COMMENTARY : Restored Rights May Be Worth the Chaos

SANTA CLARA —  On Wednesday morning, 1,500 NFL players awoke to find an old truth suddenly in question. There was no talk about one for all and all for one. The talk was about every man for himself.

The subject was the decision by the executive committee of the NFL Players Assn. to surrender its bargaining rights and begin the process of decertifying itself in its latest skirmish with management. For the San Francisco 49ers, reaction to the prospect of life without a union ranged from disbelief to firm support.

One thing is certain. If decertification occurs--and there is a solid possibility it won’t--the result could be chaos. As 49ers player representative Bubba Paris put it, “Every player will be his own individual negotiating unit” under the new system, a scenario that would, by all accounts, prompt a flurry of lawsuits and unusual contract negotiations.

To Paris, the move to decertify was necessary.

“Right now, it’s been a crazy, long, roundabout way to come to these circumstances, but the players have slowly lost their rights to collective bargaining,” he said. “Everything we’ve fought to gain is in the process of being taken away. In essence, we’ve been pushed up against the wall.”

The only other option, Paris said, was “a long, lengthy appeals process,” but some see the decertification as a ploy similar to the one used by the NBA Players Assn. in 1988, when the NBAPA threatened to decertify, did not follow through and then signed a six-year plan with management two months later.

“The union isn’t going to decertify,” 49ers running back Tom Rathman said. “We’re going to get a contract before that.”

Even though Paris, who said the 49ers was the team that paid the highest dues in pro football last season, insisted the NFLPA isn’t abandoning the players, some players may not agree.

The players must vote on the final move to decertify.

“As much as I’d like to see free agency, I don’t see how it could work,” 49ers backup quarterback Steve Bono said. “I would vote to not decertify. I think everybody needs a union in some respects. Everybody would be abandoned.”

Paris acknowledged that the NFLPA and Executive Director Gene Upshaw have something to prove to the players. Upshaw was given generally poor marks for his performance during the 1987 strike, and this latest setback can’t help his reputation any.

“We never had any doubt we’d win,” said Paris of the union’s reaction to the defeat. “We’re extremely shocked. It’s completely against what we’d been led to believe.

“It’s beyond muscle-flexing. A lot of players lost faith in Gene when we went out on strike and didn’t win. And I think others lost faith when the agreement went against them. To save face, we’ve got to do something in the players’ best interests.”