Former Giants receiver Phil McConkey, a popular member of the Super Bowl XXI-winning Giants, complained about the union and a high-profile current member of its Executive Committee.
“I see so many of my colleagues suffering terribly,” McConkey told Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton of WFAN. “And I don’t blame — I really don’t blame the owners and the management. I don’t. It’s the Players Association, they’re the ones that should have taken care of the guys that went before them. And they didn’t, and they still don’t.”
For McConkey and plenty of former players, a comment made by Saints quarterback Drew Brees in 2009 still resonates.
“There’s some guys out there that have made bad business decisions,” Brees said at the time. “They took their pensions early because they never went out and got a job. They’ve had a couple divorces and they’re making payments to this place and that place. And that’s why they don’t have money. And they’re coming to us to basically saying, ‘Please make up for my bad judgment.’ In that case, that’s not our fault as players.”
“All [the 1987 strike] benefited were some of the guys of today,” McConkey said. “There are some guys today that have absolutely no clue and that run their mouths. And Drew Brees is one of them.
“I know he’s canonized and people think he’s great,” McConkey also said regarding Brees. “If he got in front of a group of ex-players, I don’t know what would happen. . . . It’s just — it’s disgusting, but that’s some of the mentality that’s around.”
As to the concussion lawsuits, McConkey thinks the NFLPA should be a defendant, too. “I don’t understand why they’re not suing the Players Association also,” McConkey said. “I think they’re more responsible than the NFL.”
