Turf Wars. DeMaurice Smith.

 

Turf Wars.   DeMaurice Smith.

The Fight for the Soul of America’s game. 

The NFL has a rich history that goes back for decades.    In that time, the league only produced three commissioners that help the owners to grow the sport and make money for all stakeholders, namely the owners.    On the other side of the owners are the players or the labor.    Since they are unionized, they have an executive director to guide them.    There have only been a handful of NFLPA executive directors since the modern formation of the NFL was established.   Therefore, when former NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, author of Turf Wars, decided to write a tell all book about his fifteen years in office, it was an unprecedented moment in sports literature.  

The subtitle for this book perhaps hints at another book about the game of football.    However, the author has gone on record saying he did NOT want to write a book about the sport and truth be told he did NOT.    This is a book about labor versus management.    It just happens that the labor union, for which Smith provided leadership for nearly fifteen years, is an amalgamation of professional football players.   The management in this case and in the book are the billionaire owners of the existing NFL franchises.    Throughout the ten chapters and epilogue, readers are exposed to Smith’s blatant honesty, at least his direct account of what transpired with numerous issues that frequently made sporting news or national headlines.    But also, his many interactions with the NFL owners.  

It does NOT take long for the author to give the reader his opinion of the owners.   He asserted that the NFL billionaire owners are evil, greedy and perpetually power hungry.   Now, this is not to suggest that the NFLPA executive did not get along with the owners or treated them like a hostile enemy during his tenure.   In fact, the author writes about his many encounters, occasionally productive, with some of the most famous owners including Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots.    Both figures are among the leading characters in this book.    Smith shares how during the infamous “deflategate” episode in 2015 he was actually working side by side with Patriots owner Robert Kraft when his team was accused of intentionally reducing the size of the footballs used during the game.     In fact, at one point, Kraft had threatened to sue the league.    That ultimately did NOT happen, and the relationship turned back to adversaries again.  

One could argue that the other main character besides the author was none other than long time NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.    The book hints that Smith and Goodell had a mostly cordial relationship but was not without its contentious moments either, just as with the owners.     The author took exception to many things Goodell did and said during his time in office.   However, the one particular aspect of the commissioner’s power that seemed to rub Smith the wrong way was Goodell’s over eagerness to dole out punishment for players.     These rulings and edicts were often viewed as unjust in the eyes of the players association.    Smith’s contention was that Goodell should not have had the authority to levy fines and suspensions because he had no legal background or prior experience with these duties.   According to Smith’s writing, the NFLPA tried to establish a separate department to handle these kinds of NFL affairs but were unsuccessful.  

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the book came during a contentious period leading up to 2011 and the owners’ proposed plans to lock out the players with the hopes of generating a new collective bargaining agreement in favor of the owners’ demands.    Smith goes into some details about how they found a way, through some heady research on the association’s part, to have the players covered in the event of an owner’s lockout which would mean no compensation or benefits distributed to players for the length of the affair.  In the end, the players were able to avert a freeze out of compensation and worked towards a new CBA with important concessions made on both sides.   

As his tenure wore on, Smith admitted that the job took its toll on his health and wellbeing.   Smith cited that the executive’s job was thankless and a never-ending fire extinguishing endeavor.  He reveals that it took time away from his family life and negatively impacted his health.     Of course, his fifteen years of service still inspired him to write this unprecedented book.  

As previously stated, Smith admits that he did not want to write a football book.   While he is a fan of watching football games at present since now firmly removed from representing players, he notes that he did NOT watch games often during his time as the player executive.   He deemed his role to be fans of individual players but not entire teams.   The author also includes information about his own lineage dating back to the civil war era.   Also included is how his immediate family, while growing up in suburban Washington D.C., seemed to cause some cognitive dissidence with his identity, how he fits into the American social structure as an educated black professional and how he even fits into his own extended, and seemingly removed, family.     

Turf Wars is a book for those that are looking for something new in the sports world but yet culturally significant.   DeMaurice Smith hits hard on both accounts, even if this is not truly a book about sports per se.    It is a three-hundred-and-thirty-page book about people, those that have power and will do almost anything to keep it and those that are fighting to get a small piece of the pie.  It is a well composed story of a national sports league that according to the author used to reflect American values but now may actually shape them instead.      

 

·       You might like to read this book if you like to learn about the NFL and player negotiations and labor agreements.

·       You might like to read this book if you are interested in Players association history.

·       You might like to read this book if you want to learn more about corrupt practices in the NFL.

·       You might like to read this book if you seek information about economic and political aspects of the NFL and its operations.  

 

Readers can learn more about the book and the author here https://turfwarsbook.com/.