Official Announcement of Union Search Likely to Come Later This Week

Look for the NFL Players Association to make its official announcement later this week about launching its search for an executive director.

We reported in a story in the print edition of the paper early last week that members of the union's ruling 10-member executive committee would speak via conference call to discuss plans to launch the search for a replacement for the late Gene Upshaw. That story reported that the committee would form a search committee from within its ranks and hire an outside search firm, hoping to conclude the search in time to elect a new executive director at the union's annual meetings next March. Richard Berthelsen, the union's interim executive director, said in a telephone interview for that story that the conference call would take place within a few days. He also said he'd told players that he was committed to remaining with the union in some capacity through the current labor negotiations with the NFL's team owners.

Later in the week, we reported online that the conference call had been put off until the weekend and the executive committee still planned to launch the search but likely would withhold a public announcement until after Tuesday morning's memorial service for Upshaw in Washington.

That appears to be exactly what has happened. Union officials are declining to comment for now, but people familiar with the deliberations say the conference call took place Saturday night and the search committee was chosen. It apparently consists of five of the 10 members of the executive committee plus Berthelsen and Kevin Mawae, the Tennessee Titans center who is the union's president, as non-voting members. The search committee first task will be to hire an outside search firm.

The memorial service for Upshaw is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center.

By Mark Maske |  September 1, 2008; 10:41 AM ET  | Category:  Union , Upshaw
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