In the summer of 2009, the NFL was bracing for war. The owners had walked away from a collective bargaining deal they had signed just two years earlier, demanding pay cuts, slashed pensions, and two extra games for free. They had stockpiled a $4 billion lockout fund and were ready to shut the game down for a year if that is what it took.

On the other side stood a union reeling from the sudden death of its legendary leader, Gene Upshaw. Into that void stepped an “outsider”—a trial lawyer from Washington, D.C., named DeMaurice Smith—whom ESPN called the man with “the toughest job in sports.” The players had less than $300 million, a string of failed strikes behind them, and the very real prospect of being steamrolled. On top of everything, the players desperately needed to end the owners’ u

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