Howard Mortman at the blog Extreme Mortman wonders why Congress is holding hearings on the National Football League's treatment of retired players with disabilities. It's just the latest in minor issues that the Democratic-led Congress has decided to hold hearings on.
Mortman, in a recent article at The Politico, wrote:
America’s legislative branch has seen better days. A Gallup Poll finds Congress’ approval rating “the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974.”
How bad is it? Just 18 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing while three-quarters disapprove. Yikes! Now that’s bad.
So what is Congress doing to get back in our favor? Focusing like a laser beam on Iraq, health care, the 2-year-old recovery from Hurricane Katrina? Would you believe, investigating crooked NBA referees?
Here's the real question for Congress: Under what constitutional authority do you have any business interfering in the NFL's contractual agreements with its players and ex-players? Last time I checked, the NFL was, A) a private-sector organization that, B) doesn't receive federal tax dollars and, C) involves entirely voluntary participation by players, coaches, etc.
Today, some retired players are upset that they aren't getting disability payments from the NFL. But, then, they negotiated their own contracts - or voluntarily signed the contracts their agents negotiated. Nobody made them sign. Nobody made them play pro football. They were paid what they contracted to be paid. Now they wish they'd made a better deal.
Well, fine. Let them picket in front of the NFL stadiums on game day. Let them go on Oprah and whine. Let them try to get fans to sign a petition to urge the NFL to spend more on ex-players' disability-related care. All well and good.
But leave Congress out of it. Stop taking their time. There are other things they could be doing.
No, wait. On second thought, keep occuping Congress' times with this silliness, NFL retirees. The more time Congress spends on this the less time they have to spend on trying to raise taxes and legislate defeat in Iraq.
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