Politics, Football, and Political Footballs

Joe Briggs, NFL Players Association Public Policy Counsel and Manager of Government Relations, speaks in Little Rock at the Clinton School of Public Service.

Briggs is the Public Policy Counsel and the first person to lead Government Relations for the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). He is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  He will engage in a conversation about the entanglements of policy and pro sports that describes how the country and pro sports have shaped each other.

From a feature on Briggs here:

What is one thing you are able to do as a result of working for the NFLPA that you could not do if you were working somewhere else?
I have been able to successfully help professional athletes connect with elected officials, and I don’t know if would be able to do that somewhere else because I wouldn’t have the credibility of the NFL Players Association.  It’s been a really interesting experience.  For example, just this week, Santonio Holmes was in the office.  He cares a great deal about Sickle Cell Disease.  The leader of one of the congressional caucuses on Sickle Cell is Rep. Danny K. Davis from Chicago, Ill.  Well, I reached out to his Chief of Staff, and I was able to get a meeting with him while Santonio was in D.C.

What’s been your most memorable moment working at the NFLPA?
The day we entered into the lockout.  If you remember, no one knew what was going to happen.  Decertify?  Not decertify?  Are we going to be here for a long time or is this going to end quickly?  We were stepping into the great unknown and everyone was ‘white knuckles’ and holding on like we were jumping out of a plane together.  That was a pretty memorable moment.

Also memorable was seeing the brilliance of the staff at the NFL Players Association in educating the public and correction misconceptions about what the lockout actually was.  If you remember, prior to this last cycle, if there was a work stoppage in a sport people didn’t call it a ‘lockout,’ they called it a ‘strike,’ no matter the facts of the dispute.  I just don’t think people understand the sheer brilliance in changing the mindset of an entire living and breathing public that for years referred to a work stoppage as a ‘strike.’
When:  Monday, October 20, 2014 at 6:00 p.m.
Where:  Clinton School of Public Service, Sturgis Hall

*Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501) 683-5239.