From the exotic splendor of Miami’s South Beach to the wildly successful ratings blockbuster that the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts put on in the Super Bowl on Sunday evening, everything about Super Bowl week gave off the aura of a spectacular football holiday.
This was the NFL at its most ostentatious best: lavish parties and dazzling television exposure. this was the NFL’s annual showcase that reminded everyone why football is still king on America’s sports landscape, an $8 billion industry where teams make an average profit of $31 million and players command multimillion dollar salaries and are among the most recognizable advertising figures in the land.
Yet amid all the good times and luxurious parties, there was a cloud of labor gloom. on Thursday during his first news conference as executive director of the NFL Players Association, DeMaurice Smith sent out a rather sobering message about how the party could be coming to a crashing halt in 2011.
When Cincinnati receiver Chad Ochocinco asked the first question of the day — how serious a threat was it that the owners would lock out the players in 2011 — Smith gave him a blunt answer.
“On a scale of 1 to 10,” he said with a perfectly timed dramatic pause, “It’s a 14.”
Talk about a party buzz kill, this was it.
But it was important to observe that there was something different about the man standing up there on the stage in front of a room full of reporters and television cameras. With a little touch of a preacher (he is the son of a minister) and the passion and showmanship of a smooth prosecuting attorney, Smith used this first time in the full national spotlight to essentially present his opening argument on the most high-profile trial of his professional life: the NFLPA vs. the National Football League.
There can be no tougher battle than this, because fans typically don’t have much sympathy for wealthy players in labor disputes with filthy rich owners. but the public hasn’t seen anyone quite like Smith in the pro football labor battle before. the 45-year-old Washington native is a radical departure from his predecessor, the late Gene Upshaw.
He is not a former NFL player. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted major and violent crimes. He was a top litigator for high-powered Washington law firms like Patton Boggs and Latham & Watkins who earned his law degree from the University of Virginia. when he was hired last March, he won in a contentious battle for the hearts and minds of a disparate collection of players who chose him over several candidates with strong NFL ties.
“He was dynamically different from anyone else who had walked into the room,” said former Rams defensive end Kevin Carter. “He had answers about the (collective bargaining agreement). there were angles he was talking about that most of us had never thought about or never heard. it was almost like someone who was speaking another language. the language of the really smart, the really rich and the really powerful.”
Last week, as he made his rounds with the media, you could tell that he will present a fascinating and personable foe in the public forum for the telegenic commissioner, Roger Goodell. He is comfortable in front of the camera, too. during the news conference, he would wander across the stage and engage his questioner in a conversation rather than a Q&a, but always aware of delivering his talking points no matter what question was directed his way.
“I keep coming back to an economic model in America that is unparalleled,” said Smith, who apologetically would rephrase the questions to suit his own needs. “And that makes it incredibly difficult to then come to players and say, on average, each of you needs to take a $340,000 pay cut to save the National Football League. Tough sell. Tough sell.”
His strongest point of the day was that the NFL has no incentive to negotiate with the NFLPA because the league is scheduled to receive $5 billion from its network television deals even if no games are played in 2011.
That, he says, is all the proof he needs to show that NFL owners are preparing for a long lockout. “Has any one of the prior deals included $5 billion to not play football?” Smith asked, referring to previous contracts that were extended or redone. “The answer’s no.”
Last Thursday afternoon, moments before he walked out into a crowded room full of reporters and television cameras, he gathered more than a dozen past and present players in a smaller room across the hall and essentially rallied the troops.
Once on stage, Smith did something not often seen in these normally stuffy news conference settings. He staged the entire thing like well-scripted performance art. He lined up the players two deep in tall stools spread across the length of the stage. He had current players on the stage such as union president Kevin Mawae, and retired players such as Hall of Famer Barry Sanders. Then, instead of walking up behind the podium microphone, Smith confidently strutted across the stage with a wireless microphone clipped to his suit lapel and worked the audience like the trained trial lawyer he is.
What he showed during that news conference and in each interview he gave along radio row was that he will be a worthy adversary for Goodell in front of the camera. but the ultimate measure of success for Smith won’t be in front of the TV cameras. it will be behind closed doors at the negotiating table.