Eric Winston to Run for 2nd Term as NFLPA President: Comments and Reaction

Cincinnati Bengals offensive lineman Eric Winston will seek another term as president of the NFL Players Association.

"I really enjoyed helping the guys, and I think this is a position for me in which I can affect the most change now with the most guys possible," Winston said in an interview Monday with USA Today's Tom Pelissero.

"[Winston] has done a great job and I believe everyone else recognizes that as well," said linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, who played with the Oakland Raiders last year. "But our men will ultimately make that decision."

Winston recently displayed his desire to fight for his fellow players after he and the union went after the league for money owed under the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement. According the Wall Street Journal's Matthew Futterman, the players union discovered the NFL had inaccurately labeled funds that should've originally counted toward the league salary cap.

In an interview on PFT Live (via Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio), Winston explained why the incident was so important for the union:

"

The players have seen examples over and over and over now of [the NFL] skirting the rules, of them trying to go around something that was clearly intended, clearly written in a certain way. Whether it's in personal conduct, whether it's financial matters now. I mean those things ring very loudly to players and I field a lot of calls about this. I field calls from former players, from current players about this and they're upset. I mean, this is one of those things that go right to the core of our business is money and you can't take from somebody and expect not to be some hard feelings, expect to be upset. It hurts everything going forward and it’s unfortunate.

"

Winston can't take sole credit for finding the accounting error, but it certainly speaks to his willingness to hold the NFL accountable when the league oversteps its bounds.

Player representatives re-elected DeMaurice Smith as NFLPA executive director on a three-year term last March, and the NFLPA will convene in Kapalua, Hawaii, on Tuesday for this year's annual meeting. During the meeting, either Winston will be confirmed as president for a second term or the union will have a new election to determine a potential successor.