If DeMaurice Smith wants to keep his position as the executive director of the NFLPA, he'll have to win an election against seven other candidates.
The president of the NFL Players Association, Eric Winston, released a statement Thursday night saying the deadline to apply for the position had passed and listed the seven candidates who will challenge Smith.
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Statement on nominees: pic.twitter.com/eLDdOiekxP
— Eric Winston (@ericwinston) March 6, 2015Attorneys Jim Acho, Andrew Smith and Art McAfee, agent Rob London, and former players Sean Gilbert, Robert Griffith and John Stufflebeem will look to unseat Smith, a lawyer who has been the director since 2009. Since the NFL lockout in 2011, players like Gilbert have been critical of Smith for allowing the owners to collude and transfer billions of dollars away from the players.
Stufflebeem earned the nickname "Boomer" while a punter at the Naval Academy and is a retired two-star admiral.
Smith is confident he can retain his position because he has "personally out-litigated" the NFL's huge law firms.
"I have taken on and DEFEATED big businesses," he wrote in his platform submitted to the NFLPA.