updated 4:46 p.m. ET Aug. 3, 2007

CHICAGO - Mike Ditka won’t be in Canton, Ohio, for Saturday’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony and won’t attend another until the NFL and the players’ union improve their treatment of disabled players.

“The system is flawed and when they fix the system I’ll go back,” the former Chicago Bears coach and player told The Associated Press on Friday.

Ditka said his beef isn’t with the pension system, but with the scarcity of disability payments. League officials have said 317 players collect disability totaling about $20 million a year.

Ditka said he’s proud to be a Hall of Famer and congratulates the new inductees, but prior commitments are keeping him away from the Hall of Fame event.

“I’m in the restaurant business. I’m busy,” he said. “They don’t need me anyway.”

In June, a group of former players testified in Congress about their bouts with multiple surgeries, dementia and homelessness, all while trying to fight through the red tape of the National Football League and the NFL Players Association’s disability system.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and players’ union head Gene Upshaw met with nearly a dozen former players last month to discuss a new joint effort to look into disability pay and health care for retirees.

MORE FROM NFL

NFL Section Front

Beware the big names PFT: Favre says situation with Childress ‘resolved’ Trash Talk: Favre is starting to show his age PFT: When exactly is Polamalu going to return? PFT: After 2 concussions, Westbrook ‘ready to roll’   PFT: Frye to start at QB for Raiders Freeney, Mathis among 6 Colts who sit out practice Celizic: No more free passes for Peyton   PFT Daily: NFL's head case with concussions Florio: Axing Mangini should top Holmgren’s to-do list   NFL Section Front   Add NFL headlines to your news reader: