Well I'm making progress now. The patches listed there seemed to work better than the patch I was trying to use for my current setup. I compiled the modules using the vmware-modconfig command without error. I also installed the Tools file using the method above without error. Problem is when I open vmplayer, it's still saying it needs to compile modules, but just immediately exits without giving an error on the console if I click install. Out of curiosity, I ran vmplayer as root and it started up fine. (Of course I'm not going to run a vm as root.)
I tried restarting the vmware and vmware-USBArbitrator services and even restarted my computer in case there were other services I wasn't aware of. Searches lead to people who had errors compiling the modules. I guess I'm needing root permission to something for Player to work, but I'm not sure what.