DeMaurice Smith Named NFLPA Executive Director

"Who?"
"Yawn!"
"Do I Even Care?"

Yes, you do, whether you realize it or not. The new head of the players' union was a dark horse candidate to say the least: a lawyer who was not a former player and relatively unknown in NFL circles.

I'm sure Roger Goodell was licking his chops at the prospect of hornswoggling Troy Vincent or Trace Armstrong, arguably the favorites going into this weekend's voting, during the next round of Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations. Now, it looks as though he has a formidable foil. The implications to the NFL are huge.

As we learn more about this man in the coming months, it will be interesting to see whether he will establish the kind of relationship with Goodell that the late Gene Upshaw had or whether things devolve into something that reminds us of Bud Selig and Donald Fehr (God forbid!).

almost 3 years ago chiefstatnut 8 comments 0 recs |

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Hopefully

He’ll be along the Upshaw lines. Unfortunately for the NFLPA, though, even Upshaw wasn’t getting the NFL to bite on negotiating a new deal so I don’t think even he could have avoided labor unrest. Normally I’m very anti-union, but in this case the NFL owners got stupid and greedy because they weren’t happy with a guaranteed percentage of the profits (which had increased in real dollars for them every year and which wasn’t being undercut by increases in costs) and I think what they’re doing with the new rules on free agency is going to end up hurting their product. They had a good deal going with the NFLPA because Upshaw realized the value of being a good business partner. Now that the owners decided to tell the NFLPA unilaterally that they aren’t partners any more, I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more holdouts in camp (since free agency is harder to achieve) and more threats of strike (since the NFL apparently doesn’t want to negotiate a CBA the players can live with).

Predictions for 2009

1. Todd Haley's going to struggle with managing his staff in his rookie year as head coach.
2. The Lions will draft Matt Stafford, the Rams will draft Jason Smith, and the Chiefs will draft either Aaron Curry or Eugene Monroe.

by UCrawford on Mar 16, 2009 9:01 AM CDT reply actions

Guess What I'm Saying Is

I think the NFL owners probably need a union boss like Fehr facing them down instead of Upshaw. They were taking Upshaw for granted by the end.

Predictions for 2009

by UCrawford on Mar 16, 2009 9:03 AM CDT up reply actions

Agreed 100%

I was hoping this would happen. This IMO is a very wise/shrewd decision by the NFLPA and given the current circumstances, just in the nic-of-time.

Vincent would have been a complete egotistical nightmare and I couldn’t see Armstrong being overwhelmingly effective. Smith stands a chance of bringing some heat up under the owners right when the stakes are about to reach an all-time high.

Vae Victis!

by Buck'O on Mar 16, 2009 1:45 PM CDT up reply actions

I Think Vincent Was A Preferred Choice But Would Have Struggled

I also think the NFLPA doesn’t yet realize how good they had it with Upshaw. He wasn’t perfect as union boss (he absolutely dropped the ball on the NFL’s whitewashing of concussions) but the man negotiated more in benefits for players (both current and former) than all previous NFLPA heads combined. He understood the difference between monopsony and monopoly and knew how to structure an economic argument that could win against the owners in a standoff. And most importantly, he understood how to be a good partner to the NFL when times were good and realized that it was in the NFL’s and NFLPA’s best interests to work together.

Predictions for 2009

by UCrawford on Mar 16, 2009 2:47 PM CDT up reply actions

Thank you

for forcing me to look up monopsony. I must have been asleep when they covered that in Economics. I learn something new every day.

by chiefstatnut on Mar 16, 2009 3:34 PM CDT up reply actions

Me Too

The day you quit learning is the day you die.

I first heard the term monopsony reading an article about Gene Upshaw, funny enough. Economics is a really fascinating science…it’s interesting how often the terms in it (“monopoly” especially) get misused because people never bothered to research it and therefore don’t understand what those words really mean (journalists especially). To many of them they’re just words to prey on people’s immediate emotional responses…not something to explain something specific to achieve understanding. By looking it up yourself, I suspect that you’re now ahead of at least 80% of the population. :)

Predictions for 2009

by UCrawford on Mar 16, 2009 7:13 PM CDT up reply actions

Current economic climate

is probably going to be the biggest ball buster in any forthcoming negotiations. Whether they like it or not there are going to be some tough decisions made on both sides.

Blame my wife!
Waiting until August!

by sir eccles on Mar 16, 2009 9:04 AM CDT reply actions

Yep.

TV contracts are not likely to remain as lucrative in the intermediate. Apparently the networks are eating a shit-sandwitch over the current deal right now with ad revenues in decline.

Vae Victis!

by Buck'O on Mar 16, 2009 1:47 PM CDT up reply actions