49ers Player Rep Walt Harris Is Firmly In Upshaw Camp
Gene Upshaw has his critics among NFL players, including some of the player representatives. Walt Harris, the San Francisco 49ers’ cornerback and player rep, isn’t among them.
He thinks the knocks on the 63-year-old executive director of NFL Players Association, including a call for new leadership from Ravens kicker Matt Stover, are misguided.
“I think it comes from a lack of knowledge,” Harris said this week before the 49ers wrapped up three weeks of voluntary drills. “He’s done an exceptional job. I don’t think we could have had a better person in that position to lead us.
“If you look at the numbers and where we’ve been with him over the years, they speak for themselves.”
It’s those numbers that have NFL owners up in arms. Last month they voted 32-0 to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement that gives the players 59 percent of the total football revenue.
“It was anticipated, and it was understandable,” said Harris, who became the 49ers’ player rep shortly after joining the team in 2006.
The current CBA expires in 2011. Barring a new contract, the 2010 season will be conducted without a salary cap. That sounds like a field day for the players, but the owners would have some important weapons in their bag.
For one, the qualifying time for free agency would jump from four to six years. For another, there would be restrictions on the top eight teams from the 2009 season: They couldn’t sign free agents unless they lost free agents to other teams. On top of that, each team would have two “transition” tags on their own potential free agents. With one “franchise” tag, they could prevent three players from leaving.
One other thing: There would be no draft, so all college players would be free agents. “It would be chaotic,” Harris said.
“Hopefully, we can get it worked out, but that definitely is a possibility,” he added. “It’s something we don’t want as a league because it would hurt the game and the fan support. The sport is good and we wouldn’t want anything to slow that down.”
The salary cap was $35 million when it was first instituted in 1994. In the last four years, it has skyrocketed from $85 million to $116 million and, according to published reports, it is projected to climb to $123 million in 2009, the last capped year of the current deal.
Harris says those numbers don’t tell the whole story. “A lot of people never get the full situation looking at it from the outside,” he said.
That is, while the players are making a lot more money than they used to, the owners are making plenty too, although not as much as they were a few years ago, thanks to the economic downturn.
NFL players have the shortest careers on average of athletes in any major sport. Despite risking serious injury in a violent game, they have contracts that, aside from bonus money, are not guaranteed.
One area in which many veteran players disagree with Upshaw is over his reluctance to push for a rookie salary cap. When No. 3 draft pick Matt Ryan signed a six-year, $72 million deal with the Falcons last month - with a $34 million signing bonus - NFLPA president Kevin Mawae called it “disheartening.”
Again, Harris said he agreed with Upshaw even though a rookie salary cap would mean more money for established players.
“I really respect the loyalty and the credibility that Gene has had over the years in that position,” he said. “His opinion means a lot to me. So it would be hard for me to question him on those things.”
Upshaw has also been criticized by retired players for not doing enough to improve benefits they consider grossly inadequate. Congress is looking into their complaints.
Upshaw, whose $4 million a year contract is set to expire in 2010, wants to stay on until the next labor deal is finalized.
“I wish he would stay as long as possible,” Harris said, “because it’s going to be hard to replace him.”
- Tom Fitzgerald, SF Chronicle
