Gene Upshaw, a former NFL player and executive director of the NFLPA, visited the Denver Broncos annually to address significant union issues, including concussion data and CBA negotiations. Despite his trusted presence and the importance of the topics, players showed little interest, focused instead on receiving their $10K checks. Upshaw's frustration grew as he explained the potential need for union decertification; many players dismissed the long-term implications, feeling disconnected from the complexities of union dynamics amidst their immediate concerns on the field.
Gene Upshaw was an imposing presence. He had been a shit-kicking lineman for the Raiders for 15 seasons, and upon retirement, became the NFLPA's shit-kicking executive director.
Gene was going from team to team, bracing us for what he knew would be contentious negotiations with an ownership group he understood well.
The fate of the union hung in the balance, and there was nothing he could do to engage us, myself included.
For as much as I saw myself as a worldly athlete—someone who saw the big picture—these terms and concepts seemed so foreign and so far away from my immediate reality.
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