The NFL Players Association is seeking a new executive director. The process of finding one officially began last month.
The position has been posted, with a full description of the job. (Thanks to Pablo Torre for alerting us to the development.)
“The greatest athletes on Earth seek a champion,” the posting begins, “a true leader to understand us, galvanize us, fight for us. Are you smart enough, strategic enough; tenacious enough; inspiring enough to champion 2,500 world class athletes?”
The Schrutian list of adjectives for the position goes like this: “Accountable. Devoted. Decisive. Driven. Responsible. Reliable. Respected. Relentless. Trustworthy. Transparent. Selfless. Self-Aware. Smart. Strategic. Tenacious. Persistent. Presence. Gravitas. Charisma. Grinder. Works as hard as we do.”
The biggest question is the timing for hiring an executive director. Will it happen before, or after, elections in March for new NFLPA president, new player representatives, and new Executive Committee members?
Some believe an effort will be made to make it happen under the current regime, with a suspicion that the goal will be to remove the “interim” from David White’s current title.
TurnkeyZRG is the outside search firm, not Russell Reynolds (the firm that teed up Lloyd Howell and White as the final two). The early indications are that the process will be as secretive as it was the last time around, with no one knowing who the candidates or finalists are. And with no transparency or scrutiny as to whether one candidate is more deserving than another.
The timing is the key. Will they make a hire before the dust has settled on a new president? On new Executive Committee members? On new player representatives?
It makes far more sense to wait until the looming vacancies in leadership has been filled. As best we can tell, there’s nothing to prevent an expedited process that concludes before the next set of union elections happens.