Why Gene Upshaw Was An Effective Leader

From the FanPosts. -Chris

Lester Munson at ESPN does an excellent piece detailing Gene Upshaw's struggle as the new executive director of the NFLPA to gain revenue splits with pro owners. 

As Munson accurately points out, the NFL faced a much more difficult battle than pro baseball players faced to establish free agency in their sport.  Baseball players had an excellent labor union head in Marvin Miller, true, but they were also facing a divided, bickering group of team owners whose entire legal position for their reserve clause was based on a faulty interpretation of contract law, so the team owners had a fatal flaw in their arguments that any capable lawyer or labor union leader would be able to exploit.  The NFL had no such weakness and thus the battle came down to who could present the better case, both to the courts and to the NFLPA members (many of whom, like most of us, are not well-versed in the subtle nuances of anti-trust legislation).  So what Upshaw did was nothing short of spectacular, especially considering that their much-ballyhooed strikes in 1982 and 1987, were far more disastrous for the players than for the owners.  As for the oft-recited complaint about Upshaw, that he didn't get enough benefits from the NFL for retired players, Munson also notes, accurately, that Upshaw got more benefits for retired players than any of his predecessors in the job.  The NFLPA under Upshaw also ran charities that gave $1.1 million per year from 2000-2005 to players in need. 

On the other hand Upshaw's most vocal critic, Mike Ditka, so badly mismanaged his charity, the Mike Ditka Hall of Fame Assistance Trust, that before it was dissolved last year managed to distribute only $57,000 out of the $1.3 million it received to players in need.  Much of that was due to excessive overhead, as the charity spent $715,000 to stage three celebrity golf tournaments, including $65,000 in honoraria to ex-stars who appeared at those tournament, illustrating that while leaders who give impassioned speeches about the suffering are impressive in front of the cameras, unless they're able to competently do the management and legwork required after you put them in charge, impassioned speeches don't really get much achieved.  For 26 years, Gene Upshaw didn't give impassioned speeches...he worked with the NFL owners when it was beneficial, he usually butted heads with them where it was appropriate, he focused on the big picture, and he got results, and both the NFLPA and the players (retired, current, and future) were better off for having him as the face of their organization.