SUNDAY PROFILE - Playing his role off field, off screen - Doug Allen gave up an NFL career to work as a labor negotiator. Now, he's representing the Screen Actors Guild.

That was quite a compliment considering the talent on the team, which included all-star O.J. Simpson. But it was Allen's fearlessness off the field that caught the attention of his peers, who tapped him to be the team's alternate representative for the NFL Players Assn. during a preseason strike in 1974.

Despite a warning from Bills owner Ralph Wilson that the selection would be bad for Allen's career, he embraced the role. After two seasons, he quit football altogether to take a job organizing political campaigns for the AFL-CIO before returning to the league to eventually become the assistant executive director at the players association.

"It was much more in line with how I wanted to spend my life," said Allen, who was chosen this year to head the Screen Actors Guild. "The labor movement appealed to me because it makes a difference in people's lives."

That conviction will be put to the test next year when Allen enters crucial contract talks on behalf of nearly 120,000 actors. As the union's chief negotiator, Allen will play a pivotal role in forging a deal with producers and averting a potentially debilitating strike that could shut down movie and television production.

He'll square off against another former football player, the studios' scrappy chief negotiator, J. Nicholas Counter III.

Labor tensions have escalated amid concerns that talent will be shortchanged as digital technology and the Internet upend Hollywood. Although the actors' contract expires June 30, studios already have accelerated production in anticipation of walkouts by actors as well as writers, with whom they are currently in rancorous negotiations.

Allen is no stranger to labor unrest, having weathered several strikes at the NFL, including a three-week walkout in 1987 that helped establish the free agency rights of players to chose which teams they play for.

"Strikes are blunt instruments and they are battles of attrition for everyone involved, but sometimes they are necessary when management is intransigent and unreasonable," said Allen, the eldest son of a social worker mother and a hospital administrator father.

He says he's hopeful actors can reach a deal without a strike. "I'm looking forward to achieving what I think will be a historic watershed in labor relations in this industry," he said.