Smith, agents don’t get along

Put NFL players union chief DeMaurice Smith in a room full of agents, and all hell could break loose.

That conclusion could be drawn from the results of a USA TODAY poll of 25 agents, who largely graded the job performance of the NFL Players Association’s executive director as no better than “fair.” Just 10% of respondents ranked Smith’s performance as good.

Smith and many agents actually were in a room together — during the recent NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis — and, according to multiple people in attendance, it was the most contentious seminar yet during Smith’s regime.

One issue that might move the needle for Smith: Involve agents more in preparing strategy for the next round of labor talks.

Several agents maintain that they don’t have a sense on how the next negotiations will produce a better result and grumble that their expertise wasn’t significantly tapped last time.

“He didn’t have enough insight from the people on the front line,” one agent said. “He locked the agents out in the process.”