History of the Nflpa

The Beginning

The National Football League Players Association union got its start in 1956. Initially the reason for the union’s birth was a range of demands of players from two of the league’s teams; the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns. Players from both teams organized and demanded that clubs provide amenities such as a minimum league-wide salary, per diem pay, uniforms and equipment provided and maintained by the clubs, and a continuous payment of salary if injured and unable to play. Eventually most players gave authorization for the union to negotiate on their behalf. This group was scarcely successful at first however, receiving no real face time or response from their proposals to the owners association.

Eventually, former Notre Dame football player and attorney Creighton Miller was convinced to represent the union. Along with help from other owners Don Shula in Baltimore, Frank Gifford in New York, and Norm Van Brocklin in Los Angeles, the group decided to gain the owners’ attention by threatening them with an antitrust lawsuit. Rather than face a huge lawsuit, the owners granted most of the players' demands (including minimal insurance and pension plans and a basic salary for stars and rank-and-file players alike), but did not enter into a collective bargaining agreement with the association or formally recognize it as their exclusive bargaining representative. Over the next years players used lawsuit threats to gain some leverage over the owners, getting more benefits such as a pension plan and health insurance.

By this point in time the NFL had a cold relationship with its counterpart AFL players. The NFLPA had attempted to block the merger of the two leagues in 1966, believing that the existence of a rival league gave individual players more bargaining power. The union was now divided over whether it should act as a professional association or a union. Against the wishes of NFLPA presidents Pete Retzlaff and later Bernie Parrish, Miller refused to engage in collective bargaining (which would have permitted the association to challenge the college draft and the option clause), and instead ran the union as a grievance committee. On January