NFLPA Doesn’t Deserve the Union Label

Now the National Football League Players Association has reversed its field, running off in a different direction and deliberately throwing itself for an embarrassing loss. This is what happens when you play at the high-stakes game of labor relations.

The leaders, executive director Gene Upshaw and aide Doug Allen, insist they are not involved in a union per se, which is what a certain sportswriter has been trying to tell them ad infinitum for well over two decades.

They never had a union concept because they didn’t have a wage scale commensurate with on-the-job experience nor did they respect the picket lines of bona fide unions in other lines of work when they were on strike. The players wanted the best of all worlds.

In a shift to a new formation, Upshaw and Allen are asking they not be referred to as a union but as an association. It sounds as a play of semantics, but the idea is to trap the NFL into another court case.

Yes, more litigation. The players give the impression they don’t know what they’re doing, after taking a beating in the courts, and are grasping for any option that not only will save face but also save a more substantial part of their association anatomy.

Tom Gatewood, a former Notre Dame All-American and an erstwhile No. 1 draft choice of the New York Giants, is interested in starting a rival organization. You have to wonder what such former officials of the players association as Tom Condon and Ed Garvey are thinking when they view the scuttling of the structure they worked so hard to build.

It’s said that those still paying dues constitute only 20 percent of the membership. If the decertification is formalized, then the move threatens such existing benefits as medical insurance, severance pay and income from the sale of football-related merchandise.

After a meeting last week in Dallas, Upshaw said, “We are no longer the bargaining agent of these players. If (management wants) it settled, they can now settle it in court. Right now, this is the only way to settle it.”

This means the players are back to where they were before the association started -- every individual operating on his own. It may lead to a player contesting the legality of the college draft and other functions of the NFL.

If this happens, then expansion talk will be silenced again. Without a collective bargaining agreement it seems doubtful if progress toward expansion can be made. Meanwhile, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, off to an impressive start, is carrying his own message to the players.

He has met with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. Tagliabue has appeared before them, as something of a lone ranger, without other lawyers or league assistants. The idea is to answer their questions and endeavor to create a feeling of trust and cooperation.

One player, center Randy Grimes of the Buccaneers, is so concerned he sent a letter addressed “to all NFL players.” He went on to say, “No matter who is right or wrong, we, the players, have been hurt the most.”

Grimes claims the owners offered an improved package in the negotiations and he reads this as the chance to get on with a desired bargaining agreement. “It’s time for us, the players, to take charge of the game we play,” he said.

This kind of an expression does not increase confidence in the players association. Right now, those atop the NFLPA have slashed their own wrists (breaking what they erroneously called a union) and contemplate throwing themselves on the mercy of the courts.

It has evolved into something of a labor-management chess game that serves no purpose because the reality of the situation portends there will always be some kind of an association, even if they suddenly have turned against the union label.