Vincent’s Quest for NFLPA Director Strongly Divided

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2009-03-08T03:17:00-04:00

Playerpress

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631 2114 Troy Vincent played for fifteen NFL seasons, and played in five Pro Bowls. However he may be in the toughest fight of his career in his quest to be the NFL Players Association’s next executive director    Vincent, 37, sharpened up his résumé during his fifteen years as a player and built relationships as the NFLPA player president for four years. He was known to be present at prayer meetings along with other NFLPA player officers while attending union events. He won the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2003 for his on the field achievements and his presence in community service. He was also named the Sporting News No. 1 “Good Guy” in pro sports that year as well.   Regardless of how many supporters Vincent has however, he has attracted critics, who have disapproved of his role in several recent squabbles in reference to the union and his overall history as a businessman. There are some working in the union office that speak against him that fear a house cleaning could possibly take place if he takes over at the head spot of the Union.   This has Vincent, who has been the potential successor to Upshaw for years, becoming a colossal image in a very disagreeable campaign.   Within a couple of weeks, thirty-two player representatives will elect an executive director in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:place></st1:state>. The decision will almost single handedly fixate on whether Vincent’s reputation has been unreasonably smeared, or if some of his erstwhile behavior gives forth a man who would be inappropriate for the position.   Trace Armstrong, who, like Vincent, is also an eight-year NFLPA player president, and DeMaurice Smith, a <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Washington</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">D.C.</st1:state></st1:place>, attorney with absolutely no NFL experience on his resume, are seen as Vincent’s main competition for the position.   For weeks now, the feeling in the industry is that Vincent has enough pledged votes to nail down the position. Despite the disputation concerning Vincent, it is believed that he already has 12 representatives locked up, and another 10 that have favorable inclinations to elect him.   Yet with the recent discovery of Vincent’s part in a data breach in 2007, that all may change for the worse.   While Vincent was player president in 2007, it has been asserted that he gained access to secure financial information concerning NFL player agents and passed that information on to his business partner. Vincent co-owns a financial service firm that has NFL players as clients. The NFLPA announced last week that they have hired legal counsel to investigate the alleged incident.   Although Vincent has said nothing to the media publicly, he is allowing his partners to do all the talking concerning this matter, as well as other questions concerning Vincent’s role in a congressional inquiry into the search process this past January.   He is also being questioned about his role in an alleged coup against Upshaw a year ago, along with his business dealings. Vincent supporters classify these as last minute attacks by established union officials who are scared that Vincent will bring the change that is desperately needed in the NFLPA.   The coup attempt last march in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:place></st1:state>, failed to unseat Upshaw from the Directors position. Two agents at rival firms said their clients, both player representatives, were solicited with a proposal to vote Upshaw out of office and vote Vincent in as his replacement.   After the meeting was concluded, Upshaw cut off all ties with Vincent, who was once seen as his undisputed hand picked successor. Upshaw told many friends that Vincent was behind the coup attempt against him before he died this past August.   The people that disagree with Vincent say that these allegations are facts, and not rumors concerning his personal business history. They claim that he lacks the judgment and business awareness to run the NFLPA, much less its $200 million annual budget. They also fear that he lacks the ability to lead the negotiations for a new labor deal, which over five to six years, could be worth $15 billion to $20 billion.   Since the 1990s, Vincent has created and has been affiliated with, and sat on the boards of numerous ventures. Some of those include an NHRA racing team, an overnight shipping company, a concierge service for athletes, a real estate development company and several financial, insurance and business services firms. Some of those companies have gone out of business and no longer exist, according to records. As private entities, their financial records were not made public, so it is very difficult to know the exact reason why they went out of business.   In 2003, Ganis Credit Corp. sued Vincent for his failure to pay back an $832,760.49 loan to his NHRA team, which they borrowed to buy a bus. The lawsuit alleged that he defaulted on the loan and Ganis repossessed the bus and resold it. Ganis has since gone out of business themselves.   Another company that Vincent began was the Stealth Real Estate business in 1998 and that firm dissolved in 2000, according to public records.   Another one of Vincent’s real estate ventures, Troy Vincent Development and Construction, seems to be in limbo and it is unsure if it is even still in business. That company is no longer listed on his most recent publicly available bios, and a voice mail machine answers the phone number for a completely different company called Friends Landscaping.   Vincent is also facing a civil lawsuit along with his wife for a spa that they own.   In that suit, a woman is suing Vincent, and his wife, along with their spa business, Essence LLC. The suit alleges that one of the company’s employees sexually assaulted her. The employee, who was recently arraigned on criminal charges related to the case, has a history of assaulting massage customers at various different spas in which he worked. The Vincent’s never even conducted a back round check to research his past criminal history prior to hiring him.   Vincent was also a partner with a former NFL agent in a Web site business called ProAthletesOnly.com. The agent, Scott Helfand is currently in jail for violating his probation in a case in which he pleaded guilty to stealing $150,000 from a former NFL defensive lineman, Oliver Gibson.   In December, Reilly Partners search firm, hired by the NFLPA to reduce the number of possible candidates, actually removed Vincent from consideration based on his qualifications for the job. Members of the NFLPA executive committee who objected added him back to the list of candidates.   Vincent’s supporters have remained strong. One saying, “You have to be a player to understand, but when one of your own is attacked, we rally around.”   After being questioned last week about the release of NFL agent’s financial information, Vincent, a devoutly religious man, answered with a text from his cell phone quoting the Old Testament in the Bible.   It was a very prolonged text, and one portion read, “O’ God, listen to my complaint. Do not let my enemies threats overwhelm me. Protect me from plots of the wicked, from the scheming of those who do evil.” 0.0.0.0

2009-03-08T03:17:00-04:00

vincents-quest-for-nflpa-director-strongly-divided

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Vincent’s Quest for NFLPA Director Strongly Divided

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Vincent’s Quest for NFLPA Director Strongly Divided

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