Election rules to get review

The NFL Players Association board of player representatives voted unanimously to form a committee to study the way in which the union’s executive director is elected, after an unusual election in which nine candidates ran for the job.

NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith was re-elected to a three-year term March 15, after a two-day process in which player representatives met with him and eight challengers. Players met with the candidates, half of whom qualified for the ballot a week and a half earlier, for 12 hours March 14, listening to 40-minute presentations from all the candidates.

Players listened to pitches from nine candidates over two days before re-electing DeMaurice Smith. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

Players complained about the long days and the dizzying amount of information from multiple candidates, many of whom they did not know.

“I think every guy had a different complaint,” NFLPA President Eric Winston said. “I think a lot of the guys said, ‘There has to be a better way.’”

Under the current system, a candidate may qualify for the ballot by getting the written nominations of three team player representatives no later than 10 days before the election. One team representative can nominate multiple candidates. Under the NFLPA constitution, the executive director must stand for re-election every three years.

Winston said five to 10 players on the committee will study the way other unions elect their leaders before making recommendations. Instead of voting to change one or two rules, such as the time frame for nominations or the number of nominations, the players will look at the entire system.

“Instead of trying to make Band-Aid fixes, let’s go out and see what other unions are doing,” Winston said. “What is baseball doing? What is basketball doing? What is the UAW doing? What are unions outside of sports doing?”

Recommendations could be voted on at the next NFLPA annual meeting in March 2016. It takes a two-thirds majority vote to change the constitution.