enjoy living day

First, as a former very unsuccessful professional tennis player, I have to pay homage to Roger Federer. Federer is brilliant in all phases of the game and has an elegance and grace that few in any sport possess. Like one of my heroes, Arthur Ashe, Federer exudes the highest classification of cool by his unassuming and modest excellence. Now, having conquered Paris and the French Open, he takes his place at the head table of greatest tennis players of all time. With he and Rafa Nadal ruling the sport, we are right smack in the sport's golden age. There are few athletes in any sport who truly make one stop and stare - Tiger and Kobe, two other winners Sunday, are among a handful of others. As Carly Simon sings, "These are the good old days."

On to Monday Money Matters..

A new era has begun in diplomatic relations between NFL players past and present. After a court judgment in the fall of $28M against the NFL Players Association for the withholding of potential licensing revenue from retired players, the NFLPA appealed and launched into the usual rhetoric about the opinion of the court being in error and the decision changing on appeal, etc. The verdict, as I said during the case, was predictable, as a jury weighed the merits of rewarding a union representing hearty, healthy and wealthy active players against rewarding retired older players with assorted physical and mental ailments and far, far less income from their playing days than the current players.

In the time from the verdict until now, a little change happened along the way. In what is still resonating as a major surprise, NFL player reps selected an unknown commodity in DeMaurice Smith to lead their union and replace the late Gene Upshaw. And Smith made it a priority to reach out to retired players, a group that Upshaw claimed he did not represent. When Smith reached out during a recent speaking engagement in San Francisco, players were pleased but skeptical. Now he has put his money where his mouth is.The NFLPA resolved the $28M award with a reported settlement of over $26M. The relative lack of discount on the settlement shows a couple things: (1) that despite the posturing at the time of the award, there was not a strong feeling about the merits of appeal and (2) that this money will be well-spent to win the hearts and minds of a constituency that Smith feels is important to his future leadership of the union.