Through Gene Upshaw’s time with the Oakland Raiders, the team had a decidedly leftward lean, generally aiming its plays to the left, with Upshaw, a guard who could pull, out in front, leading.

It’s how I think of Upshaw, dead at 63: not as the executive director of the NFL Players Association but as a player serving a franchise that too often has had to accept the reality that is death.

No man associated with the NFL is more mindful of how life concludes than Al Davis, the Raiders owner. I attended Sugar Ray Robinson’s funeral in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. Davis was among the speakers. He was there for the funeral of Vince Lombardi at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. When anyone prominent in the football community succumbs, Davis is either present for the obsequies or he has someone from his organization representing him.

From his own experience, Davis has had to deal with the deaths of a number of persons, among them Sid Gillman, who introduced Davis to pro football when he appointed him to the coaching staff of the then-Los Angeles Chargers in 1960. Now Davis, 79, has to accept the passing of Upshaw, whom he termed, simply, “a great man.”

Gene Upshaw

“Mr. Davis is the one who stepped in and said, ‘Wait a minute. We can talk to him,’ ” Brown said. “Nobody knew him better than Mr. Davis, and that is one of the reasons they had a labor agreement: because of the relationship that Gene had with Mr. Davis and the relationship he had with (former commissioner) Paul Tagliabue.”

For all the NFL’s growth under Upshaw’s watch, some have contended that Upshaw was too cozy with Tagliabue. Further, Upshaw has been the subject of critiques that he was not sufficiently mindful concerning the status of retired players, a forgotten legion.

Wanting a source from outside the league to assess Upshaw’s legacy, I sought out football historian David Neft.

“I think Upshaw will be positively remembered, except for certain owners who always want to return to ‘the good old days,’ which weren’t so good,” Neft said.

Neft noted that by comparison to other sports, the NFL has been relatively free of player-owner disruptions. Because of Upshaw, the current system works. He had defended the practice of teams assigning whopping sums to draft choices, his rationale being that rookies being made wealthy had a trickle-down effect that enhanced the status of veterans.

In his final months, Upshaw was adamant that the players’ union would not accept any reduction in the percentage of the league’s revenues they are paid. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s position is that the increased costs of stadium operations and of building stadiums have made it burdensome for teams to continue to pay players 60 percent of the league’s gross revenues, as required by the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Underscoring this point, the NFL has determined that unless the bargaining agreement is renewed by March 2010, that season would be played without a salary cap. Such a situation could lead to chaos, with some teams spending lavishly for talent and others acting in a more frugal manner.

“A number of our owners are concerned with many aspects of the labor deal. That’s something we need to improve,” Goodell said during his “state of the league” news conference prior to Super Bowl XLII. “I believe we will be able to come to a resolution that is good for the game, good for the players, good for the owners and good for the fans.”

While Goodell and Upshaw were apart on this issue, in a statement the commissioner said Upshaw’s “leadership played a crucial role in taking the NFL and its players to new heights.”

Tagliabue agreed. “Few people in the history of the NFL have played the game as well as Gene and then had another career in football with so much positive impact on the structure and competitiveness of the entire league,” the former commissioner said. “In both careers, if you hit him hard, he could hit you back twice as hard — but he didn’t always do so. He was very tough, but also a good listener.”

Among the tangible developments that had at least shades of Upshaw’s imprint was the NFL’s broadcasting explosion.

“When Upshaw came in, there were two (NFL) television outlets,” Neft said. “Now they are all over the place.”

My thinking is that fixing Upshaw’s place in the game, both as a player and a union official, is a tricky matter. Yes, he was an accomplished guard. (Brown: “When he was pulling, he wiped out the right side like a hurricane.”)

Yes, the status of players appreciated strongly during Upshaw’s term with the union. But one can think that this would have occurred had Upshaw not been in office. Football was on a forward course, with new stadiums popping up everywhere and revenues multiplying.

Men such as former NFLPA president Troy Vincent and agent Tom Condon have been mentioned as possible successors. Both would have a lot of work to match Upshaw’s 41 years of NFL service.

Davis drafted the 6-foot-5, 255-pound Upshaw in 1967 primarily for one reason — to block Buck Buchanan, a dreadnought defensive tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Buchanan, like Upshaw a Hall of Famer, died in July 1992 at the age of 51.

I’ll bet Davis was at his funeral.

Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune since 1961 and for PFW since its inception in 1967.