By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 17, 2019 | You may know that there are discussions going on between the National Football League and its professional athletes about a new collective bargaining agreement. These are tough talks. The National Football League Players Association and the owners are now in negotiations before the current agreement is to expire, after the 2020 season.
But did you know that one guy in the room in the negotiations is a Gwinnett Countian? He’s Dewey McClain, the former Atlanta Falcon player, who played here from 1976 through 1980. He is one of two representatives of former players who are in on the talks.
McClain now lives in Lilburn, and he is also a Democratic member of the Georgia House of Representatives from the 100th District, centered in Lilburn. Since he announced for the House, starting in 2013, he has never had opposition, even in his first term. The genial McClain met his wife, Linda, when in high school back in Oklahoma. They have two daughters.
He is originally from Okmulgee, Okla., and his college career was at East Central State University, in Ada, Okla., where he graduated with a degree in history. Once out of college, he signed with the Falcons as a walk-on, and was a linebacker for five seasons. The Falcons traded him to Green Bay, where he never played. Later he played one year in New Orleans, and in the US Football League.
After his football days, McClain was for 23 years a member of the City of Atlanta Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department, and later was in Workforce Development.
McClain
He has served as a member of the National Former Players Association board for six years, the last two as chairman. He also has a three year term as a board member in 1998-2001. Priest Holmes, a former running back with Kansas City, also represents the former players. Only players actually vote on the agreement.
McClain, as a professional athlete, was a labor union member. He’s not your normal labor member. He became the president of the North Georgia Labor Council, representing 90,000 labor union members in the Atlanta area. That includes such union members as teamsters, steel workers, pipefitters, letter carriers, screen actors guild members, and even members of the Atlanta Symphony. That’s 65 different groups.
McClain recalls: “When I was on the board of the North Georgia Labor Council, they were looking for a replacement when the president abruptly resigned, and I was appointed to fill the balance of the two year term. Then I was elected to a four year term.” The former football player left the North Georgia Labor Council in February of 2019, then was named president emeritus.
McClain has another duty as a former football player. He is on the Players Adjusted Trust Fund Board, which is funded through fines levied on players. The board has a corpus of approximately $40 million, generating $3-4 million in grants each year. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
The negotiations between the NFL and its players is a complicated process. Normally, there are eight owners and staff in such talks, plus an equal number of player representatives. Both sides have their lawyers and accountants, so sometimes there are 25-30 people in the room. Hope was that an agreement could be reached before the start of the 2019 season. But it didn’t happen. Talks continue.
Next time you read about the NFL labor talks, remember that someone from Gwinnett, Dewey McClain, is listening to and contributing to these negotiations.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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