Gene Upshaw And The CBA

In what is quickly becoming this site's fourth feature, though unintentionally, here are a few words from ESPN's TMQ regarding Gene Upshaw and what he did for the NFLPA:

"Eugene Upshaw, 1945-2008: Gene Upshaw died young last week, and many of the same people who had denounced him while he was alive praised him after he was dead. When their words could be heard and inflict hurt, they slammed him; when their words could not be heard, they were gracious. As TMQ argued a year ago in detail, Upshaw did a fabulous job for players -- winning 59 percent of the richest pot of gold in sports is hardly to be sneezed at. In 1993 the NFLPA, under Upshaw's leadership, adopted cooperative bargaining as its core tactic. Since then, adjusting to today's dollars, NFL payments to players and retirees are up from $1.3 billion to $3.8 billion, an increase of about 13 percent per year. How many professions do you know where pay rises an inflation-adjusted 13 percent annually? Recently, the NFL owners voted unanimously to exercise a clause that lets them opt out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement two years early. When that same deal was signed in 2006, Upshaw was roundly ridiculed by sports pundits, and by retired NFL players, as a lapdog, because he worked cordially with the owners rather than calling a strike. That the owners unanimously opted out, after having time to think about what they had agreed to, is the proof the NFLPA, not the owners, won the 2006 negotiating round. If some lapdog union leader had agreed to a weak deal, the owners wouldn't be opting out, would they? Upshaw had a difficult personality, and the NFLPA gets self-inflicted bad press because its public-relations operation is among Washington's worst. But in terms of substantive accomplishment, the NFLPA under Eugene Upshaw provided magnificently for its members, including for its retired members. My advice to all who play touch football with Upshaw in the afterlife: watch for the trap block; even in paradise, this guy is unlikely to ease off."

TMQ is what it is, a sometimes interesting, sometimes incessantly rambling column about the NFL. That said, i thought it was a nice summary of some of the things Upshaw accomplished before passing.