There’s no question that the NFL lockout was the biggest news story of 2011. At 136 days, it was the longest labor stoppage in NFL history. After months of often contentious negotiating, the NFL and the players entered into a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement in late July. As Don Banks writes, the new CBA strongly reworked the parameters of rookie contracts, but players won plenty of concessions on safety issues, health care coverage, the terms of free agency and the length of the regular season. A few hours after the Executive Director of the NFLPA DeMaurice Smith and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that football was back, ProPlayerInsiders sat down with Smith to get his reflections on the players, the owners and the role of the NFLPA.
PPI: Having the opportunity to be involved with the players of the National Football League in a way that you weren’t previously, what did you learn about the players?
DS: A lot of lessons. There is the persona of a player on the field and we see them engaged in a great game and we ascribe to them all sorts of values that we hope that they have. What I learned is that when you look at the way Drew Brees plays football, with the passion, the pride, the toughness, it’s been a pleasure to learn that he brings those same values off the field. Kevin Mawae played in this game for 16 years as a center, where each and every play he takes probably a greater beating than anyone else on the football field. You learn that he is just as tough, if not tougher, off the field than he is on the field. So if I had to pick one thing that I grew to appreciate and learn, it would be the values that our young men bring to what they do. It’s not only what they do on the field, it’s what they do off the field.
PPI: What did you learn about the owners and the league?
DS: All of us were engaged in a very difficult fight and I believe that we both respect our passion for our position and our resolve to protect our interest.
PPI: The process and the negotiations went on for a long time. What do you think was the turning point?
DS: The major turning point was the solidarity of the players. The fact that players came together as players and as high profile people like Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Anthony Gonzalez, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware, Matt Cassel and Matt Schaub. All across the league, players not only stepped up, but players that traditionally hadn’t been involved in our union stepped up and took it upon themselves to be player leaders. That was a turning point. The longer we went into the process the more it became apparent that none of our players were afraid and none unwilling to push the issues that they thought important to the mat.
PPI: Going forward, what is the role of the NFLPA?
DS: As we go forward our job is to never be satisfied, to continue to be restless about what we want to achieve on behalf of players, to fight when the time is right to fight, and to agree when the time is right to agree.
