Burning Down the House that Gene Upshaw Built
A few months ago, the media reported that newly-elected NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith had returned to D.C. from another road trip meeting with active players, only to find his office engulfed in flames. (Read that post from June HERE.) Apparently someone had left a candle burning in an adjacent bathroom late at night while the new boss was away… (?!!!) It seems that a lot of old Gene Upshaw memorabilia may have been damaged or destroyed in the fire.
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So now more news comes out to confirm that Mary Moran, the NFLPA’s highly-paid Director of Human Resources, had been placed on suspended leave – WITH pay – a few weeks ago. Moran, daughter of Congressman Jim Moran (D-Michigan), filed a tell-all discrimination lawsuit for $4 million last week against the NFLPA and apparently also had Daddy kick off an investigation by the Dept. of Labor. While we’ve only seen snippets of the lawsuit, we understand there’s something on pretty much everyone in the lawsuit. Looks like Moran is now taking a scorched earth approach to her departure. (Read the coverage on Sports Business Journal HERE.) Talk about burning all your bridges behind you as you leave.
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It seems that the feisty Ms. Moran has now taken a scorched-earth policy to her co-workers over at the NFLPA rather than leaving well enough alone in keeping the fat salary and expense account she was given for years to pretend she was the Director of Human Resources. Apparently, it was such a tough job running a 100-employee organization for $200,000 a year plus expenses that she had to continually hire outside staff in order to help her do her job. (Check out her hiring practices and expenses HERE.) So now that she’s been whacked from the job, she wants to point fingers and blame others – no wait, EVERYONE – for being summarily fired. Instead of trying to sue your old employer for $4 million, maybe your Daddy can help you find a new 6-figure job if he’s not too busy beating his wife or padding another earmark into a Congressional bill (read about his own ethical transgressions on Wikipedia HERE and about some like-father-like-daughter stuff HERE). Do you really want to air your own dirty laundry in public when a lot of it is your own? So much for showing that you can be discreet as a Human Resources Director to any other potential employer in the future.
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Let’s see if we can get this straight: You were in the top job to hire and fire staff at the NFLPA for many years. When Troy Vincent openly stated that there would be heads rolling – including yours – if he took over as new Executive Director or the NFLPA, you had your Daddy stir things up on the Hill while you got that IT guy you hired to pull up all of Vincent’s damning e-mails to sabotage his run for office. So now that you’re going down, you not only want to blame Troy Vincent once again but you want to point fingers at all those nasty employees that YOU hired under YOUR watch for getting YOU fired. So we have one question to ask: When did you realize you were simply in over your head for the job: BEFORE or AFTER you got fired? Perhaps the NFLPA should consider a countersuit to get some of their money back. After all, it wasn’t DeMaurice Smith who hired you.
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And among other accusations, Ms. Moran accused Vincent of calling her a “Jezebel” while supposedly spreading office gossip of an alleged affair with former Executive Director Gene Upshaw (this is one time we’re rooting for MRS. Upshaw to consider filing a suit for libel and slander).
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From Courthouse News: “She says Vincent retaliated by spreading rumors she had a sexual relationship with Upshaw, calling her a “Jezebel,” and accusing her of racism, prompting bloggers around the country to make death threats against her.
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“Calling a woman a Jezebel has negative meanings, including a lack of sexual morals and intentions to pull God-fearing men from a righteous path,” the complaint states. “It is a derogatory term used toward Jewish women, such as Ms. Moran.” (Read the rest of that piece HERE.)
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We don’t know about you, but the best way we can think of to make the slander go away might not be to call it out in a lawsuit for the world to see. You couldn’t think of a more blatant attempt to extort a juicy million-dollar settlement, could you? You might even consider the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of Jezebel before you take things any further:
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Jezebel
- Main Entry: Jez·e·bel
- Pronunciation: \?je-z?-?bel\
- Function: noun
- Etymology: Hebrew Izebhel
- Date: 14th century
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1 : the Phoenician wife of Ahab who according to the account in I and II Kings pressed the cult of Baal on the Israelite kingdom but was finally killed in accordance with Elijah’s prophecy
2 often not capitalized : an impudent, shameless, or morally unrestrained woman
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We’ll close with some sage advice for Mary Moran from Valerie Thomas, who had been summarily fired and re-hired more times than anyone else at the NFLPA (read more about Valerie’s story HERE). Straight from Valerie: “Don’t take any guff from anyone, especially the next Director of HR! In particular, don’t ever let them force you to take the back stairs instead of the elevator to get to your office, like you had them do to me for months and months after I’d won my suit to be re-instated to my job! Just remember – what goes around, comes around! All my best!”
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Bob Grant
September 6th, 2009 at 10:56 pm #
I, for one, am very glad to see Ms. Moran gone. She was only there because Gene made her and her politically connected family a part of his strategy of “Keeping and paying friends of influence” in order to hold on to power.
I could be wrong but according to my research Ms. Moran wasn’t even remotely qualified to hold the position that she did. I believe that she completed high school but am pretty sure that she did not complete even Junior or Community College. The level of educational achievement of other women at the NFLPA, both Black and White, was much greater than hers but their family, personal and political connections were somewhat less.
They were right to “let her go” and I am going to be pretty upset if they settle up with her by giving her another nickel of OUR money. Mary should not be paid any more money when we have Retired Players still suffering and Americans in the constantly growing unemployment lines that we have today.
I could be wrong on this point as well but I think that she is already going to be qualified to receive unemployment payments from the government as well.
Both the NFLPA and the NFL owe cash money to Retired Players and we are going to get it. Mary is just the latest soldier to say, “I was just following orders.”
Bob Grant
Independent Activist-Advocate
Dave Pear
September 7th, 2009 at 1:34 am #
Gene Upshaw exerted his bad influence on the NFLPA leadership. They have absorbed Gene’s views and standards and have no moral sense or functioning conscience. They are a sorry excuse for a Union.
Regards,
Dave Pear
George Visger
September 7th, 2009 at 9:19 pm #
What union? The definition of union means:
a. The act of uniting or the state of being united.
b. A combination so formed, especially an alliance or confederation of people, parties, or political entities for mutual interest or benefit.
Since when have we EVER been united in our stance. Men, it’s time we take control of our own lives and start cutting the dead weight we’ve had dragging us down for so long. These people work for US, and should be representing OUR views.
I say cut them all and let’s start from scratch. I would rather have a 4th teamer with heart representing us, then some spineless All Pro name who has never worn a jock strap supposedly looking out for our best interests.
Let Mary go cry to Daddy, and they can both take a hike. Put some blue-collar headbanger in there to get the job done. We have been way too patient with these people. It’s time to make something happen.
George Visger
San Francisco 49?ers 1980 – 1981