MEEKS SLAMS MORAN FOR TRYING TO INFLUENCE NFLPA PROCESS

The increasingly ugly battle regarding the NFLPA Executive Director search process continues.
On Friday, U.S. Representative Jim Moran said that former NFLPA president Troy Vincent had spoken with at least some of the four Congresspersons who wrote a letter last month to former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao expressing concerns regarding the procedure that the union has utilized to search for a successor to Gene Upshaw.
Suspicions immediately arose that Moran was attempting to help preserve the employment of his daughter, Mary Moran, who has a high-paying position as the union’s Director of Human Resources.
On Monday, one of the four Congresspersons who signed the letter accused Moran of doing just that.
Per the Associated Press, Gregory Meeks made the allegation during a Monday conference call with reporters.
“It seems clear to me that [Moran’s] intent is to do whatever he can to make sure that Mr. Vincent is not the executive director and that he has another candidate that he wants,” Meeks said. “It seems clear . . . that he decided to make this public specifically because he was biased.”
Meeks also said that Vincent did not instigate the Congressional inquiry.
Moran has claimed that he spoke publicly on the matter not to hurt Vincent’s candidacy, but to protect the legacy of Upshaw. That said, we still can’t quite figure out how outing Vincent as the person who potentially got Congress involved in ensuring that the union conducts a fair and appropriate search process has any connection to Upshaw’s legacy.
Moran again denied any nefarious intent on Monday, but apparently without mentioning the goal of protecting Upshaw’s legacy.
“My daughter was doing what her boss asked her to do, and I was doing what my daughter had asked me to do,” Moran said. “I wasn’t trying to manipulate what was being said or whatever. And I’m sorry that it has blown up as it has.
“My daughter can work any place she wants,” Moran added. “She’s incredibly talented.”
Sorry, Mr. Moran. But in this economy, H.R. jobs paying in the vicinity of $200,000 per year (according to the May 2008 LM-2 filed by the NFLPA) aren’t readily available. Such jobs are even harder to find if the candidate doesn’t have a college degree. (In making that observation, we’re not stating that Ms. Moran doesn’t have a college degree.)
Regardless, Meeks is now concerned that something is up, and he said that he plans to revisit the matter with the other three U.S. Representatives who signed the letter with him.
“It may cause me to talk to Mr. Towns, Mr. Rush and Mr. Butterfield to say that we need to re-engage, because maybe something is going on that I don’t know about,” Meeks said. “It seems to me at this point that there are internal people who have concerns about who is elected and who’s not elected to be the head of the players association.”
While this soap opera makes for great content, we think that it’s in the best interests of the union (and thus the players they represent) to get this mess under control. Now.