Former Raider Upshaw made a difference on, off the field

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 21, 2008 | by Gary Peterson

To fully appreciate Gene Upshaw, you had to be there. You had to see for yourself what a difference one man could make.

We're talking football here, not labor relations.

Before he was the head of the NFL Players Association, Upshaw, who died Wednesday night of pancreatic cancer, was a fearsome pulling guard. He was a Pro Football Hall of Fame hybrid, with the speed to track you down and the strength to knock you into next week. What's more, he played before the era of mass player substitution and special packages (and before rules to liberalize pass blocking and outlaw head-slapping, for that matter). In his day, it was your guy against their guy, all "... day "... long.

For most of his 15 seasons with the Raiders, Upshaw was better than the guy he lined up against. His linemate on the left side, tackle Art Shell, was almost always better than the guy he lined up against. Together they were borderline impregnable.

Their finest hour came in Oakland's Super Bowl XI victory over Minnesota, when Upshaw and Shell overpowered the Vikings' Jim Marshall and Alan Page. "It was like tanks against Jeeps," Dan Jenkins wrote for Sports Illustrated.

That was the pinnacle, but the Raiders played dozens of games with similar themes. They lived and died by the left side of their offensive line. Mostly they lived. Thus, in this fundamental sense, Upshaw was as responsible for the Raiders' rollicking success across the late 1960s and 1970s as any player on the roster. And more responsible than most.

He embodied the Raiders image, with arms encased in Michelin Man- style pads and a helmet that looked as if it had been dropped from a 10-story building. Once upon a time, that uniquely Raiders style was backed by substance -- commitment, professionalism, a team-first attitude. Upshaw embodied that, as well.

They called him The Governor, because it was obvious his ambition extended beyond the football field. He was thoughtful and principled, with a strong work ethic -- traits forged during his childhood in the segregated South. Sure enough, when he reached the end of his playing days, those traits led him to another arena in which he could make a difference.

He became executive director of the National Football League Players Association in 1983, representing the players through a contentious strike and hundreds of hours of tedious negotiation. In the end, he helped knock pro football into the next century. Thanks in large part to his handiwork, today's players enjoy free agency and earn nearly 60 percent of the league's revenues.

The road to riches, however, was a path of intense institutionalized resistance. NFL owners had maintained almost total control over their employees for decades. They weren't interested in changing the corporate culture. The 1982 strike, which punched a seven-game hole in the regular-season schedule, did relatively little to advance the players' cause.

It was a picnic compared with the midseason strike in 1987 -- this one led by Upshaw. When NFL players walked out, replacement players walked in. After one lost weekend, the season was resumed. Striking players began breaking with the union and trickling back to work. It was over in less than a month. But that dark day led to Upshaw's finest hour, the shrewd decision to decertify the union as a means of mounting a series of legal challenges that led to free agency.

It bears noting that Upshaw took more punishment wearing a suit and tie than he ever did wearing silver and black. Baseball labor pioneer Marvin Miller was no fan. Others contend NFL owners gave away more than Upshaw actually took from them. More recently, Upshaw has been criticized for not working harder to improve disability benefits for former players.

But this much is undeniable: He is as responsible for the NFL landscape we know today as anyone else. And more responsible than most. Given the league's runaway popularity, that's a handsome epitaph.

It's just written too soon, is all.

Reach Gary Peterson at gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com.