The Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA) recently announced that long-time National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) General Counsel Richard Berthelsen has been selected as the 2024 recipient of its Curt Leichner Distinguished Member Award.  While some might question why a long-time football union executive would win a prestigious hockey award, Berthelsen’s contributions to the PHPA and its Members over the past 30 years are in fact far reaching and can still be felt to this day. 

Berthelsen was raised in Racine, Wisconsin and came from a hardworking middle-class family upbringing.  His Father worked at a tool and dye factory and would later become an officer with the local Machinist Union.  In his youth, Berthelsen played sports including baseball and basketball.  He went on to play basketball at the University of Wisconsin as a non-scholarship freshman.  After graduating in 1966 he entered Wisconsin Law School and received his law degree in 1969.

While in law school, two of his Wisconsin friends and classmates were playing in the National Football League and attending law school in the offseason.  Ed Garvey, another law school classmate went to work for a Minnesota based law firm which was asked to represent the NFL Players Association.  After representing the players through their CBA negotiation in 1970 and 1971, Garvey became the NFLPA Executive Director and hired Berthelsen on May 15, 1972 as the NFLPA’s first in-house counsel.  Berthelsen worked as a lawyer for the NFLPA for the next 40 years, becoming General Counsel in 1983 and Interim Executive Director after Executive Director, Gene Upshaw, who succeeded Garvey, in 1983, passed away.

Among the many accomplishments Berthelsen is most proud of during those 40 years came in 1993 when the NFLPA reached a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL.  The NFLPA achieved its two primary goals of free agency and guaranteed contracts during those negotiations.  As General Counsel, Berthelsen was a valued member of the NFLPA Negotiating Committee and helped draft the provisions in the new CBA. “I could always believe in my job because we continually pursued basic rights that the players had been denied for so long, including free agency and a fair share of league and club revenues.”

Berthelsen always enjoyed working on behalf of the players while leveraging his legal expertise.  “It was fun to do a job that other people seemed to be interested in.  I represented many interesting players in individual disputes and grievances with Clubs and have remained friends with many of them to this day.  I got to know them as people, not just pro athletes, and that made the job even better.  It was also fun to be part of an organization that was willing to lend a hand to players in other sports.  I was usually the one tasked to extend help and lend our experience to other player associations, and that was one of the most satisfying aspects of my job.”

One area where the NFLPA helped other player associations, including the PHPA, involved workers’ compensation. “I had taken a course in law school which focused on workers’ compensation,” explained Berthelsen. “Later, during my first negotiations with the NFL in 1974, one of our main demands was to make all player contracts guaranteed and to make clubs provide lifetime medical care for player injuries.  At the time, the standard NFL contracts only provided players with medical care during the term of the contract. If a player was cut or got injured, he could only collect the balance of his salary for the rest of that season. After that he was on his own.

“While we made some inroads on guarantees, the owners maintained that players already had lifetime medical care through their state workers’ compensation laws.  While that wasn’t true in all cases, we decided to take advantage of workers’ comp coverage where it was available.  We encouraged players to file, and we also formed a panel of attorneys in the various team cities to represent them and make sure they got their full benefits.  A panel attorney’s job was to collaborate with us and the other panel attorneys to help determine where to file, and then get the best benefits possible for the player.  We also required the panel attorneys to charge the lowest possible fee for their services, to keep us informed of developments, and to attend an annual meeting with us and other panel members where we shared best practices.  The result over the years has been tens of millions of dollars going into players’ pockets, and in most cases, medical care for life.”

When Larry Landon became Executive Director of the PHPA in 1993, he was introduced to Bert Villarini, the NFLPA’s Panel Attorney in New York State, through PHPA General Counsel Ron Jaros whose law practice was also based in New York State.  Villarini was familiar with the PHPA and offered to help Landon with the PHPA’s workers’ compensation process.  He introduced Landon to Berthelsen who then invited him to attend the next NFLPA Workers’ Compensation Panel of Attorneys meeting.

Landon then began to establish a workers’ compensation panel for the PHPA.  In states where both the PHPA and NFLPA had teams, the same panel member was used.  Landon then invited panel members to attend the PHPA Annual Meeting of Player Representatives, established a culture, and has since developed a panel that now consists of over 42 attorneys in 35 states.  Landon has been invited to speak at the NFLPA Workers’ Compensation Panel meetings each year since then.

Speaking of Landon and the PHPA, Berthelsen stated: “I have to say, I’ve never seen a group make such great progress with so few resources in such a small amount of time.  Larry put together a Workers’ Compensation Panel and got it up and running quickly.  I was glad to see that happen.  Forming our respective panels was a great thing for the players.  The MLBPA has since formed a panel, the NHLPA uses the same attorneys as well.  What started out as a pilot project for just NFL players has now become something that benefits all professional athletes. It’s very cool to see how things have evolved”

Berthelsen has supported the PHPA by hosting a workers compensation session at its Annual Meeting of Player Representatives to help educate players about the importance of workers’ compensation. 

“What amazes me each time I speak at the PHPA meetings is that the players are always such an attentive group, very business-like, and very receptive.  I have seen a lot of the same faces from year to year, but these guys still pay attention, take notes, and ask great questions.  So even though we give a similar presentation each year, I always enjoy coming back because you can tell they care about their teammates and they take to heart what we tell them.”

Berthelsen and the NFLPA have supported the PHPA and its Members in other areas as well, such as the time in 2006 when the PHPA leveraged the NFLPA’s financial support to reach a settlement with the NHL over a maximum salary they tried to impose on minor league players with two-way contracts. The PHPA threatened to sue with the NFLPA’s backing, and the NHL owners backed down when they realized the PHPA wasn’t in the fight alone.

In 2008, following the sudden passing of NFLPA Executive Director, Gene Upshaw, Berthelsen was named Interim Executive Director and was tasked with helping to guide the NFLPA through a time of transition.

“Gene’s death came as a real shock.  He was a dear friend and kept the extent of his illness close to his vest.  He supported the PHPA personally and always asked me how “the hockey guys” were doing.  My biggest job was overseeing the selection process for the new NFLPA Executive Director which ended with the appointment of Washington lawyer DeMaurice Smith in the spring of 2009.”

Smith asked Berthelsen to stay on with the NFLPA and return to his role as General Counsel where he helped the NFLPA through another CBA negotiation in 2011.  He retired on May 15, 2012, exactly 40 years after his first day on the job in 1972.

Since retiring Berthelsen has continued to work as Senior Legal Consultant for the NFLPA, and has also written a (yet to be published) History of the NFLPA and another book about his experiences as a sports lawyer. He is also doing work as an arbitrator, including some sports cases.

Given the support he has provided toward the PHPA for over 30 years, it was only fitting that the PHPA Executive Committee bestow the honor of the Curt Leichner Distinguished Member Award to Berthelsen.  “This really means a lot to me. I always enjoyed my job, believed I was helping to advance a worthy cause, and probably got more out of it than anyone I represented. It was a great ride.”

Berthelsen will be formally presented with the Distinguished Member Award at the 2024 PHPA Annual Meeting of Player Representatives this June in Orlando, Florida, where he will address attendees during the Closing Banquet ceremony. 

After a storied career spanning over 40 years, he hopes to impart some wisdom during his acceptance speech. 

“Throughout my career, I’ve realized that no one can bat a thousand.  We made our share of mistakes as we battled with the NFL in the early years.  But the key was learning from those mistakes and managing to have a career that outlasted them.”