A SIDEWAYS GLANCE : ATHLETES NEED HELP, TOO.The state program for workers disabled on the job has attracted claims from California's wealthiest former athletes, including Joe Montana Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr., (born June 11 1956 in New Eagle, Pennsylvania), nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "The Comeback Kid", is a retired American football player whose professional career in the National Football League (NFL) spanned the late 1970s through the and Bo Jackson Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson (born November 30, 1962 in Bessemer, Alabama) is an American athlete and a former multi-sport professional. Jackson played at the highest level of sports in the United States in both American football and baseball. , The San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. Union-Tribune reported Wednesday. Hundreds of former athletes, including some who only briefly played in California, are attracted by the lump-sum, tax-free benefits of the workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. system, the newspaper reported. ``They are workers like everybody else,'' said attorney Ron Mix, formerly with the San Diego Chargers
Mix, who has represented dozens of athletes in workers' compensation cases, estimated his clients who played in the 1990s each received an average of $50,000 to $70,000 in benefits. Critics argue the system was designed for wage earners who work in dangerous jobs and lost income if they couldn't work. Sports superstars are usually paid whether or not they play. ``If you change the law for a Joe Montana, you change the law for an average worker,'' said state Sen. Steve Peace. But is Joe Montana an average Joe? The former San Francisco and Kansas City quarterback, who was once the NFL's highest-paid athlete, earned $13 million in one four-season period with the 49ers. Montana recently filed workers' compensation claims in Santa Ana for assorted football injuries that date back to 1979. |
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