SportingNews- DeAndre Levy, a former second-team All-Pro linebacker, has filed a grievance against the Lions for $1.75 million, according to multiple reports.
At issue is the Lions' medical treatment of Levy, who passed a team physical in March before he was released, which nullified a $1.75 million injury guarantee in his contract for this season, ESPN reported. Levy suffered a torn meniscus in Week 1 last season that required surgery. He returned to play toward the end of the regular season and playoffs. Following his release, Levy underwent a second surgery in April on the same knee. "I figured there was something wrong because they passed me on a physical when I couldn't even sit down to a chair or get into a linebacker stance at the time," Levy told ESPN. "In my mind, I didn't think about the legal contract part of it. I thought, 'This is f—d up. I can't get into position; how can I pass a physical?' I didn't know it was a physical the first time. "I went in for just a follow-up for my knee, we go through the exam or whatever and I see he puts 'pass' on it for the physical. I'm like, 'OK, this ain't right.' So I called my agent and I'm just now learning about the process." ------- I think I'm just going to take DeAndre Levy's word for it here. I have no doubt that he was hurt, but chances are that he's at least slightly exaggerating the extent to which he was in pain in hopes of collecting a couple million before calling it quits. That said, you'd have to be an idiot not to do the same damn thing to a league/organization that stopped at nothing to exploit you financially and physically throughout the prime of your career. So, from this point forward we are just going to suspend mild disbelief and pretend that the former Lions' linebacker passed a physical in which he literally had to be carried into the room and propped up like he just played the role of dead weight in 'Weekend At Bernie's'. Under those circumstances, it's morbidly funny that the Detroit Lions gave him a proverbial pat on the ass that he couldn't even sit on without wincing and said "congrats on your clean bill of health...now get the fuck out!". Unfortunately, it's much more scary that NFL players are so brainwashed/peer pressured into believing they are fine that DeAndre Levy basically hobbled out under the illusion he was "healthy" and had to gimp his way right into a surgeon's office no more than a month later. The visual of a team's medical staff saying "you passed!" while a team executive pops his head in and interrupts to say "you're also fired!" is semi-laughable. That is, until you consider that the soon-to-be-retired person on the ass end of the joke got left with a partially broken body while getting taken for roughly two million by a billion dollar industry. There's no doubt the NFL is a cutthroat business that views it's manual laborers as nothing more than temporary and expendable means to an end. Still, it's crazy to consider that they won't even stop at manipulating players that are taught to remain naive just to keep their job in order to not only win games, but also to pinch what basically amounts to pennies for the powerful. Here's to hoping DeAndre Levy eventually gets his $1.75 million. He may not have gotten the chance to earn it on the field, but he sure as hell deserves it more than the franchise that almost got away (and still might get away) with robbing it from him.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|