VINCENT OUTED BY CONGRESSMAN WHOSE DAUGHTER WORKS FOR NFLPA

The mystery has been solved.
As we recently surmised, former NFLPA president Troy Vincent was a source (and, possibly, the only source) of the prodding that resulted in Congress expressing an interest in taking a look at the union’s ongoing search for a new Executive Director.
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.
Vincent was outed by Jim Moran (D-Va.), a member of the House of Representatives.
And Moran explored the matter at the behest of his daughter, Mary Moran, who serves as the NFLPA’s Director of Human Resources.
It’s widely believed that Vincent, due to his falling out last year with former NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw, would institute sweeping changes if Vincent gets the job. And since the position of Director of Human Resources occupies a fairly high spot on the totem pole, Mary Moran might have a strong interest in keeping Vincent out.
Even if her own job would be safe, Mary Moran has an opportunity to curry favor with the current leadership of the union if her father’s efforts will prevent Vincent from getting the job.
Indeed, we’ve recently reported that at least one member of the NFLPA Executive Committee has said that, if the person who sparked the Congressional probe also is a candidate for the Executive Director position, the candidate will be disqualified. We also reported that there was a school of thought that an effort would be made to pin the blame on Vincent.
Beyond merely outing Vincent, Jim Moran also has characterized Vincent as claiming that he was Upshaw’s hand-picked choice to succeed him. While that might have been true at some point in the past, it wasn’t true as of March 2008, when Vincent allegedly launched an attempt to oust Upshaw.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Moran is telling the truth about what Vincent said to Representative Gregory Meeks, and what Meeks then said to Moran.
Frankly, the timing of the disclosure by Moran is curious. It comes only one day after interim Executive Director Richard Berthelsen and NFLPA president Kevin Mawae met the media. If it had come a day earlier, Berthelsen and/or Mawae could have been asked questions regarding whether they commissioned Ms. Moran to use her ties to her father to expose Vincent as the culprit.
It’s our opinion based on the SBJ report that they did. And we think it’s the next step in a broader effort to keep Vincent from getting the job.