An off-field dustup between the Bears, as the point organization for Illinois pro sports teams, and the NFL players association ratcheted up on Friday with representatives of the NFLPA again urging defeat of proposed legislation limiting the years that pro athletes can receive a workers compensation supplement, and the Bears responding that the legislation simply corrects an anomaly in Illinois law.
The Bears and Illinois teams are pushing for a change in workers compensation law that currently allows pro athletes to collect a differential for lost income due to an injury while playing. The law now permits that wage differential to continue until the age 67 limit applied to all workers; the teams contend that the career expectancies for pro sports, particularly football, should cap the term of those benefits to age 35, on the basis of most pro careers being over by that age.