Q: How have your discussions with players across the league been as you meet with players during the offseason and how do you see things as they currently sit with regard to the CBA and the possibilities of a lockout?

Smith: Well, first of all the travel to the teams has been fantastic. Guys are excited, certainly there's probably two equal issues that we address when we go out.

First, and foremost, they probably want to see me and learn a little about Maui, and the vision for the PA [Players Association] as we go forward. The other half is they have an acute understanding for where they are as businessmen and as players. And the process, they understand the ramifications of the uncapped year. All of them, I think, are acutely concerned about the possibility of a lockout on the horizon, and the way in which it appears to them that the league is moving in that direction.

And that has been the basic tenor of the discussions now that we're over halfway through these team meetings. It has been good because the guys are excited and interested because I do think they have a very critical understanding or awareness about how they fit into this process. So it has been good to talk to them about that.

Q: This might be too general. What is your vision for the NFLPA.

Smith: It is too general. Look. I represent the players of the National Football League. So I don't need any more of a vision than that. We are on more of a micro-level. Once you drill down to other issues that start from that general vision. Is there a retired player component that's significant? Absolutely. Is there a lockout-component that's significant? Absolutely. Is there a CBA negotiation part of that, is that significant? Without a doubt. Is there an extended health-safety concerns? Absolutely. Is there even a significant component to this of where they are as men who come to work and fight for a job so that they can provide for their families? Absolutely.

I've said it before. I'm not really an issue by issue by issue guy. I wasn't that way going into Maui. There wasn't one issue that I thought that this was about. I know that the vision of this union has to be about the players that it represents. It begins there. It ends there.

Q: This might be getting too specific, in terms of a rookie salary cap, it's something that the NBA has. What are your thoughts on that?

Smith: Well, I start with the facts. It's usually where I choose to start. I think it's very important to begin in a right way because that's the only insurance that you end up. The beginning part of the facts. First, less than 4 percent of the salary is devoted to rookies so 96 percent of that salary-cap amount goes to vets. And I know that that fact isn't one that is always mentioned when the fans read about the salary-cap issue, but the starting point is that less than 4 percent of the cap money goes to vets and it's been that way so there is a salary-cap as it relates to rookies. Second, virtually no team has ever -- over the last four or five years -- virtually no team has ever spent its full cap amount on veterans. Third fact, none of our players sign the front of their checks. None of our players pick those people in the drafts and none of our players set the amount for what they are paid, and lastly, none of our players decide that the term of that contract. So when I start off with those five basic facts about the rookie wage scale, well all of those are true, and the take-away from that is, on the rookie wage scale, we can disagree whether it makes sense that somebody is paid that much money, but the five things that we can never disagree about is none of our players pick any of these players and none of them decide how much they're going to be paid. So if the owners don't want to pay a person that much money, don't.

The one side of the argument I've heard -- even from people who support it and people who don't -- is that, well, if we saved money on paying rookies, somehow that money would end up going to veterans. Well, I haven't heard the league offer as part of the rookie wage scale that they would sign a guarantee that all of the money saved on the rookie wage scale or all of the full-fund cap money would be spent every year on veterans. I haven't heard that as a component of any rookie wage scale conversation. So where I come from on the rookie wage scale issue is the only people who select and pay and agree to the terms of that contract or dictate the terms of that contract are the owners.

Q: Looking at it from the players within the league ...

Smith: That is the look from the players. What I just told you. I mean look, when we were in there today, you can either talk about an issue or you can decide to talk about an issue where you start with facts and then you talk about the issue. Even today, when we talked about those facts, that's where the players are. They understand that in the draft rooms or in the war rooms, they're never there. So with respect to that issue, I think it's one way to talk about the issue if there was a guarantee on the other side that every amount saved on rookie salaries would go to a veteran. That's one way of talking about an issue. But as the players pointed out to me, nobody from management has said that that's part of the discussion.

Q: How much of the discussion is typical saber-rattling in anticipation of a discussion over a collective-bargaining agreement, how much is business as usual, what it takes to get a labor contract done in today's environment?

Smith: Ask them. I haven't seen the television contracts. I've read the reports about it guaranteeing money even in the event that games are not played. I haven't seen their financial statements. I don't know what the average profit is per team. I don't know what the average profit is per game. I don't know what the average profit is per playoff game. So it's a little tough to answer the question of how much of it is saber rattling. I don't ask our men to guess about what goes on as far as the business of football. What we do talk about is we talk about the things that we know, and we talk about how to prepare for any scenario. So I've never had a job where someone paid me to guess, and I would never ask the people who put it on the line each and every day who play a sport where there is a 100 percent injury rate. I would never ask a group of guys who will one day be former players in this game to guess about what they should do. They have a very acute understanding of the cost of football. And they also understand that it is a great sport, also a great business. It provides them a wonderful opportunity to provide for their families, but these are people who know that at the end of the season, there's days when they can barely stand up straight ... I don't ask our guys to guess. What I do ask them and engage them in is a frank discussion about how great of a game it is, but also how phenomenal of a business it has been.

Q: From your perspective, has the current CBA worked well for the players? Would you say that you're satisfied with the way that it is working?

Smith: If you look at the CBA it's about an inch and a half thick that's double sided with print so small that you can barely see it. Are there things in the CBA that I think have worked extremely well? Absolutely. Are there things that need to be addressed to be changed? Absolutely. I think that the league is doing a tremendous job, the players have done a tremendous job, on health and safety issues. I was thrilled to have our medical director be at the bargaining table for the first round of CBA negotiations because the NFLPA's medical director had never been at the bargaining table for the CBA before. Well, I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV, but it does seem to me that you can do a better job when the right people are at the table asking the right questions and hopefully getting the right answers. And any time we can do that, I do think that we end up with a better agreement for both the players and management.