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When pro football players formed a union to stand up against the NFL for their own interests, they chose lawyer Ed Garvey as their Executive Director. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) , would take on the NFL over player contracts, collective bargaining agreements, and antitrust suits. It lobbied for players' free agency, contract rights, and impartial arbitration of disciplinary disputes. Garvey navigated strikes, lockouts, scabs, stooges, lies, as well as the sports media complex - to maintain players' dignity. According to the league, the players were to take what they were given and "never ask why." In Never Ask "Why," journalist Chuck Cascio presents the late Garvey's rich account of the early years of the NFLPA, taking readers among the players as they held the league accountable to play fair.