60 Heroes: One Team Strike, One Strong Leader

As a player at Stanford, Randy Vataha’s name was synonymous with quarterback Jim Plunkett as the two connected often on touchdown passes. Though the two were reunited in the NFL after Vataha, a draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams, signed as a free agent with the New England Patriots in 1971, Vataha soon made a name for himself as an active leader for the NFLPA.

The wide receiver was instrumental during both the 1974 league-wide strike and the single-team strike by the Patriots the following year, when he served as the Player Rep. The strike, which was not orchestrated by the NFLPA headquarters and led to the cancellation of the team’s final preseason game, was in protest of the owners’ failure to bargain in good faith following the union’s failed 1974 strike.

Four other teams joined the work stoppage in support of the Patriots before eventually agreeing to the first regular season game, this after a mediator negotiation with the Management Council to draw up a new offer during the regular season’s second week.

In 1975, Vataha ran for the NFLPA presidency but narrowly lost to Minnesota defensive back Dick Anderson. In retrospect, Vataha was the right choice as Anderson ended up going behind the players’ backs to sign an agreement with owners called the “Anderson Rooney Agreement.”

Despite the defeat, Vataha remained a strong leader within the union through an eventual settlement that occurred in 1977 (his last year in the league) as well as a memorable figure within the NFLPA’s history for his heroic efforts.