The N.F.L. loves to honor its retired “legends” and praise them for making the league what it is today.
But when it comes to retiree benefits, there are clearly two classes of former N.F.L. players: those who finished before 1993 and those who came after.
The divide is not arbitrary. In 1993, the league and players ended five years of labor strife by signing a new collective bargaining agreement that included more than $1 billion for, among other things, a severance package, a 401(k) retirement plan and a doubling of pensions.
Players who had already retired, though, were not offered many of those new benefits retroactively even though they earned far less during their playing careers.