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for former players with disabilities which included eliminating the need to prove football causation in some cases. For Smith, health and safety were nonnegotiable. “As players in the most-watched


sport, our union members are on a national stage. It’s the players’ obligation to recognize the factors that impact their business. And let’s remember this is very big business. Our deal with the owners is $10 billion a year for 10 years.” For Smith, the shift to represent-


ing union members has come quite naturally. “In this battle, my sympa- thies lie with the players,” he explains. “Ultimately, professional football is made possible by 53 guys on each team’s active roster and eight more on the practice squad. T ey work for a liv- ing and we represent them. T at’s it.” A native Washingtonian who grew


up in nearby Glenarden, Md., Smith has always been a Redskins fan (“If you’re from here, you live and die by the


viewers turn off their TVs and don’t see the players until next week, Smith is always dealing with player injuries and grievances. (At any given time, Smith is typically fi ghting for about 300 players’ workers’ compensation.) Smith contin- ues, “Whether a fl ag is thrown or not, when there’s helmet-to-helmet contact, we represent the player who gives the lick and the player who gets the lick. Games are the big event; our job is to take care of players on and off the fi eld.” T ough Smith never played in the


NFL, he played football in high school before going on to run track as an undergrad at Cedarville University in Ohio. He graduated with honors from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1989. His father is a former Marine, and his mother worked as a nurse. Following law school, he returned


to D.C. where he was an associate at Schwalb, Donnenfeld Bray & Silbert, P.C. Some 20 months later, Smith accepted an invitation to join the U.S.


Games are the big event; our job is to take care of players on and off the field.


Skins”). However, now that he knows the men behind the face masks he no longer sees games quite the way he used to. “T e coolest part of the past two and half years has been getting to know the players I’d seen on TV. Now I’m just as happy to see (Redskins’ quarterback) Rex Grossman as I am to see (Arizona Cardinals’ wide receiver) Larry Fitzgerald score, or (Cardinals’ cornerback) Patrick Peterson run back another kick. No mat- ter the fi nal score, it’s these players whom I’ve grown to respect a lot who win in the end, and that’s always good.” Knowing the cost of every game has changed his perspective. While


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Attorney’s Offi ce in Washington, D.C. and remained through 1999. While there he held senior positions in the Violent Crime and Transnational and Major Crime Sections. He prosecuted over 100 jury trials and handled homicide, narcotics, and white-collar investigations. It was during this time, he says, that he became a seasoned trial lawyer who learned to manage stress. “At the NFLPA, during our darkest


hours throughout the protracted nego- tiation, there was never a time when I started my day at the morgue. When you’re a homicide prosecutor you spend a lot of time observing autopsies.”


In 2000, Smith went to the


Department of Justice where he served as counsel to then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. “None of us are successful in a corporate environment without those who help us on the way. I was relatively young then, and he gave me a tremendous amount of responsibility and cared a lot about my development as a mentee.” After two years at the Department


of Justice, Smith returned to private practice, at Latham Watkins and later Patton Boggs. In mid-2008, he was fi rst approached by the NFLPA. Immediately he knew in his gut that it was something he needed to pursue. Smith says it was almost like a calling. Smith believed that the owners were


determined more than ever before to weaken the NFLPA, and he was deter- mined to help the players come out on top. “My thought was that if they were prepared to enter what really amounted to a battle, I wanted the job. Otherwise I had other things to do.” Smith’s sharecropper grandfather was


a Baptist minister, and for a time Smith had seriously wanted to follow in his footsteps. However, by his sophomore year in college at Cedarville, a Christian institution, he had set his sights on a legal career. By that time, he says, “sports and the law were the only things that really wound [him] up.” Smith’s offi ce is decorated with NFL


memorabilia including Upshaw’s helmet from his days with the Oakland Raiders (held together with gaffi ng tape). Smith often thinks about his predecessor who held the job for 25 years. “What’s most impressive to me is that Gene fought so many wars for the players with so few resources. T e reason we were able to reach the collective bargaining agree- ment is because Gene and the people here had built a strong union and we were in a position to fi ght. What Gene created here is the bedrock. I am work- ing to take it to the next level.” D&B


Patrick Folliard is a freelance writer based in Silver Spring, Md.


JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®


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