NFL player lawyer and past candidate for the NFLPA top job David Cornwell blasted the leadership of the union in a memo sent to agents, contending that under executive director DeMaurice Smith, the players were misled about the season-old collective bargaining agreement.
The 11-page memo argues Smith has not been truthful about how much money the players really are getting, saying the 47 percent of revenues they have been told they are getting is an inflated and not real number.
“In addition to providing misleading information about revenue comparisons, the revenues buckets, and the rookie cap, the NFLPA engaged linguistic sleights of hand with the terms such (as) All Revenues,” Cornwell wrote.
— Speaking at Super Bowl, Smith gratified deal got done
All Revenues is a CBA term, and players get 47 percent of it, but it does not include all the cash that comes into the league. The actual percentage players are getting is likely at least a few percentage points lower, if not more.
Under the old deal, players got 51 percent in the last year with a salary cap. An NFLPA official, speaking on Smith’s behalf, declined comment. The memo comes days before Smith is scheduled to address the media in Indianapolis during Super Bowl week.
He is expected to answer questions about whether he will run again for the executive director role, as his three-year term expires in March.
Cornwell has represented Oakland Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor and Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson, players he believes Smith has not treated well. Pryor, who joined the league last year through the supplemental draft, was suspended five games for college misconduct, a move Cornwell said Smith did not fight.
“Despite his repeated public statements that he would fight for the men who play the game, Terrelle’s situation was the first of multiple situations in which De fell far short of his promise to fight on behalf of all players, not just the perfect ones,” Cornwell wrote.
At issue for Benson was a suspension handed down by the league for conduct that occurred during the lockout.
Smith was a surprise winner of the NFLPA job three years ago after the death of long-running executive director Gene Upshaw.
A Washington, D.C., insider but football outsider, Smith promised to go toe-to-toe with the owners in the CBA talks. He disbanded the union and funded antitrust lawsuits against the NFL as the players were locked out. An appeals court let the lockout stand in May, and a new CBA ultimately was reached on Aug. 4, saving the 2011 season.
Cornwell’s contention is that the new CBA is not nearly as good for the players as Smith is making it out to be. Pointing to how revenues are divided among different categories and shared differently, Cornwell calls the divisions a “red herring” intended to distract players.
While players get 55 percent of media revenue, a much-touted number, they still only get 47 percent of “All Revenues.”
“Players sacrificed significant revenue to solve an internal dispute (revenue sharing) among team owners,” Cornwell writes.
At the end of the letter, Cornwell appears to call for Smith’s ouster. He did not, however, directly state in the memo his desire to run again for the top NFLPA slot, nor did he directly back another candidate for the position.
“Given that the term of the new CBA is 10 years, you and your clients may conclude that they and two generations of future players are stuck with it,” Cornwell writes to the agents. “No doubt the major elements of the CBA are here to stay for the next 10 years. But, that does not mean that players are stuck with the man who negotiated the deal.”
Daniel Kaplan is a staff writer for SportsBusiness Journal, a sister publication of Sporting News.
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