NFL counting on Vincent to get message across to players

ATLANTA -- As a rookie cornerback with the Miami Dolphins in 1992, Troy Vincent recalled that, from Day 1, he had iconic coach Dan Shula screaming at him from one side about how to become a productive player in the league, and veteran linebacker John Offerdahl whispering in his opposite ear about preparing for life after football.

Twenty years later, the NFL's vice president of player engagement -- a fancy title that Offerdahl apparently didn't really need to counsel younger teammates about planning for what Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll used to call "your life's work" -- the latter of the messages has taken root with Vincent.

Now his job, no small task involved here, is to pass it on to others players.

"It used to be, 'Tough it up. Get up. Suck it up.' That was the (mindset)," noted Vincent here on Tuesday as the NFL convened its annual one-day, spring meeting. "But those days are over."

And Vincent, 41, and nearly a half-dozen years removed from having played his last snap for the Washington Redskins, the final of four franchises for which he logged 207 games over 15 campaigns, may offer the NFL its best hope for hammering home that threshold point to the rank and file.

Beneath the business suit he wore to the Tuesday meeting, at which player safety was the overarching theme, Vincent bore the scars of having played the game. In addition to the various accolades he collected in tenures with Miami, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Washington -- 47 interceptions, five Pro Bowl appearances, a handful of honors for both his on- and off-field excellence -- Vincent has the physical remnants from three knee surgeries. And there are other reminders as well.

But what Vincent probably also possesses is a kind of legitimacy, and a unique insight as to the rationale and jargon and psyche of the NFL player, that commissioner Roger Goodell and his other lieutenants can't claim on their resumes.

The league, as outlined during a Tuesday news conference, presided over by a trio of officials that did not include the commissioner, has taken considerable measures in the wake of recent events, including the suicide of high-profile linebacker Junior Seau. But while vice president and lead counsel Jeff Pash could talk about league meetings with NIOSH, the National Institutes for Mental Health, and the Veterans Administration, and the Tuesday presence of former Surgeon General David Satcher to address the owners; and while competition committee chairman Rich McKay could stress the significance of making thigh and knee pads mandatory in 2013; it was Vincent who arguably toed the most cachet with players.

The truth of the matter is that, no matter what steps he adopts, Goodell doesn't have the trust of many of the players. There is a broad segment of the player population that feels the commissioner, who has presided over a difficult offseason, is simply a hollow suit who leans toward the owners in making decisions. That stance clearly is perpetuated by the NFLPA, which, in the words of Pash, continues its "inconclusive dickering" over virtually every element, and which has made a mockery out of the alleged "labor peace" forged in last summer's CBA accord. Goodell hasn't quite been demonized by the union, but neither has he been embraced. Many players hear his voice and simply tune him out. Or take to Twitter to ridicule him.

Nor have all of the initiatives he has undertaken to promote safety and wellness in the game been accepted.

On Tuesday, the league not-too-subtly suggested that, while it welcomed the imprimatur and cooperation of the NFLPA, which has been tardy in becoming partner to some of the changes, it would make them anyway. The league probably prefers not to have to legislate safety unilaterally, a slippery slope in every facet of the exercise, including legalities, but appears prepared to do so.

Score one, in this case, for the league.

Look, there is plenty of room for cynicism here, to be sure. As The Sports Xchange noted on Tuesday, altruism has never been the NFL's strongest suit. Confronted by more than 80 concussion lawsuits totaling over 2,000 players, the league has little choice but to react. It's certainly also fair to suggest expediency and survival as two of the primary components to the NFL's proposed sea-change.

Likewise, it should be noted that Vincent once worked the other side of the street, and that it might be convenient for him to take up the NFL's banner now because it's Goodell who is signing his paychecks. Once upon a time, Vincent was the president of the NFLPA and, after the death of Gene Upshaw, was one of several candidates who tried to become the union's executive director. There was a time, not too long ago, when Vincent ostensibly stood shoulder to shoulder with DeMaurice Smith and his army of misguided reactionaries.

Such notations are fair game and duly noted.

But two decades after Offerdahl advised Vincent that the first day of one's NFL career is hardly too soon to begin planning for the last game of a player's tenure in the league, he is echoing the message even stronger than it was passed on to him. Back in June 2007, in Chicago, we attended a league-sponsored concussion summit at which Goodell and other NFL officials espoused a culture change in the sport. The metamorphosis probably hasn't occurred as quickly as some would like, the lag-time has regrettably cost several lives and thousands of brain synapses, and the blueprint for change continues to be rewritten as everyone's consciousness is elevated.

Vincent spoke Tuesday about engaging players even earlier in their careers, educating them about the available programs during and after their time in the NFL, aiding in the transition to civilian life. He stressed that players must take ownership of their lives and career paths and futures. In what was probably sobering for even some of the grizzled media veterans attending the meeting, he used the term "the new normal" for the culture change that must ensue.

"It is," Vincent said, "our biggest challenge."

And Vincent might be the NFL's best hope for disseminating that message.