NFLPA leaders urge Upshaw to pick successor

With 25 years as executive director of the NFL Players Association, Gene Upshaw is the longest-tenured labor leader in sports.

The Hall of Fame guard has outlasted two NFL commissioners, all of the players and coaches and all but five owners. The 62-year-old has endured strikes, lockouts and a decertification of the union, but he has never seen a threat to his leadership like the battle that has erupted over his succession.

A group of NFLPA leaders led by Baltimore Ravens player representative Matt Stover want Upshaw, who’s supposed to become a lame duck in March and retire a year later, to name a successor.

That was supposed to be Troy Vincent, who just stepped down as NFLPA president. Instead, Vincent, whose playing career ended in 2006, is out of a job at NFLPA headquarters. Upshaw responded to the uprising by naming Clark Gaines, seen by some as a figurehead, as his No. 2. The new NFLPA president, Tennessee center Kevin Mawae, also isn’t seen as a threat to Upshaw’s imperial rule like predecessors Vincent, Trace Armstrong and Mike Kenn might have been.

“No one is looking to oust Gene,” a longtime NFL player said. “A lot of players just want someone to be there to learn the job. Gene said in 2006 that he wouldn’t be around for the next [collective bargaining agreement] extension, but now he’s sounding entitled. Gene’s disregarding his reps. That has upset a lot of players. There’s serious unhappiness with how Gene has handled some things like the retired players’ issue. He has a lot to do to dig himself out of this one.”

The anonymous player believes that seven of the 10 members of the NFLPA executive board and a third of the reps are in Stover’s camp with just two board members and a third of the reps behind Upshaw. The other board member and a third of the reps are undecided.

That dissension is a radical change for the NFLPA, which has remained in near-lockstep since Upshaw negotiated free agency with then commissioner Paul Tagliabue in 1993, six years after many players had crossed the picket line to play in management’s replacement games during the last labor stoppage.

Instead of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell trying to keep his multimillionaire owners — some of whom have blasted the 2006 CBA extension — in line, it’s Upshaw who’s suddenly dealing with a rebellion in the ranks. That’s somewhat fitting considering Upshaw obtained his job by leading a virtual coup against predecessor Ed Garvey in 1983, not long after he retired from the Oakland Raiders.

Ironically, the NFL owners could come to Upshaw’s rescue in November by voting to opt out of the CBA. That’s because the undecided player representatives will be less likely to want an untested hand in charge of the negotiations if labor peace is disintegrating. Upshaw wants to remain on the job until a new deal is hammered out, and he could well get his way, making the rebellion of 2008 a mere footnote.