.”

On hand for the announcement was Hall of Famer Mike Ditka who also contributed $25,000 to the fund. According to the Associated Press, Mr. Ditka’s Hall of Fame Assistance Trust Fund, which was created to cover health costs of former NFL players, was recently dissolved after criticisms that it had distributed only $57,000 of the $1.3-million collected since 2004.

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