When it comes to the identity of the NFL Players Association’s interim executive director and, beyond that, its permanent replacement for Lloyd Howell, we won’t be supporting any candidates. And we won’t be suggesting candidates at the behest of anyone (potential candidates included) who would like to give their candidacy a little lift.
That said, a question submitted for Wednesday’s #PFTPM became an epiphany. It’s an obvious decision. A no-brainer. The thing the NFLPA should do, if the NFLPA wants to level the playing field with the NFL’s owners.
It can hire one of them. Next week.
Packers CEO Mark Murphy exits his post on Friday. On Monday, the NFLPA should welcome him as the union’s new executive director.
Of course, Murphy would first have to want the job. But the union absolutely should want him. If players became enamored with the notion that Howell knew labor relations from this management side, Murphy knows this specific labor relationship from the inside of the management side.
He’s been in the room when the collusion, attempted or otherwise, happened. He knows how the sausage is made. He has helped make it.
While the specifics are fuzzy (and I’m too lazy to research it), union management was extremely pissed at Murphy in the aftermath of the 2011 CBA talks. GOOD. That means he was effective in his work for the league. So why not put him to work for the union?
He’s available not because he retired, but because inherently ageist Packers’ bylaws require him to exit at the age of 70. If he’s not ready to call it a career, he could do great things for the players.
It would be a full-circle moment for Murphy. Undrafted in 1977, he made the roster in Washington and played there for eight years. He became the Packers CEO in 2007, after a long career in management jobs.
He’s the perfect person for the union to target. Without question. Of course, it won’t be easy for the executive committee and/or the board of players representatives to come to that conclusion, given the current cluster of NFLPA and/or Players, Inc. figures who are Game of Thrones-ing their way around the union’s ultimate seat of power.
All it takes is one member of the executive committee to realize the benefit of hiring Murphy, and the idea can spread. It’s the best idea they’ll have. And Murphy is the perfect person to prompt the NFL’s power structure to poop their pants a little.
Or a lot.
