DeMaurice Smith Re-Elected as NFLPA Executive Director: Latest Details, Reaction

The NFL Players Association officially announced that DeMaurice Smith won re-election for his current executive director position Sunday night.

According to the NFL Network's Albert Breer, Smith won on the first ballot, which is a bit of a surprise considering he faced eight challengers. Breer thinks that is positive news for Smith:

USA Today's Tom Pelissero added that the incumbent director was the heavy favorite going in, with Jason Belser his stiffest competition:

After the number of candidates for executive director was announced a few weeks ago, many initially wondered whether Smith's job was in jeopardy. Over time, though, the focus shifted to the questionable credentials of many of the eight other candidates.

Nancy Armour of USA Today wrote that "most have no business running for student council, let alone a job that will help determine where the NFL's billions go and what kind of shape players' brains and bodies will be in when they're done playing."

It became rather clear that Smith wasn't ever in any serious danger.

However, the NFLPA has looked a bit fractured during this election. Sports Illustrated's Don Banks argued that the number of challengers illustrated that some players are starting to question Smith's leadership:

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A field that large has made handicapping the race somewhat difficult, but the consensus among players union sources I spoke with this week is that Smith’s job status could well be on shaky ground, although he still must be considered the favorite to prevail in a process where a simple majority of the 32 team player rep votes are needed to win election.

Clearly though the level of dissatisfaction with Smith’s job performance is substantial, given eight men have stepped forward to run against him, an unprecedented number and eight more than he had deal with in the union’s last executive director election in 2012, when he was unopposed.

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Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio noted that 2018's executive director election will be extremely important, as the labor deal between the league and the NFLPA expires after the 2020 campaign.

"If the contract is going to be extended before a possible work stoppage in 2021, the person running the union from in the three years commencing in March 2018 will have a strong influence over the negotiations," Florio wrote.

Vice Sport's Patrick Hruby wrote a withering critique of Smith and his handling of the last collective bargaining agreement. That CBA is widely perceived to be a massive win for the owners.

Between that and the union's growing discontent with Smith, it's clear he has a big job over the next few years to prove he is the man to lead the NFLPA into the next round of CBA negotiations.