GregR
Footballguy
The NFLPA will be holding an election for their executive director this weekend. DeMaurice Smith has a bunch of people running against him.
Just finished reading this article which is pretty hypercritical of De Smith. I'm not all a fan of what the NFLPA has done under Smith, though to be fair I think the NFL has equal or greater fault in for what has gone on.
That said, the first half of the article smelled a bit like a hatchet job on De Smith. There were things in the article that I thought were not a fair look at the situation... like focusing on the total salary caps before and after the last CBA, but only paying lip service to the salary floor addition. It's entirely possible that the players actually make more money from a lower salary cap that has a salary floor, than they did from a higher cap that had no minimum for spending. The article also didn't delve into how much of the change in cap was a shifting of the player's piece of the pie from salary to additional benefits.
I'd also add, I think the last CBA reflects that the owners had a very bad deal previously as owners took advantage of some vulnerabilities the owners had due to disagreements amongst ownership on revenue sharing, and this time were not going to back down in this latest CBA without recovering some of what they probably shouldn't have given up. If the players share got cut a bit I don't think it should be a surprise, I think that was probably the fair outcome, though maybe they did give up more than they should have.
But all that said where I didn't know the author was being fair in his look at the situation, then the last part of the article that went over reputed actions to try to stonewall opponents from being included in the vote really did seem pretty damning. If it was a hatchet piece, the last part of the article did it more effectively at least for me.
Anyway, worth a read if you're interested in this side of things. I'd like to see the NFLPA move on from De Smith to someone who can hold the NFL accountable without resorting to fueling animosity with the league, though I have no clue which, if any, of those running against could do that.
Just finished reading this article which is pretty hypercritical of De Smith. I'm not all a fan of what the NFLPA has done under Smith, though to be fair I think the NFL has equal or greater fault in for what has gone on.
That said, the first half of the article smelled a bit like a hatchet job on De Smith. There were things in the article that I thought were not a fair look at the situation... like focusing on the total salary caps before and after the last CBA, but only paying lip service to the salary floor addition. It's entirely possible that the players actually make more money from a lower salary cap that has a salary floor, than they did from a higher cap that had no minimum for spending. The article also didn't delve into how much of the change in cap was a shifting of the player's piece of the pie from salary to additional benefits.
I'd also add, I think the last CBA reflects that the owners had a very bad deal previously as owners took advantage of some vulnerabilities the owners had due to disagreements amongst ownership on revenue sharing, and this time were not going to back down in this latest CBA without recovering some of what they probably shouldn't have given up. If the players share got cut a bit I don't think it should be a surprise, I think that was probably the fair outcome, though maybe they did give up more than they should have.
But all that said where I didn't know the author was being fair in his look at the situation, then the last part of the article that went over reputed actions to try to stonewall opponents from being included in the vote really did seem pretty damning. If it was a hatchet piece, the last part of the article did it more effectively at least for me.
Anyway, worth a read if you're interested in this side of things. I'd like to see the NFLPA move on from De Smith to someone who can hold the NFL accountable without resorting to fueling animosity with the league, though I have no clue which, if any, of those running against could do that.
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