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 DeMaurice Smith has been elected as the next executive director of the NFL Players Association, filing the vacancy after Gene Upshaw who led the union from 1983 until his death from pancreatic cancer in August.
The vote was taken by the player reps at a meeting in Wailea, Hawai. Smith has been seen as an outsider in the process, having not come from a football background, and was not added as a candidate for the position until last month. Smith won out over three other candidates including David Cornwell, Troy Vincent, and Trace Armstrong. Smith, 45, served from 1991-2000 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office, including service as a senior prosecutor in the Violent Crime Section and the Transnational / Major Crimes Sections of the office. Mr. Smith then served as Counsel to Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. He was also the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Lead Representative to the Law Enforcement Inaugural Committee and served in the U.S. Secret Service’s Multi-Agency CommandCenter during the 2001 Presidential Inauguration. He also has ties to President Barack Obama. The election of Smith comes at a critical time in the NFLPA’s history. With the economy an ever looming factor, and will be dealing with labor issues shortly as the current collective-bargaining agreement expires in 2011. He also faces a time when the players have seen divisions amongst their ranks. Smith did not approach the position strictly on his career history. He provided a 150-page prospectus, and according to the Wall St. Journal, "told the group if they didn't want someone to treat the organization like any other business, he wasn't their guy"
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