NFL players are readying for a different kind of battle
ATLANTA - There is a rhythm to Super Bowl week and the hype building up to the game with some things that haven't changed for decades.
Over the first 15 years of Super Bowls, the NFL Players Association wasn't well-known and really didn't offer much of a presence during Super Bowl week.
But after the league's 56-day work stoppage in 1982, labor strife became the norm in the NFL, and almost ever since the NFLPA has held its annual press conference every Thursday before the big game.
For two or three years leading up to the 1987 work stoppage and 2011 player lockout, those press conferences were used to try and curry fan favor and convince the media that the NFL owners are Goliath, the players David - and that David wasn't getting a fair shake.
Most years the metaphor has been true, or at least fair.
A problem, however, has been that NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith can be a hard guy to like.
It's not his naturally combative nature or know-it-all demeanor - those come with almost every major labor leader.
But Smith often comes across as one of the world's greatest egos and often far more proud of himself than he has any right to be.
So imagine my surprise today when Smith was mostly pleasant.
Whether it was a result of a new strategy, he is a changed man or it was just an off day, Smith was warm and far more interested in informing us than picking a fight.
Much of the heavy lifting was left to NFLPA president Eric Winston, who is extremely bright and well spoken, and a long-time union veteran of both the 2006 and 2011 CBAs.
The bottom line is that while they will still argue the point, the two men got crushed in their last dance with the bosses that resulted in the current CBA and it seems they are going to take a different approach this time around.
One thing they don't expect to change is they made it quite clear they believe the owners will again lock the players out following the 2020 season when the current deal expires, and this time around they are preparing their membership for the lockout, not the fight that could lead up to it.
Winston says the main focus of the union right now is to prepare players financially for what's ahead with a heavy focus on saving as much money as possible, in part because it's just a smart thing to do and moreso because they can stay united and not begin to cave should a lockout linger on.
The biggest beat the players took the last time around: After keeping 51 percent of total football revenue from the 2006 deal, the players' share has fallen as low as 47 percent in the current deal.
Sure, total revenues have grown, but the players still believe they pay the highest price to earn that money and should keep the lion's share.
Winston and Smith said they also hope to do a lot more for retired players in terms of pension and health benefits if at all possible, and pointed out they're worried about all 25,000 of them.
Winston took extreme exception to the "gains" the players got in their last deal allowing less practice and non-game contact have hurt the product in any way, and he made it clear the addition of one or two regular season games is not something the union favors.
Smith said he'd love all his members to have guaranteed contracts but acknowledged that's unlikely to happen.
Perhaps most interesting in the conversation was the idea of allowing the use of marijuana for pain management and how important it is to the players to remove it from the banned substance list.
The union is adamant it is interested if it can be proven pot is a better option for pain management and will help players avoid the use of opioids, but the players have no interested in having it allowed just for recreational purposes.
There is a real battle coming and it's now just two years down the road. On Thursday, the NFLPA sounded like a group that may be learning from some past mistakes.
• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.