As much as former Green Bay Packers tight end Gary Knafelc loves the NFL, he despises league officials and the current union representing NFL players.
In a scathing commentary first reported by WTMJ, the NBC affiliate in Green Bay, Wis., Knafelc accused the NFL and the NFL Players association of wishing that all pre-1970 pro football players would die.
"We don't have a voice, and I really believe the reason that we don't have a voice is that they're hoping that if we keep dying off at the rate we are, we'll be all dead and they won't have to worry about anything," Knafelc said.
"I'm not kidding at all. I'm very serious about that."
Knafelc played 10 years in the NFL and was part of the Packers team from 1954-1962. He also served as the team's public address announcer for Packers games at Lambeau Field from 1964-2004.
Knafelc, now 81, says he sand several other NFL alums have asked the players' union to come to the aid of injured or ailing NFL retirees from his generation.
Those claims have met with staunch resistance.
"The NFL Players Association has to step up and protect us, and they don't do that," he told the news station. "All they care about is the current players and the guys that played after 1970. The ones that played prior to that, they've kind of just forgotten entirely."
In an age where medical advances are just now starting to detect the scope of the effect playing professional football can have on its participants, the NFLPA is asking the retirees to prove their injuries or other illnesses came as a direct result from their playing days, Knafelc said.
"They say it happened too long ago," he said. "They don't have enough records to justify helping you out at that time. In fact, they even come to the point of, 'How do we even know that injury was something you did playing football? It was not something you did later on?' "
Despite those criticisms, Knafelc said he would do it all over again if given the opportunity, which could be symbolic of the issues today's NFL players face in walking away before suffering permanent health damage.
"As dumb as I am, I would do it again for the same money if I could," he said.
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