Lloyd Howell's resignation is a first step toward NFLPA getting its act together before next CBA negotiation
The crux of the recent reporting has been centered on executive director Lloyd Howell, who officially resigned his position on Thursday night.
Howell was elected as the executive director of the NFLPA in June of 2023, and thus had the daunting challenge of uniting and representing the players as they negotiate with league franchise owners for years to come in regards to collective bargaining agreements. ESPN unearthed the rather startling fact that Howell has a second job: working as a consultant for Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that's been approved by the league to seek minority ownership in NFL teams.
Essentially, the executive director of the NFLPA has a second job that involves investing in ownership stakes of NFL teams. No need to mince words here: That's a startling conflict of interest that's easy to see.
On Thursday, new reporting came to light that Howell faced a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit while at a consulting group in 2011, and that fact may have been hidden from NFLPA members as they voted to elect Howell two years ago.
Howell was chosen by a select group of 11 players. There were concerns over whether Howell's election process was constitutional by the union's standards in regards to how much time player representatives were given to vote after receiving the names.
Ex-union president J.C. Tretter eventually put out a statement explaining the process and saying the NFLPA complied with their constitution and followed the correct voting procedures. But the shroud of confusion over the process was an alarming instance of seemingly unnecessary levels of secrecy — which became a theme that boiled over into the mess the union has today.
ESPN also reported last month that the NFLPA and NFL owners agreed to keep the results of their arbitration regarding collusion against player salaries confidential. Even from the players themselves. While the ruling went in the NFL's favor because there wasn't "a clear preponderance" of evidence that teams actually colluded, arbitrator Christopher Droney also said that there was "little question" the NFL encouraged teams to reduce guarantees in veterans' contracts following the Browns' historic deal for Deshaun Watson in 2022. Withholding that from the players themselves, a few of whom were actively seeking out new deals, is antithesis to the normal functions of a union.
The selection of Howell, the sealing of the arbitration results, being unfazed by Howell's part-time job with the Carlyle Group — none of those were the actions of a healthy union with the players' interests at the core of its cause.
And now, Howell is out. There are still a couple years before CBA negotiations will get intense going into 2030, but the way things are right now it's hard to believe that the NFLPA will actually be organized enough to stand tall against ownership, assuming that's even a goal. If the NFLPA can't even represent the highest-paid players in the league with fervor, what is going to happen to everyone else down the food chain when money issues are tightly contested with ownership?
No one is ever going to say that running the NFLPA is easy, but the reporting that's been laid out shows an institution that needs to make a heftier effort toward effective representation. A strong union is imperative for the health of the league because there is no NFL without the players who populate it. It's impossible to have a combative, strong backbone for a group like this with the level of secrecy and working in the shadows going on. That's something that's important for everyone who loves the functionality of this league to remember — from fans to journalists and the union itself.
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