DeMaurice Smith
#NFL
NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith has spent the last month and a half jetting across the country speaking to union members in all 32 NFL cities. On Sunday Smith was in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida to address the 256 drafted rookies at the Rookie Symposium. As Vic Carucci of NFL.com reports, Smith took his opportunity in front of the future NFL stars to remind them of the past and encourage them to be the leaders of the future. According to Carucci, Smith handed out trading cards of former players and urged the rookies to read the biographical information that included flaws (“they’re not all perfect, because you’re not perfect”) as well as successes. He reminded them that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the AFL and remember those who paved the way for the popularity of today’s players.
“The fundamental truth of progress is that we only surpass history when we embrace it,” Smith said. “Mature thought is a thought where we now understand not only what we do and who we are, but where we are and where we exist in the world.”
“If you let people define you as just a player, I guarantee you one thing: You will lose. So who are you? You’re fathers, you’re sons, you’re brothers, you’re husbands. Hamlet talked about that famous question: What is it to be? If you remember any part of that soliloquy, the answer to his question was the question itself. It was an understanding of who he was in relation to the world in which he lived. He was a brother, he was father, he was husband, he was a son. That’s who you are.”
“There are a number of things that we tend to mix it up about,” Smith said. “But when it comes time to be concerned about the men of the National Football League, I know that both myself and (Commissioner) Roger Goodell share the same feeling that we care about one thing: The health, the safety, the welfare of the men who play this sport.”
