Dave’s Football Blog

Former Oakland Raider and NFL Players Association chief Gene Upshaw has died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 63. In other news, Mike Ditka was last seen buying drinks for anyone in his general vicinity.

Gene Upshaw never did mind being hated. Hell, he was an Oakland Raider. He welcomed the hate. He took pride in the notion that he and his teammates were the bullies on the block who would do anything to win. As head of the NFL Players Association, though, that same attitude didn’t serve him so well. He took millions in salary while fighting with retired players over meager benefits packages, and he had no qualms with threatening newspapers like he threatened defenders back in the day.

Despite the growing divisions in the union over his leadership, however, Upshaw has managed to keep labor peace in the NFL for the last two decades. Some would say he did that by giving too much to the owners. In particular, Bryant Gumbel called Upshaw “the league’s biggest embarrassment” and claimed he was always on Paul Tagliabue’s leash. It was enough to make you wonder if Upshaw just didn’t know which battles to pick anymore.

So what does this mean for the NFLPA now that he’s gone? Will retired players start getting better benefits under new leadership? Is the salary cap toast? Will the labor strife we haven’t seen in the NFL for a while rear its ugly head? Now that Upshaw is gone, we’re going to see a fight for control of this union, and if that happens, things could get even uglier than they ever were.

By the way, let’s hope the next NFLPA boss will know what the Miami Project is. Given the higher risk of spinal cord injuries in the gridiron game than any other form of football, that seems kind of important.

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