Eric Winston Elected New President of the NFLPA

Orlando, Fla. — Eric Winston has been elected as the new president of the NFL Players Association. He will be taking the reins from Domonique Foxworth who has served as President of the NFLPA since March of 2012.

Winston has been active with the NFLPA since being elected as a Co-Alternate by the Houston Texans in 2010, including being a voice for players during the 2011 lockout and serving on the union’s committees for finance and agent discipline.

He was A third-round pick in the 2006 Draft, the University of Miami alum and has started 112 consecutive games for the Texans, Chiefs and Cardinals.

Winston does community work on behalf of Shriners Hospital for Children and local charities in his hometown and team cities.

While the players are in what has been referred to as “labor peace” there are still many important issues that remain front and center – most importantly health and safety.

In a interview earlier this month Winston said, “I think the first three years, people kind of wanted to relive the CBA: ‘What could we have done better? What did we lose here? What didn’t we do?’”

Winston has ideas for what the NFLPA needs to do moving forward, “we’ve got seven more years of this (deal), and we have to find ways internally to improve and get better and help players and help former players. That, to me, is the direction we need to move.”

In 2007, Foxworth was elected by the Broncos as a player representative and was the teams recipient for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award . In 2008, he became the youngest vice president of the NFLPA Executive Committee.

Also today, Lorenzo Alexander (Arizona Cardinals), Ryan Clark (Free Agent), Zak DeOssie (New York Giants), Jay Feely (Arizona Cardinals), Mark Herzlich (New York Giants), Adam Vinatieri (Indianapolis Colts), Scott Wells (St. Louis Rams) were elected to the NFLPA Executive Committee by the Board of Representatives.

They join current Executive Committee members Matt Hasselbeck (Indianapolis Colts), Brian Waters (Free Agent) and Benjamin Watson (New Orleans Saints), who were re-elected by unanimous affirmation. Newly elected NFLPA President Eric Winston (Free Agent) is also a member of the Executive Committee.

New Orleans Saints QB and long time player leader, Drew Brees today stepped down from serving on the Executive Committee. Brees said, “I have served as a Player Rep and a member of the Executive Committee for a long time and will always be a strong voice and outspoken advocate for players, their families, and the Union. I am excited to see young leaders in this league step into this role and continue to advance the cause of our Union and the future of our league.”

Brees was part of the Executive Committee that led the union through the leadership change after Gene Upshaw died suddenly in 2008. He will continue to be the voting player rep in New Orleans through the fall.

Also with the 2014 election, Charlie Batch, Brian Dawkins, Domonique Foxworth, Scott Fujita, Matt Light, Brandon Moore and Jeff Saturday cycle off the NFLPA Executive Committee.

- See more at: http://proplayerinsiders.com/nfl-players-elect-new-executive-committee/#sthash.lsOJ6SL9.dpuf

Pro Player Insiders had the opportunity to speak with many past, present and future leaders of the union and will continue to share those exclusive interviews.

The current player meetings run through today, joint player meetings tomorrow and the former player meetings run through March 23.