Bitter, broken affair in NFL

Former players, however, said their concern is not just over pension payments but the ability to claim disability for injuries they believe were sustained during their careers. Players like DeMarco and others claim that navigating the union’s system to prove the existence of a football-related disability is too difficult.

“It’s really not about the name-calling,” Gridiron Greats executive director Jennifer Smith said. “There’s just a lot of frustration about a system that’s broken.”

{bullet} Staff writer David Elfin contributed to this article.