NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith will not attend mediation
National Football League (NFL) Players Association (NFLPA) Executive Director, DeMaurice Smith will not be attending a court-mandated mediation session on April 19, 2011, due to a family emergency, according to an NFLPA spokesman.
The talks between the NFL and the NFLPA are scheduled to start at 10:00 AM CT in the chambers of Judge Arthur Boylan, a U.S. Magistrate.
Green Bay Packers Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mark Murphy, Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, Denver Broncos owner, Pat Bowlen, Carolina Panthers owner, Jerry Richardson, and NFL General Counsel, Jeff Pash, will make up the NFL side of the mediation,
headed by NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell.
Murphy and Jones serve on the NFL’s labour committee, which is headed by Bowlen and Richardson. Richardson was one of the owners that attended the two mediations last week, along with Kansas City Chiefs owner, Clark Hunt, Pittsburgh Steelers President, Art
Rooney II, and, New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft.
After Tuesday’s mediation, seven of the ten members that are currently on the labour committee will have attended at least one of the mediations.
Presiding over a total of fourteen hours of mediation in two days was Judge Boylan himself. There was a ten-hour session and one four hour session because Judge Boylan adjourned due to recognition of the talks’ sensitive spot, according to sources.
Sources imply that the two sides have great difficulty in trusting each other, specifically the others’ motives, just as it was when the league extended the deadline for the collective bargaining agreement in late February and early March.
The attempts at making a new collective bargaining agreement that would please both sides were finally given up on March 11, 2011, after the NFLPA decertified themselves as a union, the league locked out its players for the first time since 1987.
Ten high-profile players, including Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Peyton Manning, and, New Orleans Saints, quarterback Drew Brees, filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the league.
Last week, Carl Eller, a Hall of Fame defensive end, also filed a lawsuit against the league on behalf of the Retired Players Association (RPA), which he heads. The lawsuit, Eller et al v. National Football League et al, demands compensation to retired players.
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