Dave Pear's Blog

Moran vs. NFLPA and NFL Players Inc.

Does the NFLPA think the same way about you?

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Valerie Thomas

Former NFLPA Director of Human Resources Mary Moran is at WAR against the NFLPA and she is taking no prisoners. In August 2009 Moran filed a $4 million lawsuit that claimed sex discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination of her employment in violation of public policy because she participated in a DOL Office of Labor Fraud and Racketeering investigation of the NFLPA. Moran claimed that the actions of NFLPA management created serious and troubling ethical concerns for her. General Counsel Richard Berthelsen called Mary Moran “a necessary casualty.”

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But Moran is not a victim. She’s a perpetrator. She is GUILTY of doing to me what she now claims that NFLPA management has done to her. Moran doesn’t deserve to get a penny. Whether you do a good deed or a bad deed, always remember: “What goes around comes around.”

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A Necessary Casualty: Valerie Thomas? – In 1988, I cooperated with an internal investigation by NFLPA President George Martin and VP Mike Davis and then I was subsequently fired. I filed a complaint at EEOC regarding race/sex discrimination and prevailed when the NFLPA was found guilty of retaliation.

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In our last post – Valerie Thomas: Life Under Upshaw – former NFLPA Research Analyst and Paralegal Valerie Thomas discussed her years of abuse and violation of her employee’s rights under the heavy hand of departed Executive Director Gene Upshaw and his inner circle. Bob Grant had posted several questions to her in the comments section about the toll from her long battle with the NFLPA and how it has affected her and her family over the years. This is Part 2 of Valerie Thomas’ story.

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In January 2009, four Congressmen signed and sent a letter to the Department of Labor about concerns of the integrity of the NFLPA election process. At the behest of his daughter Mary, Congressman Jim Moran looked into the matter.

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It just finally really sank in that Gene Upshaw’s widow was apparently paid a $14 million lump sum directly out of the NFLPA’s bank account when he passed on to a new life (!). As a businessman, I started wondering why that money was paid directly out of the NFLPA’s coffers and not by an insurance policy that they should have had in place for a key employee like most normal businesses usually have? With any of the businesses I’ve started over the years, my investors typically sleep better knowing that there’s an insurance policy on my life to allow the Company to replace me as CEO in case something happens to me. And I also typically negotiate a separate policy that will provide for my family as part of the package. This happens in businesses across the country every day, regardless of whether they’re privately held or public companies. This is common business practice and I doubt if even Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, would argue with that. continue reading »

Here’s why we’re so excited about Dr. Amen’s offer to provide free brain scans which will be included in his upcoming study of football concussions. Many of you guys have already signed up but if you haven’t done so already, click HERE to read that earlier post and sign up right away – this offer is currently limited to the first 100 players to join the study!

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Over the years, the NFL has continued to do lip service about all those studies they’re supposed to have been conducting on brain concussions and injuries that most players sustain over their careers. But just like the calls for an open audit of their books, few people seem to have been privy to all of the the studies that they’re supposed to have collected. In the past, we’ve also pointed out that among other “studies”, the NFL apparently also has actuarial numbers on all of the players that were provided by a subsidiary of AON Corp. headquartered in Chicago. Some of the principals in AON Corp. also happened to be owners of the Chicago Bears – read some of those earlier posts by clicking HERE. You’ll be directed to a series of earlier posts on AON’s relationship to the NFL – including this one at the top – just keep scrolling down to the other posts below. Among other things, those actuarial numbers have been used to calculate just how much they hold back from you for your surviving spouse policy on your retirement benefits (And who has actually seen their paperwork for THAT policy? Isn’t all of that called a Conflict of Interest in any other business?).

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Here’s your personal invitation from Dr. Kristen Willeumier from the Amen Clinics to arrange an appointment to receive your free brain scan for their new study specifically focused on NFL football players’ concussions. NOTE: This study is completely independent of the NFL and the NFLPA.

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Jane Arnett, co-chair of the 2010 Independent Retired Players Summit, spent years as a corporate recruiter. Mary Moran’s exceptionally high salary $240,000-a-year as the Director of Human Resources at he NFLPA piqued her interest. Of course, it probably had nothing to do with being Congressman Jim Moran’s (D – Michigan) daughter.

After years in the executive search business, my immediate impression months ago of Mary Moran’s salary was that it was MUCH more than made sense. Just a quick Google search verified it. And remember… these salary averages are probably companies of several hundred of employees, companies with only a few dozen don’t usually have a dedicated HR manager, so a firm (union?!) of 100 employees would be near the bottom of the scale. When I heard what Mary was making I KNEW there was probably “funny business”. When we heard how Troy Vincent was undermined and how it came about, her salary became a VERY interesting commentary.

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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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NFLPA's Revolving Door

A Call for Transparency and Accountability continue reading »

4/17/2009
Subject: Madden not paying retired players while collecting over $100 million in royalties off the retired players’ backs – Did Madden scramble your identity to keep from paying you?

The retired NFL players who were used in Madden EA video games will be suing Madden and EA for using us in those games without compensating us. Madden’s agent Sandy Montag boasts he and Madden collected over $100,000,000 in royalties while paying the retired NFL players used in those games absolutely nothing. Madden knows that the ugly truthful litigation is coming and is probably factoring that into his retirement. I doubt he wants to answer all those fans who will be asking, “Why, John Madden? Why did you screw all those retired players over, you seemed like such a friendly, good-natured buffoon?”

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The University of Baltimore School of Law held their first Annual Sports Law Symposium today. This year’s conference was From Rookie to Retirement: The NFL Universe in the New Economy and you can read the agenda on their site HERE. Here’s a list of the speakers (the usual suspects) and their topics: continue reading »

It’s been all over the media this past week that the candidate list for NFLPA Executive Director  has been narrowed down to three choices: Troy Vincent, Trace Armstrong and DeMaurice Smith. Other than the fluffy short bios that nothing more than standard NFLPA Press Releases, what do the majority of the players really know about these finalists? So far, all most people really know about these three finalists is that Troy Vincent had managed to fall out of favor with Gene Upshaw by bringing up the idea of a succession plan to replace Upshaw. Then there was the recent drama of NFLPA Director of Human Resources Mary Moran calling her Daddy Congressman Jim Moran to “investigate” Vincent’s alleged communications with several other Congressmen about the convoluted process of selecting a new Executive Director. Apparently, a lot of well-paid Upshaw insiders are really worried about keeping their cushy jobs so the choice is going to be very important for them (but shouldn’t be any of their business). But other than the drama and internal office politics, there’s little else that seems to have been made public about the process and the candidates themselves.

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This just in: It’s now getting out that Congressman Jim Moran (D – Va) was the person responsible for outing Troy Vincent as the source that kicked off that recent Congressional inquiry into the Executive Director search process.

“According to Liz Mullen and Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal, Vincent spoke with at least two of the four Congressmen who sent a letter to former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

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