New NFLPA boss eager to open labor talks

ASSOCIATED PRESS

DeMaurice Smith wasted no time as the new NFL Players Association executive director, spending his first day on the job getting a start on labor talks with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and uniting the union ranks following a divisive seven-month search.

On Monday, less than 24 hours after he was elected, Smith had a brief phone conversation with Goodell and started putting together a transition team to assume the reins of North America’s most powerful sports union as it approaches a critical juncture.

Smith, speaking on a telephone conference call with reporters, said it was his intention to use his initial conversation with Goodell as “our first conversation of the collective bargaining agreement.”

The 45-year-old Smith, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney, succeeds the late Gene Upshaw as union boss following an election by the league’s 32 player representatives in Hawaii on Sunday night. He was hired to a three-year term.

Before returning home, Smith also planned to meet with the three other candidates that were up for the job, including former NFLPA president Troy Vincent, whom he hoped would play a role in his administration.

Vincent was open to the discussions, and backed Smith as the union’s new chief.

“We can move forward as one body toward the future with the new leadership of DeMaurice Smith,” Vincent said. “I’m personally looking forward, as a retired player, to work with the new executive director and help him move the organization forward.”

The other finalists were Trace Armstrong, another retired player and former NFLPA president; and sports attorney David Cornwell.

Labor talks are among the numerous challenges Smith immediately faces in becoming the fourth executive director in the union’s 41-year history. NFL owners opted out of the collective bargaining agreement last year, opening the possibility for labor strife if a new deal is not settled by 2011.

Compounding the importance of negotiations is an economic meltdown that may have an effect on the NFL heading into next season.

Smith said his goal is to maintain the labor peace that has allowed the NFL to emerge as “America’s Game” over the past two decades.