Jerry Rice and Kurt Warner Disavow Letter Requiring Health Benefits from Hall of Famers

The names of 21 big names in the NFL are listed at the bottom of the letter announced today, requiring health insurance and pensions for the Hall of Famers. By definition, it's an impressive list, but it's getting less and less impressive every hour: Kurt Warner and Jerry Rice have now publicly disavowed the specific requests and threats of the letter:

Eric Dickerson, inscribed on the letter as "Chairman of the Hall of Fame Board of Directors," continued Outside the lines Tuesday to explain the reflections of his group, and to respond to the perception that the efforts of his council begin and stop looking for members of the Hall of Famers:

"I'm trying to help the Hall of Fame. That's my goal. That's our goal. The guys who have talked about this, it is our goal is to help the players. And not just the Hall of Famers. I want it to be perfectly clear. One thing is that we have to have a seat at the CBA table. We want all players have health insurance, not just the Hall of Famers.

Dickerson also told ESPN that he sees this step – advocating health insurance specifically for game legends – as a necessary first step before he can extend the benefits offered to all retired players.

"We have to get to 1 before we can reach 10. You have to start with the Hall of Famers because we are trying to get the first power. We do not have a voice at the table and we try to get there first with the attention of the Hall of Famers. When you make the Hall of Famers talk, I hope you will attract the attention of the masses. "

It may not be a coincidence that Rice and Warner's statements reflect all retired players and that Dickerson must explain the exclusion of non-family members in the first phase of public relations. It appears that the plan was to use the fame and stature of the Hall of Fame members as leverage to get a representation of the retirees in the affairs of the league. But there also seem to have been two failures here: the inability to fully inform all those whose names appear on the letter; and the growing inability to anticipate how players might be associated with an effort to bring the Hall of Fame into a separate trading class, looking for exclusive benefits. This has created an unanticipated scenario where players are more heroic for disavowing the effort than they are doing.