The NFL labor landscape was 15 minutes away from official implosion Friday when union leader DeMaurice Smith emerged from Federal Mediation Conciliation Service headquarters in Washington D.C. and addressed a swarm of reporters.

Standing on the corner of 21st and K Street, the NFL Players Association’s executive director made a brief, forceful statement that delivered one final dare to the league’s owners: Agree to open your books within the quarter hour, or prepare for a battle royale.

Given that Smith surely understood there was almost no chance of the owners accepting those terms, his pronouncement was quickly portrayed as a public relations move designed to cast the union as the side which made the last offer before talks broke down and decertification ensued. And while there may have been an element of truth in that thinking, most observers missed the point.

What Smith was really doing was flexing his and his membership’s collective might – and, after having felt disrespected and jerked around by owners throughout the bargaining process, making a statement to his adversaries that the players would no longer be pushed around.................

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