Valerie Thomas: Life Under Upshaw
Valerie Thomas
Dave,
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Thank you for your earlier comment and for allowing me to be an active participant on your blog.
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It’s hard to accept that a union whose efforts that you supported, including financially, would turn against you in your time of need: your post-football career.
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I know first-hand what it feels like to be ignored and it is even more dehumanizing to have been ignored while looking in the faces of the perpetrators on a daily basis. For example, my basic needs and rights to have access to my job were denied. When I reported to work, I was locked out with no key to get in the front door and no key to access the elevator. Once on the elevator, I couldn’t get off on the floor where I worked. Instead, I could only get off on the floor below mine and had to walk up a public stairwell. During the mornings, when I had to do business on other floors I had to walk up and down the public stairwells. I could not use the elevator like everyone else, including interns and temporary employees. At lunchtime and upon my return from lunch, I had to go through the same routine with no access to my floor and walk up a public stairwell (two sets of 12 stairs = 24 steps each way). In the afternoons, if I had to do business on other floors, I had to walk up and down the public stairwells. NFLPA management and its legal representatives harassed, intimidated and retaliated against me; they dared me to protect my rights and when I did, they then cheated and stole my livelihood and my family’s legacy.
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For two of the four years when I was reinstated to work, the NFLPA discouraged my employment, refused to honor the arbitrator’s decisions, denied me benefits, denied me collectively negotiated provisions and – in the deepest loss of my life – they kicked me in the teeth and watched me bleed. I requested access verbally and through e-mails. I was represented by Local 2 OPEIU and they were overwhelmed financially and trumped by the relentlessness of the NFLPA to destroy me and my family from 1988 through 2004 and through 2010. I received a response to my requests and the NFLPA told me to stop requesting to be treated fairly and they told me that my treatment was a result of my union activity and Title VII attorney fees litigation. General Counsel Richard Berthelsen declared in a court document that from time to time it was necessary to deny me access to my job when in fact, I was denied access every day for approximately twenty months. (Click on any of the thumbnails below to enlarge for reading.)
The only reason that I received partial keys is because of a lawsuit that was filed in October 2000 and that’s still pending. I didn’t get partial keys until November 2000 and that lawsuit is pending after Judge James Robertson allowed me to proceed to court for back pay, pension and other benefits after my reinstatement in 1999. The Judge allowed discovery, subpoenas were issued, and depositions were taken; however, no trial date has been set yet because there’s a conspiracy to deny me due process. They know that they will lose again in court.
There’s a lawsuit pending on my behalf and I appreciate the NFL Retired Players support through the Independents. I wrote to DeMaurice Smith in April 2009 and I have still had no response up to this point. I hope that as a past prosecutor, Mr. Smith will review the truth by reviewing the arbitration process and court documentation. As a defender of corporations, I can only pray that he won’t clean up the dirty deeds simply by sweeping the dirt under the rug. For two years, the NFLPA locked me out of my job and when my mother died they refused to give me access back to my job. Their claimed offense was excessive and unexcused absence. This is what they wanted all along – I didn’t have their permission to return to my job in 1997; I was returned to work by court order in 1999. Then in 2003, I didn’t have their permission to grieve the loss of my mother; the time I needed was inexcusable even though I called and called and called the office, talked with people, left voice messages, gave intimate details, and Berthelsen actually attended one of two wakes personally but no one from the NFLPA ever showed up for the funeral. I was then charged with not turning in time sheets when Berthelsen could have handed them to me himself and warned me that I was going to be AWOL the day of her funeral because “I didn’t have the NFLPA’s permission.” Then Mary Moran never called me until I called and called and called – you posted her voice message to me in an earlier post (click HERE to read that post and hear Moran’s message) and the NFLPA lied in arbitration that they went out of their way to help me without my requests – lies, lies, and more lies. They claimed that I didn’t call in every day, yet I called and – documented it – several times a day only to be IGNORED and my efforts were then manipulated out of a personal tragedy. Moran got the date of my mother’s death incorrect because she never returned my calls, started my compassionate leave the day before my mother died, calculated incorrectly and then had me reported as AWOL on the day of her funeral!
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So when she “didn’t hear from me” and I didn’t come in to work on the day of the funeral, it was claimed that Moran went to Upshaw for leave extension… lies, lies, and more lies. I was subsequently fired again in April 2003 within three months of the NFLPA paying the Title VII attorney fees of over $400,000. Verify the truth, Mr. Smith; the facts are absolute. My advice to you is to watch your front AND your back. Shouldn’t legal, ethical and moral business obligations also apply to NFLPA staff members? My lawsuit is still pending and I don’t expect to be denied with all the in-depth scrutiny and exposure of personal documents that I have submitted to the NFLPA to proceed to court.
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George Martin’s participation during his role as President of the NFLPA under Upshaw was equally despicable. He interviewed some of us “in strictest confidence” and then used it in testimony against us. What we didn’t know at the time he interviewed us was the fact that they had recorded those conversations without our knowledge or express permission. This eventually came out in court when Gene Upshaw accidentally blurted out on the witness stand, “Well, I heard that in a recording.” That admission is in the court record. And now that he’s the Executive Director of the NFL Alumni (since he lost the top job at the NFLPA to DeMaurice Smith), George Martin is once again telling everyone, “Just trust me to take care of you.”
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Thank you, Dave, for your support. I appreciate this more than you will ever know. I am totally devastated and every time that I hear of another player’s plight, it makes me even more determined to stop the abuse.
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To do it to one is to do it to all.
- Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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May God continue to Bless and Keep you safe.
Valerie Thomas
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Dave Pear
February 9th, 2010 at 2:34 pm #
Dear Valerie,
We’re so sorry to hear about the harsh and unfair treatment you and your family have and continue to receive from the NFLPA Leadership.
There should be accountability from our Union.
Please continue to fight the battle for justice and we will do ALL we can to expose this horrible treatment you’ve been force to endure for such a long time!
Sincerely,
Dave & Heidi Pear
Bob Grant
February 9th, 2010 at 2:36 pm #
Valerie,
What most Retired Players don’t know is that during the many years that you’ve been fighting for yourself, you have also been playing a tremendous role in helping to advance the cause of all Retired Players. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all that you have done and continue to do.
I think that we will name a floor after you if we’re ever able to name a building after Bernie Parrish since the NFLPA Building was recently named after Upshaw.
I have a few questions for you:
1. How have actions taken against you affected your pension;
2. How has your defending yourself against the NFLPA affected
you in your ability to secure employment in the years since
they started forcing you out?
3. Did you sign one of those nondisclosure agreements that Mary,
Gene, Dick and George tried to force you and all of the other
employees to sign, as Mary and her Lawyers have now got the
Judge in her pending case to declare “Overreaching?”
(How can Mary now say that an agreement that she tried
to force you to sign is pretty much illegal now?
4. Did Gene, Richard, Doug Allen or any of their associates ever
try to intimidate or frighten you after your short return?
Bernie has been fighting this battle for over fifty years now and we all appreciate and love him for standing up for us when many of us could not stand up for ourselves. You have been fighting for yourself – and all of us as well – against an organization and system that has not always been fair to us either. Thank You. And I hope that you will find time to answer my questions here on DavePear.com
Most Sincerely,
Bob Grant
Independent Activist/Advocate
Parrish Team Member
RobertinSeattle
February 9th, 2010 at 2:55 pm #
Your tale continues to fill in more details of what things were really like under the Upshaw regime, Valerie. I hope the first piece of business that De Smith conducted as soon as he took office was to do a complete and thorough electronic sweep of the entire offices. As a Washington insider, I’m sure he was at least somewhat aware of business-as-usual in these politically-charged situations.
It always makes one wonder what else lurks underneath the surface that most active and retired players never hear about (along with the general public as well as Congressional leaders!). Now I’m REALLY beginning to wonder about that mysterious fire in De Smith’s office as he was returning from one of his first road trips. And how about the $12,000+ of file shredding they revealed in their LM-2 a couple of years back?
Gee, as good a job as they did with Tiger Woods and John Edwards, maybe we should just let the National Enquirer have at it so we can save everyone a lot of time and money in getting to the real story here. These kinds of amateurish shenanigans should never happen in any organization let alone in a megamillion dollar enterprise. I can only hope that Smith uses his white collar criminal experience for the greater good. We’re all still waiting for a perp walk out the front door of Upshaw Place – what an ironic legacy THAT would be!
Robert Giblin
February 9th, 2010 at 5:08 pm #
Val,
This is shocking! I hope you have an attorney who does not want to be an NFL owners’ guy.
Robert Giblin
New York Giants, St. Louis Cardinals
1975, 1977
George Visger
February 9th, 2010 at 7:34 pm #
Valerie,
I would like to say I’m shocked by the treatment you received from the NFLPA – particularly Gene Upshaw’s slimy group – but unfortunately, I am not.
When they let greats like Mike Webster die homeless in his car because he was unable to take care of himself while he had a family who loved him living in town and the NFL denied him benefits, I am no longer shocked.
When the NFL intentionally covered up, discredited and lied about Dr. Bennett Omalu’s studies on the brains of 18 deceased NFL players for nearly 8 years while scores (if not hundreds) of ex-players died unnecessarily horrible deaths, I am no longer shocked.
When players such as Dave Pear, who has endured over a dozen football-related surgeries and can barely walk and is then offered a $360/month pension, I am no longer shocked.
When players such as Bernie Parrish have been fighting the NFL for nearly 50 years, I am no longer shocked.
What I AM is mad as hell and I say it’s time we circle the wagons, pool our strengths and absolutely kick some tails ’til justice is served.
You, Bob Grant, Bernie Parrish, Dave Pear and all the others who have fought this battle for so long have all my respect. Hang in there and never give up. These people who make their living from the misery of others will get theirs. Believe me, they don’t have the spine nor the stomach to finish this fight.
” What Goes Around Comes Around.”
All my respect and I offer whatever I can do.
George Visger
San Francisco 49′ers 1980 & 1981
Survivor of 9 football related brain surgeries
Successful winner of Work Comp case vs 49′ers in 1986
Jane Arnett
February 10th, 2010 at 2:48 pm #
Valerie,
I am blessed to have a mother who is the perhaps the strongest, most intelligent woman I’ve ever known. As a teenager of German descent, she survived the starvation/murder of 3 million people in the Ukraine. Her “hated German” family escaped to Germany just a couple of years before the Nazi government entered into war with Russia. In Germany, she was once again a member of a “hated” group since she was from Russian territory! As a Red Cross worker, she was the expendable one and sent to some of the worst battles of WWII. She talks about having no medical supplies and only being able to run from man to man to hold their hands as they died. She’s spent time as a prisoner in camps with experiences we don’t share publicly. After the war, she and my father came to the US, working 16 hour days to build a life and be a part of a country that offered safety, freedom and dignity. I grew up being from a family with accents and a “different” ways of doing things …worse yet, looked upon as “damn Germans”. We lived the life we believed was what this country offered, always giving respect and care even as we worked to advance ourselves. To this day, my mother is still concerned for everyone else and at 90 still cooks and sends food for those having difficult times.
Every time I hear your story, it evokes some of the same feelings I have when I think about my mother’s amazing strength in the face of injustice and suffering. The injustice you have lived with and your intelligent determination to overcome is inspirational. Obviously, this journey of yours is not over, but through it please know that there are many out here who are better as a result of the efforts you are taking. Your battle is not much different than the one that retirees are involved in and hopefully we can all lift one another. I’m proud to know yet another person who is persistent in the battle against abuse and injustice.
Jane Arnett
Independent Retired Players Advocate
Co-Chair 2010 Independent Retired Football Players Summit
Larry Campbell
February 11th, 2010 at 6:02 am #
In order to slay a dragon, one must find his weakness and attack it from within. The word says “my people die because of lack of knowledge” so always look for the truth and write it down so whoever picks up the cause with or after you knows what you do, and lastly, remember that “the battle is NOT yours, but the LORD’S” so pray and believe because you are in the WAR to WIN and help others in similar situations win.
Larry Campbell
Valerie Thomas
February 12th, 2010 at 4:36 pm #
My outlook in life has always been positive although I was born into adversity. My Dad told me to deal with what is right in front of me; to not look back at the past if it keeps the pain alive; and, to avoid predicting the future because that can cause a lot of anxiety; and, to fight a worthy fight.
I have learned that simply telling the truth in legal forums is not enough when dealing with dishonest people. They must be exposed. Public policy does not condone uncivilized behavior towards others to thrive. There are still avenues to pursue on Capitol Hill and federal government agencies. These people cannot be allowed to set standards at the lowest denominator.
I have spent twenty years of time and money on attorneys trying to correct abuse and injustice. I have endured 4 disciplinary actions, 6 grievance hearings, at least thrice (3 times) sued by the NFLPA, 2 arbitrations, 5 mediations, 1 court trial (EEOC), 1 reduction in force, 2 firings, 2 DC government hearings, 2 EEOC complaints, 2 NLRB complaints, faced at least 4 judges and approximately 4-6 court of appeals that had 3 judge panels. And I still have one (1) pending lawsuit in US District Court, District of Columbia. The NFLPA refused to honor arbitration and court decisions. Their latest decision was to stall the judicial process and resort to lies and innuendo instead.
Is this what professional football in the workplace, and post career, is all about? Personal fouls, unnecessary roughness, and unsportsmanlike conduct?
I won all of the battles but not the War. There is no oversight and no Geneva convention. And, the NFLPA has adopted an IGNORE mode of operating. Delay, deny and HELP you die. This must be challenged and changed. This is the same treatment that the NFL Retired Players have been subjected to. Thank God that we now have a different means in which we communicate and expose wrongdoing – Blogs, e-mails, Summits, and support groups.
We have new leadership since 2009… what say you both, De Smith, and George M? I deserve a thorough review and correction of the dastardly deeds that have been bestowed on me. Or, perhaps the right word is – clemency.
Thank you all, especially Dave, Bob Grant, RobertInSeattle, Robert Giblin, George Visger, Jane Arnett and Larry Campbell for your positive posted comments. Your concern and the concern of others who have contacted me with their support and love means the world to me. Also, Thanks to all of the positive remarks from my associates and friends on Facebook.
By the way, regarding clemency? I am not an offender, as proven by the administrative and judicial court systems, but, according to NFLPA management and its legal representative – I am classified as an Enemy and they have no legal right or basis to be judge, jury and prosecutors.
Valerie Thomas
Independent NFL Retired Players Advocate & Activist
Former NFLPA Research Analyst and Paralegal