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NFLPA challengers fall, but ideas may survive

Editor's note: This story is revised from the print edition.

NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith emerged victorious in one of the most unusual elections in sports union history last week, but the issues raised by his eight challengers may play a part in the union’s future.

Smith won re-election on the first ballot March 15 at the NFLPA’s annual meeting in Maui, but only after his opponents rained down criticism of his negotiation of the 2011 collective-bargaining agreement, as well as his overall leadership of the union, for two days.

The challengers ranged from an NFLPA insider who resigned after running against his former boss, to a former star defensive lineman who waged a public campaign for the job, to a retired Navy admiral. Players acknowledged that some of the eight, who needed recommendations from only three player reps to get onto the ballot, probably shouldn’t have been there.

But NFLPA President Eric Winston said the time spent listening to candidates’ ideas wasn’t for naught.

“We are like, ‘Hey, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Winston said the day after the election. “If there is an idea that came from another candidate who presented and if there is something that struck a passion with the players, of course we are going to [consider it]. That would be pretty foolish for us to do all of this and say, just because we felt De was our best candidate, that nobody else came in here with any sort of idea or claim that we could pursue.”

Benjamin Watson, New Orleans Saints tight end and a member of the NFLPA’s executive committee, said that listening to the candidates for two days was an education for all the players there, and that players were trying to sort out the information they had received.

“I don’t know the percentage, but some of it was campaign talk and some of it was totally outlandish, and some of it was true,” Watson said.

Both Winston and Watson, as well as Smith, said they would look at candidate Sean Gilbert’s idea about filing a collusion case against the NFL (see related story).

Other candidates also made an impression. “We are not going to just look at what Sean Gilbert had to say, but possibly Andrew Smith, even James Acho, especially with his passion for former players,” Winston said.

Acho, a Michigan lawyer, said his ideas included a comprehensive lifetime health care plan for players. Andrew Smith, also a lawyer, said his ideas included bringing team trainers into the union as members because of the alignment between their interests and those of the players.

The other candidates were Jason Belser, now former NFLPA senior director of player services and development; former NFL safety and NFLPA executive committee member Robert Griffith; entrepreneur Rob London; former NFLPA counsel Arthur McAfee; and retired Navy officer John Stufflebeem, a former NFL punter.

With so many hopefuls fighting for the job, which brings with it a high profile in sports and a salary in the seven figures, player representatives heard plenty of criticism of the incumbent.

“Guys really wanted to be executive director, and they were pulling out all of the stops,” said Brandon Carr, a player rep alternate for the Cowboys.

Despite the acrimony, Watson said there was a real chance for players to use the experience and ideas from the eight challengers for the good of the players in the future.

“That’s the cool thing,” Watson said. “The cool thing is they [candidates] came in and made these claims, these claims that may be true and may [not be]. It makes you go back and read and go through it and talk to each other.”

THE CANDIDATES

The journey to Maui and the decision that was made there was a long one.

All of the big league sports unions regularly have elections for player leaders, but the NFLPA is the only one with a provision in its constitution that calls for the executive director to stand for re-election every three years. The campaign for Smith’s job began in the fall of 2013, when Gilbert, a former All-Pro defensive lineman, declared his candidacy by publishing a book that accused Smith of costing the players $10 billion in his negotiation of the NFL CBA.

The rest of the candidates followed Gilbert into the race, and most weren’t officially on the ballot until a few days before the vote.

Stufflebeem said going into the election that he thought that Smith had a better-than-even-money chance of being re-elected, but that the nomination of so many challengers was a sign players wanted a change.

The drama played out at the Ritz-Carlton in the northwest Kapalua area of the island of Maui. Outside, the scenery was stunning. Inside, the player leaders spent 12-hour days on March 14 and 15 behind closed doors in the hotel conference rooms, much of it listening to criticism from Smith’s opponents. Smith was re-elected early on the evening of March 15.

“I think that two things have happened,” Stufflebeem said after the election. “I believe there is an element of fear that exists to some degree on the board of player reps of changing horses in the middle of the race or in changing out the executive director.”

And “not one of us as a challenger was compelling enough to unseat DeMaurice Smith,” Stufflebeem said bluntly.
After the election, candidate Andrew Smith said, “I think the amount of candidates that went out to Hawaii, when I look back at it … it seems like we were out there as a job performance review for DeMaurice [rather] than actually having a legitimate chance.”

DeMaurice Smith was not the only one who was grilled in Maui. Candidates said that player leaders, including not only the player reps who had the votes but also members of the union’s executive committee, questioned them intensely during the two days. Players asked them whether they were running for the money — Smith made about $3 million in salary last year.

“Those were as tough as any set of questions from any federal judge I’ve ever faced,” Acho said.

NOT UNANIMOUS

Reports that Smith was elected unanimously and won on the first ballot were true, but it wasn’t a clear, straight path.
Multiple sources said that on the first ballot, Smith did get the required majority of the votes to win, but other candidates also received votes. The union did not make the results of the vote public.

After Smith won on the first ballot, the players revoted and made it unanimous, something NFLPA player leaders have done in the past.

Sources said that Belser, who had worked for the union since 2002 when he retired after a 10-year NFL career as a defensive back, was the clear second in the votes cast. But neither the number of votes he received nor how votes were distributed among the other challengers was clear.

“Jason was in there,” Watson acknowledged after the vote. “I would say that Jason was the most serious challenger to De, simply because he has a great knowledge of the CBA.”

Winston said, “I definitely think it did come down to De and Jason in the sense of what people wanted. But, at the end of the day, I think people looked and said, ‘Who is the best person to lead us into the future?’ And, I think, everybody decided it was De.”

DeMaurice Smith came out on top of a nine-candidate race.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
DeMaurice Smith, when asked whether there was an initial vote that was not unanimous, said, “I’m executive director for the NFL Players Association.”

Belser has been criticized in the press as being disloyal to his boss, but players, including Winston and Watson, stressed the work that Belser did for the union after being a player representative and executive committee member.
“Jason has spent his whole adult life in the union, and there is not a guy in that room, I can tell you right now, that doesn’t respect him and doesn’t appreciate everything that he has done for this union,” Winston said.

Three days after the election, Smith announced to players that Belser had resigned in an email obtained by SportsBusiness Journal. Smith did not mention in the email Belser’s candidacy in the election, but thanked him for his service to the union.

Belser did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the email.

But a day earlier, Belser issued a statement to SportsBusiness Journal via text: “The players, though the democratic process of the NFLPA constitution, elected the incumbent leadership. I’m thankful I had an opportunity to present a vision to the players. I shared the truth and the evidence will support those facts. Everything I showed and presented was objective and overt. … It was part of my vision for the players.”

The union now moves into a future where the NFL is wrestling with several contentious issues, among them player discipline and head injuries.

“We will continue our fight for neutral arbitration for commissioner discipline,” Smith said in a brief interview. “We will continue to increase the level of health and safety for our players. We will continue to move forward on benefits to help our players. If there is room for negotiation with the league, that is what we do. But if there are instances where they violate the rights of our players, we have confrontation.”

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