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They called Gene Upshaw the Governor because he carried himself like a leader from the time he arrived in the N.F.L. from the tiny Texas College of Arts and Industries.

For 15 years, he was such a bedrock of the Oakland Raiders’ offensive line that he became the first player used exclusively at guard to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And in an extraordinary second act, for 25 sometimes contentious years, he led the players union through the tumult of a strike, the gambit of decertification, the victory of free agency, an explosion in player salaries and the…