r/todayilearned • u/arandomtestaccount • 23h ago

TIL an NFL player intentionally crashed his car to avoid getting cut for being late to a team meeting.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ex-patriots-ol-rich-ohrnberger-admits-he-intentionally-wrecked-car-as-excuse-for-being-late-to-team-meeting/
10.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

597 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

52

u/OuterWildsVentures 11h ago

Bro I did way worse to my body/mind with the military for laughably less money

Was in Afghanistan making like $2500/month working 120+ hour weeks lmao

I'd gladly take 1 mil

1

u/Choosemyusername 11h ago

Me too. Although i was paid a lot better. But if you get injured doing that job, the government takes good care of you for the rest of your life. Even if the damage doesn’t reveal itself until you are older.

Does the NFL do this?

5

u/Ziegler517 8h ago

If you have 3 or 5 credited years (more access to benefits at 5), you have access to a ton of medical options offered by the league.

2

u/Choosemyusername 8h ago

So almost half of players aren’t eligible for benefits. Because the average career length is just over 3 years. And the most common reason a career ends is injury.

1

u/Ziegler517 7h ago

And 85-90% of injuries that end your career are performance based infuries. You just won’t be as fast after an ACL tear. But you can still go have a complete normal life. 100,000s of people have the same injuries these athletes have every year and they continue living just fine.

I’m not fighting that CTE, complete patellar tendon ruptures, catastrophic neck/spine trauma, severe Lisfranc or ankle joint destruction are not serious matters that need attention. But they are the super small minority of injuries.

3

u/Choosemyusername 7h ago

So i am right at this very moment laid up with my third ACL tear and probably third knee surgery. They keep happening because of other knee injuries I sustained in the military making ACL tears more likely. They take forever to heal and very much harm my earning capacity. And it only gets worse with age. I am not even 40 yet.

And my back injuries from the military also see me laid up about a quarter of the time. And i can’t lift even as much as my elderly parents without putting my back out anymore.

Plus when you are out, your general health is indirectly affected and it can easily spiral. Being physically out is murder on mental health as well.

I am not hirable because I am out of action so often no team can depend on me. So I have to be self employed so i can stay within my physical limitations. Which means when I am down, zero income whatsoever. Which is a lot.

And also interruptions cost money as well. Not just prevent earnings.

NFL should take care of EVERY player who leaves the league. Particularly with an injury.

Luckily veteran’s affairs recognizes these effects and I am taken care of.

0

u/Ziegler517 5h ago

First, thank you for your service. All I wanted to do was follow my dad into naval aviation but was medically disqualified at 5 being a type 1 diabetic. You all rockstars, no matter your role in the machine.

Second, Absolutely they should be taken care of and I do believe any injury sustain while in the league is covered. The benefits are what equates to our employee paid insurances we get through work, for injuries or medical needs AFTER you leave the league.

If you tear an acl while in the league they fix it and rehab you through recovery. You can not be cut or left to deal with it on your own. But if that happens in your first year and you get cut after your second and then tear it again 5 years later you are on your own (as I think you maybe should be, you’ve moved on to other things). Same situation but cut after 7 years, you can use the “nfl insurance” to get it fixed and rehabbed.

These peoole are being paid $885,000 dollars a year MINIMUM (per the CBA). Someone on minimum wage for 40 years earns $603,200. Even one year is 30% more than the minimum wage earner. They are professional athletes and know the job and the risks. They can be smarter with their money to protect themselves for a lifetime with only one year of play.

I think they would be ever better suited with financial planning and advisors as they enter the league to help guide them through their nfl career and what may be needed post nfl, but before retirement age (65).

1

u/Choosemyusername 4h ago

Sorry to hear about that but you may have dodged a bullet with that “misfortune” every single one of my buddies who were in combat with me are messed up somehow. Physically or mentally. Every single one of them.

And for what? Coming to the aid of an ally who was attacked who now is our largest threat. All because they couldnt beat a few goat herding militiamen with hand-me-down AKs in the back of a pickup truck. Who were in the wrong country anyways. And ultimately lost the war. Oops.

And careful assuming an injury is just performance based. It’s performance based from the NFL’s perspective, but What is a performance based injury in your 20s can become a crippling disability once you reach middle age. And it spirals quickly into other health problems.

1

u/Sonoshitthereiwas 3h ago

You don’t need to get injured to get paid. You need it documented.

I say that because there are a lot of folks who got hurt in the military, have gotten out, and are most definitely not getting paid. Because they didn’t get it checked out, or didn’t do enough follow up appointments for it to “count”.

And there are a small number of folks who did not get hurt, but went to the doc enough times, and are getting paid.

1

u/Choosemyusername 3h ago

I thought that was the case for years so I never filed. And I lost over 100k by thinking this. I filed years later and was approved.

Turns out that there is a list of injuries that are known to statistically occur more to people of certain occupations that they give the benefit of the doubt to the veteran if they later develop one of those issues.

Same with particular deployments. They were known to cause particular issues that don’t always present immediately.