Jonathan Vilma's Suit, NFLPA's Grievance Aim to Get NFL's Cards on the Table

Under former executive director Gene Upshaw, the National Football League Players Association and its members enjoyed years of labor peace and a healthy relationship with the league office and then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. 

Things have completely changed under current NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. 

Following the NFLPA's grievance filed against the league in regards to the punishments brought down by current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for four players involved in what is commonly referred to as "Bountygate" comes news that Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma, suspended for the entire 2012 season by the NFL, has filed a lawsuit against Roger Goodell, suing the NFL commissioner for defamation.

While Vilma's lawyer contends the lawsuit is independent of the union, you can bet Smith and the NFLPA were consulted. 

This is where things stand between Goodell and his players and that relationship is fed by the distrust Smith clearly has of both the league and its commissioner. It's hard to imagine a player suing Tagilabue under Upshaw's watch. Upshaw and Tagilabue had their disagreements, but they almost always dealt with them privately, cutting deals far away from the light of day that managed to please both sides.

Goodell shared a similar relationship with Upshaw, but everything changed when Upshaw passed away from pancreatic cancer in August 2008, leading to the election of the relatively unknown Smith. 

The fact is that Smith, a former trial lawyer, has turned the union sharply away from the trusting relationship the players association used to enjoy with the league. Indeed, Smith admitted to Peter King recently that he feels the two are destined to always be at odds. 

The NFL insists it has the evidence necessary to prove Vilma's involvement in the Saints' bounty program but has, as of yet, made precious little of it public. Obviously some of this is due to its need to keep the identity of any whistle-blower confidential, but the longer it doesn't produce something for the press and the public in general, the more Smith and the union will use every legal tactic at their disposal to pressure the league into doing so. 

One can't help but thinking that if Upshaw were still with us, this would have been handled, quietly, months ago.