| Dear John: As almost everyone knows, you are the Hall of Famer who is the face and name behind the wildly popular EA Sports Video Game - Madden NFL. With all the information that is coming out regarding the way the NFLPA and it’s Licensee - EA Sports treated our most valuable retired players, will you sit back and let the NFLPA and EA Sports continue to take advantage of our Hall of Fame players? Maybe you don’t know all the facts yet. Here are a few that may help you make a decision: Evidence in the Retired Players Class Action suit demonstrates that the NFLPA and Players Inc. were working against the interests of the retired players and in favor of your boss EA Sports. For example, this internal email from NFLPA Executive Clay Walker, confirms that Players Inc. negotiated a deal with EA on behalf of retired Hall of Fame players which was significantly below market rate: “I was able to forge this deal with the HOF that provides them with 400K per year (which is significantly below market rate) in exchange for the HOF player rights. EA owes me a huge favor because of that threat was enough to persuade Take Two to back off its plans, leaving EA as the only professional football videogame manufacturer out there.” Or how about this: A November 1, 2007 email from Andrew Feffer, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the NFLPA to EA Sports’ representative Paul Cairns, confirms that EA should have paid more than double the price for the HOF rights that it obtained pursuant to the agreement: “I can tell you that Clay and Joe’s negotiation of these discounted terms was a significant contribution to EA as you more than likely would have paid in excess of $1 million for these rights without their involvement and assistance.” Instead of negotiating the best possible deal for the retired players which it purported to represent, the NFLPA and Players Inc. were doing favors for EA by reducing compensation to retired players, and driving a competitive licensee out of the market. Indeed Joseph Nahra, Player Inc.’s in-house attorney, candidly admitted: “We are not trying to drive up the price of our licensees.” And in this February 22, 2007 email from NFLPA Executive Clay Walker to Players Inc. in-house attorney Joe Nahra, the naked truth is exposed to the world: “We definitely aren’t going to require you to pay an additional price unless you choose to add players that didn’t sign off on the original deal. You have the existing HOF players that responded to our letter for several years with no increase in cost. The per player price for most of these guys was tens of thousands of dollars less than what they were guaranteed by Take Two Interactive so it’s a real coup that we were able to pull this off so cheaply. You have to remember that EA’s total cost is only $200,000 per year. We know that Take Two offered six figure deals to several former NFL players so the total cost is millions below market prices. That being said, we’ll continue to go after the new inductees for the same price per player (around $2,500) and I think we’ll be successful.” John, these are your fellow Hall of Fame Players they are talking about! Are you going to let them get away with this? I know that EA is your employer, but come on….. You got to where you are today because you were a great football player and you were inducted in to the Hall of Fame. In your induction speech you said: “The Hall of Famers behind me……that’s what it’s all about. I was reading the NFL Stats book and they had a chapter on History and the first page in the chapter on History was a list of the Hall of Famers and I said…..That’s Right, They Get It! That is our history. The players that played before us, the players that played when they didn’t have face masks, when they had leather helmets, when they got this started. The players that played in smaller stadiums, they didn’t have the medical thing, they didn’t have anything! They laid the foundation for this great game and we should never forget it.” In your speech you also said that at night when the lights go off and the doors are locked in the Hall of Fame building, where all the busts of the players are kept……. the busts start talking to each other. John, if they really could talk, I wonder what the busts of all the Hall of Famers would be asking you tonight? Would they remind you of the words you so eloquently spoke on that beautiful day back in the summer of 2006? Would they be asking you to do the right thing and stand up for them? Would they remind you that they didn’t have the medical coverage for the injuries that now plague so many retired players? Would they also remind you, like so many have done in their induction speeches, that they didn’t get to the Hall of Fame without the help of their teammates? Some may not have been Hall of Famers, but they also helped to lay the foundation of this great game. Sometimes we have to make a goal line stand. It’s fourth and goal. Where do you stand John? Sincerely, Jeff Nixon Fourth and Goal Board Member Retired Football Players Association Board Member Buffalo Bills Retired Player 1979-1984 |
