The Man Who (Relentlessly) Sued the NFL Has Receipts: A Sitdown with DeMaurice Smith

The Athletic

28 April 2026

Secret salary caps. Accidental email attachments. Truth-serum texts from owners. Slide decks for ESPN. If anyone knows how to dork-out on billionaires taking your money — and documenting their greed — it's the former NFL Players Association boss who negotiated $100 billion for athletes... and sued the sh*t out of The Shield. With his union now plagued by scandal — and America as unregulated as ever — De Smith enters the studio in Gladiator Mode. • Read "Turf Wars" by DeMaurice Smith Previously on PTFO: • Part I: The NFL's Secret Collusion Case, Revealed • Part II: We Sparked an NFL Union Crisis. Here's the Sequel. • Part III: We Followed the Money in the NFL Union Scandal. So Did the FBI. • Part IV: We Investigated the Hollywood Cover-Up the NFLPA Ignored  • Part V: The Silenced Top Cop and the Cabal of "Strip-Club Dreams" • Plus: The State of the (NFL) Union, with Mike Florio • The Sporting Class: Are NFL Players Ready to Strike? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.