Gene Upshaw has enjoyed success on and off the football field. A first-round draft pick by Oakland in  |
| Gene Upshaw has steered the NFL players union since 1983. |
1967, the perennial All-Pro guard anchored the offensive line of the Raiders until his retirement in 1981, playing in 10 AFL/AFC title games and three Super Bowls. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987, four years after he became executive director of the National Football League Players Association, a position he still holds. Upshaw helped earn free agency and a larger share of the economic pie for the players. Among the major pro sports leagues, the NFL has seen the longest stretch of labor peace, and the NFLPA has begun discussions with the league over an extension of the collective-bargaining agreement, which expires in 2007. Upshaw spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
Players Inc., the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association, was created in 1994 with the self-described mission of taking the helmets off the players. That is, marketing the players not just as athletes but also as personalities. Ten years later, how would you characterize that mission?
Upshaw: It was a success, and it’s ongoing. We’re doing more things now than when we started out. We’re into television. We’re into events. We have our own entertainment company. We have ventured out quite a bit from when we first established Players Inc.
Could it be said that Terrell Owens [with his Sharpie] and Joe Horn [with his cell phone] were marketing themselves? Is there a line between marketing a personality and showing up an opponent?
Upshaw: I don’t think that they were trying to market themselves. I think what they were trying to do, at that particular point in time, they were so excited about what was going on that they just, you know, overreacted to the circumstances.
But you have to be careful. One of the things that we can’t afford to have happen in this whole area is to have a player try to show up his opponent. There are strict rules for taunting. There are strict rules for celebrations in the end zone and all of those things. There’s a reason for that, because the next thing that happens, it leads to taunting, and then you end up with players fighting after a play is over. And if you look back at the history of the rule, it didn’t just start with Joe Horn, and it didn’t just start with T.O. It started back with the sack dances with Mark Gastineau, and then the players went after him and it ended up escalating. And the one thing the competition committee will do is to make sure we don’t have taunting. There’s no reason to taunt anyone.
You played 15 years with the Raiders as an offensive lineman, blocking for the more glamorous players who got all the glory. But now you are calling signals, having been elected last March to a seventh consecutive term as executive director of the NFLPA. What’s the best call you have made in your position?
Upshaw: The best call I made was to decertify the union and to take the NFL to antitrust court and to win free agency for the players. We were at a crossroads, and I firmly believe that if we hadn’t accomplished it when we did, you could never do it today. To me, that was the biggest play that I ever called.
Anything in your playing experience prepare you for this role?
Upshaw: Obviously, when you work for Al Davis you
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| Upshaw became a hall of famer after 15 years in Oakland. |
get prepared for a lot of things in life. He had a tremendous influence on my playing career with the Raiders and what I do now. I was prepared simply because he let me grow and expand my horizons as a player, to get involved in the players association and to be actively involved, not just show up at a meeting but to take positions and represent the people I represent.
Among the big four team sports, the NFL has enjoyed the longest period of labor peace. What’s been the key?
Upshaw: I think the key has been Paul Tagliabue and the owners understanding that the players are partners and we’re not in competition against each other. We’re in business together. We have a business relationship. And as I said earlier, our No. 1 objective is to keep the fans interested and to keep the model that we put in place working.
Can the different pro sports leagues learn from one another?
Upshaw: I think we can. I think we’ve learned things from the other leagues, and I’m sure that they’re learning things from us. But the one thing we have to remember here is that we have to do what’s best for the NFL. That’s all that matters, because we are in competition with the other leagues for the entertainment dollar. [The fans] don’t have to come to a football game. They don’t have to go to a hockey game or a baseball game or a basketball game. We want to have an interest level at its all-time peak so that people will want to come to our games and understand that any team can win.
The NFLPA has already begun discussions with the league over a contract extension, more than three years before the current pact expires [at the end of 2007].
Upshaw: That’s just basic good business. If you look at our television contract, it expires in 2005. They are already in the process of trying to renegotiate that television contract. It’s in the best interests of all of us to have a great television package because, as I said, we’re partners. We’re going to get 65 percent of that. So, if we have labor peace and we’re able to extend our contract and continue to see the type of growth we’ve had in previous television contracts, it would make good business sense for the players to approve an extension that’s tied to the television contract. That’s what we did with the last one.
Revenue sharing: What is your position?
Upshaw: Our position on revenue sharing has been that there has been sort of a shift from when we started in 1993-94. Under this agreement there has been a gradual shift of less revenue sharing among the owners. That’s not good for us as players. But we’re not suggesting that the owners take money from the rich clubs and give it to the poor clubs. What we are suggesting is that it has to be a leveling so that competitive balance is at its height, because that’s what makes our game so interesting. We have to be in the position that all 32 teams are competing and all 32 teams have an opportunity to win and compete. Because when you look at it beyond that, I’ve got guys who have to play in the large markets and the small markets. And we don’t want to see the revenue disparity get to the point where the teams in the smaller markets are not able to compete.
The majority of NFL teams are competitive well into the season.
Upshaw: If we can have, as we have had recently, 15-16 teams that are still in there the last week, the last two weeks, that means we’ve done great on the gate receipts. It means our television ratings are still high, and every team has a chance. It doesn’t matter if you’re Green Bay or Tampa Bay, or if you’re New York or Philadelphia.
Sal Galatioto of Lehman Bros. believes that a team takes on the personality of its owner. Do you agree with that?
Upshaw: I don’t know if it takes on the personality of the owner, but it takes on the owner’s philosophy about success and winning. And it doesn’t happen overnight. I can give you some examples. You have Al Davis and the tradition that’s there with the Raiders. Now New England is building the same type of tradition. Dan Snyder [of the Redskins] would love to win. I was out with him the other night. No one wants to win worse than he does.
Who’s the fiercest competitor you’ve seen?
Upshaw: That’s a tough one. Every time I think I’ve met the one that’s the most fierce, I meet another. It is a very difficult thing to single out one entity as the fiercest. When I think of one organization, quite naturally I know the most about the Raiders. Al Davis called me in one day when I was on the team and said, “Look, you’re the captain of the team. But it’s more than going out and calling ‘heads’ or ‘tails.’ Anyone can do that. I could send the equipment guy out to do that. It’s how you function within the whole society of our team and what it means.” I know how fierce he was, and the one thing that he instilled in all of us — it wasn’t respect; he couldn’t care less about respect. What he cared about was fear.
Look for more of this conversation in our sister publication, The Sports Business Daily, located at www.sportsbusinessdaily.com.
