Goodell and Smith are forming a relationship, finally.
Powerful owners like the Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, the New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft and the Carolina Panthers’ Jerry Richardson wanted their concerns addressed, and by then they were already intent on exercising their contractual right to opt out of the CBA two years early. When the owners did this via unanimous vote in 2008, they put Goodell on official notice that the two sides were heading for a showdown following the 2011 season – and that they were prepared to lock out the players to get back what they had lost in ’06.
When Upshaw died after a bout with pancreatic cancer in August of ’08, players knew that whomever they chose to succeed him would be walking into a confrontational situation, and one in which the owners figured to have more leverage than the union. Smith, a prominent Washington D.C. trial lawyer and litigator, sold himself as a man with political connections and a knowledge of the legal system – and as a self-made professional who was tough enough to go toe-to-toe with Goodell and the owners.
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