UPSHAW’S WIDOW CLAIMS VINCENT ISN’T THE “RIGHT CANDIDATE”

In her first interview since her husband, Gene, died after a brief bout with pancreatic cancer, Terri Upshaw tells Don Banks of SI.com that she isn’t endorsing any of the four candidates to become the next Executive Director of the NFLPA. That said, she’s also doing the opposite of endorsing one of them. “Without getting into endorsing a particular person, I can tell you how Gene felt about the quality of the individual who would someday succeed him,’' Terri Upshaw said. “I don’t know how he would feel if Troy were to replace him. But I know the direction he’d want this organization to go in, and I don’t know that Troy would be the right candidate for that.” She pointed specifically to a file she found in Gene Upshaw’s office, which sounds to us as if it contained the ammunition that he ultimately planned to use to block Vincent from becoming his successor. “I knew he had information [about Vincent], because I requested a while ago to be able to get into his office and collect his things,’' Terri Upshaw said. “I came across this file, and I turned it over to the NFLPA. He wasn’t home strategizing with me what his plan was, but I think he was talking with his confidants and his people about how to go about the whole process of how to address and take care of some of these issues. I know in the summer Gene was having discussions with some people about these matters. I knew what it was about, even though I wasn’t privy to the details. He wanted things to be fair and to be conducted the right way. Gene had a lot of close confidants and they know what he was going to do and what he wanted to do with that information.’' The thing that troubles us is that the file included evidence of the alleged disclosure of confidential agent information, a subject about which the agents affected by the conducted weren’t aware until recently. Shouldn’t Gene Upshaw have taken immediate steps to address the problem, rather than apparently tucking it into his back pocket for possible use against Vincent at a later date? As to the issue of a successor, Terri Upshaw had this to say -- again without “endorsing” any candidate. “I just know based on the time we spent together, and the confidence that Gene felt, he was closer with Trace [Armstrong],” she said. “I know Gene felt very strongly about him. He may be the candidate who was closest to Gene. He spent a lot more time working with [Gene] than Troy. Gene didn’t talk a lot about Troy. He just didn’t come up a lot.’' Our take? Terri Upshaw’s words will only make an already hopelessly polarized process even more polarized. And with Vincent and Armstrong, one-time teammates with the Dolphins, pitted sharply against each other, the door is now wide open for DeMaurice Smith or David Cornwell to take the thing.