NFL widows seek share of fund

INDIANAPOLIS

Sylvia Mackey read from her notes written on a sheet torn off a yellow legal pad, although she shed it to ask her final question of NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith.

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“What did we do wrong?” said Mackey as she questioned the union her late husband, Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, once headed at a news conference on Thursday.

Widows like Sylvia Mackey only recently learned that they aren’t eligible for the NFL’s legacy fund, a $620 million pool of money carved out by the NFL and the NFLPA for retired players under the new collective bargaining agreement. John Mackey, who battled dementia in his later years, died July 6, 2011, at age 69. Had his death come a month later when the CBA was ratified, Sylvia Mackey would have seen the benefits of the legacy fund.

“The one thing that I have to say with all due respect is that you’re wrong about is D. Smith and nobody on this dais made a decision to not include somebody,” Smith said. “It’s a new benefit. To say that (the NFLPA) and the National Football League made a decision to exclude Sylvia Mackey or anybody similarly situated, I hope you know that none of us who fought so hard made a decision to exclude someone.”

Smith said it would cost an additional $28 million to include the widows in the added legacy fund benefits, which gives at least $108 per month to retired players for each credited season for players who retired before 1993; the agreement also made $600 per month the minimum for the pension.

Smith said it would be “fantastic” if the league stepped in and made up the difference, although he didn’t rule out an agreement that would take some of the money allotted toward the legacy fund to help the excluded widows out.

For the widow of former Minnesota Vikings great Wally Hilgenberg, the last few days since learning of the exclusion have been trying.

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“Oh, I just started to cry,” Mary Hilgenberg told FOXSports.com. “I thought it was all settled. I was told, 'You’ll be covered.’ Then we find out that, no, we aren’t covered. I don’t know who is responsible.”

Mackey and Hilgenberg are among five former NFL players who retired before the 1993 season diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disorder that arises after repetitive trauma. CTE --- which can only currently be diagnosed post-mortem --- is associated with memory loss, loss of impulse control, paranoia and depression.

“We want to be equal like all the other wives,” said Hilgenberg, who would have seen an additional $1,728 per month since her husband played 16 years in the NFL. “It’s not about the money. It’s about respect. This is almost like they spit on our husbands’ graves.”

Former tight end Jim McFarland was actually in on some of the CBA discussions as a member of the NFLPA Former Players Executive Committee and even he was taken aback by the exclusion of the widows under the legacy plan.

“When we left the negotiations on July 25th (2011), an agreement on the legacy fund had been reached,” McFarland told FOXSports.com. “There was only a paragraph or two because only the money had been calculated at that point. Then more negotiations occurred and the language was changed.”

NFLPA president NFLPA Kevin Mawae said the union’s decision to decertify as a union --- a tactic used during the lockout so some of the league’s star players could sue the league --- is at least partially to blame for the process that led to the widows’ exclusion.

“During a great deal of the negotiating process, we weren’t allowed to talk about who was going to get what,” Mawae said. “First, you talk in terms of dollars. Then, you start discussing where the money is going to go. You can’t bring everybody in. We don’t talk about who is going to get excluded. It’s how you get the most people involved. At no time was there any discussions like, `Let’s include everybody, but ... "

Sylvia Mackey exited the conference room -- where she also spoke as part of the NFL Alumni Association news conference earlier in the day -- upbeat.

“Whatever man has written, he can undo,” Mackey said.