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Washington Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Shaken by controversy, NFLPA says it properly vetted its new leader
As David P. White steps into his new role as the NFL Players Association's interim executive director and tries to guide the organization through crisis, he brings an extensive history as a labor leader that his predecessor lacked. White and the NFLPA are taking immediate steps to attempt to avoid a repeat of the tumult that led to Lloyd Howell's resignation last month, two years into Howell's term as executive director. White is pausing all his client work at his professional services and strategic consulting firm and is resigning from outside board service, an NFLPA spokesperson told The Washington Post. That will enable White to 'focus on his role at the NFLPA,' the spokesperson said Wednesday. It also could ensure White remains free of conflict-of-interest concerns, like those that plagued Howell. White, the former national executive director and chief negotiator for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), was a finalist to receive the job in 2023 but finished second to Howell despite being the preferred choice of the union's top player-led committee. For this round, the NFLPA emerged from its vetting convinced there were no issues that would disqualify White as a candidate. That included a review of a 2015 report accusing White of misleading the SAG-AFTRA board of directors about an alleged attempt to 'whitewash' a documentary about sexual abuse of child actors in Hollywood. White was elected in a late-night vote Sunday by the NFLPA's team-by-team player representatives. He addressed all NFL players in a memo Wednesday. 'I've spent my career working with organizations that serve and protect working professionals, leading them through complex challenges,' he wrote. 'This union's mission is simple: to protect and empower you. To do that effectively, we must be united with clear priorities, transparent communication and consistent actions that demonstrate our understanding of what you need and want.' Jordan Mailata, the Philadelphia Eagles' left tackle and player representative, acknowledged on the opening day of training camp that the situation surrounding the union was 'a mess,' and teammate Lane Johnson went further. 'It's a s--- show, I guess,' Johnson said. 'I mean, it's been that way,' continued Johnson, who in 2017 sued the NFL and NFLPA over a 10-game suspension related to the league's policy on banned performance-enhancing substances. 'People have known that. I've known that. So hopefully it gets better. I think it will.' The NFLPA has endured a series of more recent controversies that eroded trust among players and agents and led to Howell's resignation July 17. The complication of widespread uninterest and disengagement in union-related matters persists among rank-and-file players. Beckoning is a set of negotiations with the NFL and the league's team owners that includes a possible 18-game regular season and other labor issues. White wrote in Wednesday's memo that his immediate priorities are restoring player confidence in the union, addressing time-sensitive challenges facing the organization and laying the groundwork for success under permanent leadership. 'Recent events have damaged trust between many of you and this organization,' White wrote, adding that he plans to visit players during the season. 'That trust isn't something we're entitled to — it's something we must earn through consistent action. You deserve a union that operates professionally, communicates clearly and makes decisions that put your interests first. Rebuilding that confidence is my top priority, and it will be measured not by what we say, but by how we perform.' The NFLPA traditionally has been led by a former player, such as longtime executive director Gene Upshaw, who served until this death in 2008, or an attorney, such as DeMaurice Smith, who followed Upshaw (after an interim stint by union attorney Richard Berthelsen). The players broke from that in 2023 when they chose a business executive in Howell, the former chief financial officer of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. The result was calamitous, although it's debatable to what extent that was attributable to Howell's professional background. The players never got to find out whether Howell's skill set would have translated well to negotiating the next collective bargaining agreement. Issues included a federal investigation of a licensing company co-founded by the NFLPA, the union's handling of an arbitrator's ruling in a collusion case, and a possible conflict of interest stemming from Howell's previous consulting role with a firm approved to make private-equity investments in NFL franchises. ESPN reported on the day after Howell's resignation that he had charged the union for two visits to strip clubs. Amid the 2023 vetting process, the players on the union's executive committee voted, 10-1, to recommend White, according to a player who was on the committee and another person with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of search confidentiality and the sensitivity of the issue. It never delivered that recommendation to the player reps because it wanted them to decide for themselves, the executive committee member said. The player reps did not know the identities of the two finalists, Howell and White, when they arrived at a Virginia resort for their two-day election meeting. This time, all players participating in Sunday's vote were aware of the candidates beforehand and had time to consider their choice, the NFLPA spokesperson told The Post. The player reps interviewed and 'properly vetted' candidates during a two-week process described by the spokesperson as 'entirely led by players,' adding that the NFLPA 'incorporated lessons learned' from previous union election experiences. 'The process to determine the interim executive director did not mirror past executive director elections,' the spokesperson said. According to the spokesperson, White is pausing all his client work related to his firm, 3CG Ventures. He is resigning from his board service, including his role on the board of global professional services and consulting firm RGP, the spokesperson said. White no longer serves as the board chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. In 2015, Deadline reported that SAG-AFTRA had threatened to sue director Amy Berg unless she removed all references to the union in her documentary 'An Open Secret.' According to the report, the union denied it threatened a lawsuit and White repeated that denial in an email to the union's board of directors. Berg told Deadline that the union 'used legal threats to try to sanitize the film.' The NFLPA 'has reviewed this issue closely and feels confident that it has been fully briefed on the facts and context,' the spokesperson told The Post. The NFLPA concluded, the spokesperson said, that the 'core issue was focused on the unauthorized use of SAG-AFTRA's name and brand in the film. The union requested that no inaccurate references to SAG-AFTRA be made that tied the union to any alleged misconduct out of context. … The SAG-AFTRA board was informed of and involved in this matter at the time.' White recently served as a commissioner for the Industry Commission on Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace, the spokesperson said. In 2017, former SAG president Ed Asner and other actors accused White and other SAG-AFTRA leaders of misuse of expense accounts. But an investigation by the accounting firm Bond Beebe found the allegations to be without merit, and Asner later retracted his claims and issued a letter of apology. The podcast 'Pablo Torre Finds Out' reported that after White left SAG-AFTRA in 2021, he was 'rumored to be in the running to lead' the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in a move that would have suggested he was willing to 'play ball with management,' it said. The NFLPA spokesperson said White was not a candidate for such a position but was 'approached by a recruiter regarding his interest in the role and he declined.' One issue White will face at the NFLPA is facilitating more widespread player interest and engagement, beyond the small group that actively participates in union governance. 'There's always room for improvement,' Eagles tailback Saquon Barkley said. 'But sadly enough, I should be following that a lot more. I've just kind of been focused on a lot of other things right now.' Mailata said that responsibility falls on him and other player reps. 'They should take an interest,' Mailata said. 'But there's a reason why we vote for a player rep. And I should be doing a better job of engaging with the guys.' Said Johnson: 'I think they'll care more when they realize that their voice is heard. Right now, I feel like we have the weakest union in sports. But as far as me playing football, it doesn't change the way I feel about playing. But hopefully they can fix it for players in the future.'
Washington Post
04-08-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
NFLPA selects David White as interim executive director
The NFL Players Association took a bit of time but, with teams at training camps, moved to fill its leadership void from outside the union. Player representatives voted Sunday night to appoint David P. White the NFLPA's interim executive director. The election of White, the other finalist when the union elected Lloyd Howell in 2023, came 17 days after Howell's resignation a little more than two years into his term as executive director.
Washington Post
21-07-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
The rise and fall of Lloyd Howell at the NFLPA
When the player representatives of the 32 NFL teams gathered at the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg, Virginia, in 2023 for the two-day meeting at which they would elect a new executive director of the NFL Players Association, they didn't know much about the results of the search process they had authorized the union's executive committee to oversee. They didn't know that the executive committee's finalists for the NFLPA's top job were Lloyd Howell, the former chief financial officer of consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, and David P. White, the former national executive director and chief negotiator for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). They didn't know what the vetting process conducted by search firm Russell Reynolds Associates and the background report compiled by due diligence firm Mintz Group had — and had not — found about Howell. And they didn't know that the players on the executive committee had voted, 10-1, to recommend White to the player reps as the union's next executive director if they were asked to make a recommendation. 'We held an internal vote before that meeting,' a player who was on the executive committee during the search said Sunday. '… It was never communicated [to the board of player reps]. They made up their own mind. That's what we wanted.' The player reps voted the following day via a single confidential, written ballot to elect Howell to succeed DeMaurice Smith. That June 28, 2023, decision turned out to be ill-fated. Howell resigned Thursday, a little more than two years into his term, amid a string of controversies that brought intense scrutiny and spurred unrest among some players and agents. Some on the players' side are unhappy about the process that led to Howell's election, saying it lacked transparency and failed to make the player representatives aware of warning signs regarding Howell's candidacy before they voted. But as the NFLPA works to elect an interim executive director, perhaps by Monday, and faces the prospect of launching a search for Howell's permanent successor, those involved in the process that led to Howell's election defend it. They say Russell Reynolds conducted a by-the-book search and the executive committee fulfilled its goals to avoid media leaks and put qualified finalists in front of the player reps for their vote, even if the outcome of Howell's tenure was calamitous. According to multiple people familiar with the process, Howell's consulting position at the Carlyle Group and his involvement in a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit in 2011 while at Booz Allen were discussed by the players before his election. There was no discussion, those people said, about Howell reportedly being questioned and reprimanded by Booz Allen for a 2015 incident in which he and a colleague visited a strip club in New York and the colleague sought reimbursement on an expense report. 'That was missed,' the player who was on the executive committee said. 'That was not known.' But of the overall process, the player said, 'I would do it the same way.' The search has produced particularly sharp criticism of JC Tretter, then the NFLPA's president as a recently retired player and more recently its chief strategy officer under Howell. One person on the players' side of the sport said this weekend that Tretter 'has an us-against-them mentality' that produced a flawed search. Some observers have suggested Tretter tilted the 2023 election in Howell's favor and was rewarded with his position in union leadership. 'I deny that theory,' the player who was on the executive committee said. Another person with direct knowledge of the search called that notion 'outrageous.' They and others spoke with The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of the search and the sensitivity of the issues following Howell's resignation. Tretter told CBS Sports on Sunday that he's resigning from the NFLPA. Tretter did not cast the one vote in favor of Howell in the executive committee's June 2023 vote on the recommendation that was not delivered, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. That person and the player who was on the executive committee confirmed the 10-1 vote in favor of White. 'We wanted [the player reps] to make up their own mind,' the player said, adding that the vote was taken about a week before the meeting of the team-by-team player representatives. 'We did that in case we were asked for our recommendation.' The NFLPA hired Russell Reynolds in June 2022. The board of player reps had authorized the executive committee to conduct a search in which it brought two to four viable candidates for the consideration of the player representatives. The player reps agreed at the outset of the process that they would not have access to information about the candidates until the final voting meeting, two people familiar with the search said. 'They said, 'We want a process that any Fortune 100 [company] or significant nonprofit would use.' … They did not want to repeat the past, and they wanted to professionalize and have something that they could be proud of and stand behind,' a person directly involved in the search said. The executive committee, in particular, did not want a repeat of the NFLPA's 2009 search process, which was marked by rampant media leaks. 'The better we kept it quiet, the better we were able to get better candidates,' the player who was on the executive committee said. 'I think we were successful at that.' Russell Reynolds spoke with more than 150 people and presented 46 potential executive director prospects to the executive committee. Fifteen candidates were interviewed by the executive committee. The search firm remained in regular contact with the executive committee, with a weekly call every Monday night between November 2022 and June 2023. The executive committee interviewed 12 candidates over Zoom, then cut its list to six and conducted in-person interviews with them in March 2023. When Russell Reynolds asked the executive committee if it wanted to refine the search in any way, the committee expressed an interest in candidates with strong business profiles. That led to Howell being contacted and added to the search, along with two other candidates. They were interviewed in person in April 2023, and the executive committee cut its list to four candidates. Those four were informed of their status and asked to participate in psychometric testing, which included online testing and a multi-hour behavioral interview with a psychologist. They agreed to undergo a comprehensive background report by Mintz Group. The four candidates gave presentations to the executive committee in D.C., and each had a meal with the committee members. The executive committee chose Howell and White as the finalists for the June meeting of the player reps. The players were aware of the sexual discrimination lawsuit, first reported by ESPN, in which Howell had been involved. 'The discrimination case was raised in the Mintz report and exhaustively discussed with the [executive committee],' the person directly involved in the search said, adding that the lawsuit also was discussed with the player reps at the late June meeting. The player who was on the executive committee said: 'We knew about that. Lloyd was open about that.' Howell's role as a part-time consultant to the aerospace and defense investment team of the Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, also was known and discussed, they said. Carlyle had not been approved at that point to make private-equity investments in NFL teams, as it now is. So the issue that was discussed related only to his outside work, not to a possible conflict of interest. Eventually, the player said, the executive committee deliberated with Howell about his outside work and determined he could continue to serve on corporate boards as long as there was no conflict of interest. 'It was a little back-and-forth,' the player said. 'We wanted none. He wanted some number. Maybe it was three. Maybe it was five.' ESPN reported Friday that Howell had charged the union for two visits to strip clubs. That included a charge of $738.82 for a car service in November 2023 that took him from the Fort Lauderdale airport to a Miami-area strip club, according to the report, and a visit by Howell and two union employees in February to an Atlanta strip club that led to $2,426 in charges that Howell instructed an employee to submit in expense reports. ESPN also reported on the 2015 strip club incident while Howell was at Booz Allen. According to the person with direct knowledge of the search, Russell Reynolds asked the candidates' references if there was anything potentially embarrassing to the candidate, to the NFLPA or to the search firm that the firm should know about. None of Howell's references disclosed the reported 2015 strip club incident, the person said. Russell Reynolds said in a statement Sunday that it 'conducted an extensive search and vetting process for the NFLPA that adhered to [the firm's] best practices in governance.' The firm said it 'was fully transparent with the NFLPA about its findings for each candidate at every interval of the search process.' The firm said it takes issue with any characterization that there was anything improper about one of its employees, Anamika Gupta, subsequently being hired by Howell as the NFLPA's chief of staff. She also was a former Booz Allen employee. 'This individual was a stellar employee who excelled during her eight years at' Russell Reynolds, the firm said. 'She neither knew Mr. Howell during her prior employment at Booz Allen Hamilton nor had any communication with him during the search process. Any suggestion to the contrary is reckless and categorically false.' At the June meeting of player reps, the players were briefed and spent time with Howell and White. Russell Reynolds made presentations about the two candidates. Its organizational psychologist was on hand. The executive committee presented the issues that it wanted raised from the Mintz background report. That's when the player reps were told about the sexual discrimination lawsuit involving Howell. 'Specific to Lloyd, the discrimination lawsuit was a major topic of discussion' with the player reps, the person directly involved in the search said. The Carlyle Group issue was not a major topic of discussion with the player reps, that person said. The players again were warned about media leaks. 'Doors were closed,' the person with direct knowledge of the search said. 'Phones were gone. ... There were ground rules set.' The candidates made two-hour presentations and were made available to the player reps in smaller-group settings. They made final remarks before the vote on the meeting's second day. According to the person involved in the search, the NFLPA hired a third-party auditor to conduct a confidential vote by written ballot. The auditor collected the player reps' ballots and announced Howell as the winner without disclosing a vote count to the players. 'Lloyd won the day,' that person said. 'He gave a very eloquent analysis of what he felt and he saw.'
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NFLPA members disagree over knowledge of sexual-discrimination lawsuit against Lloyd Howell before electing him: Report
NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. was accused of sexual-discrimination and retaliation in a 2011 lawsuit stemming from his time with Booz Allen, a consulting company. It's unclear whether NFLPA members were informed about that lawsuit when they elected Howell to be their next executive director in 2023, according to ESPN. Conflicting reports have emerged over whether union members were told about the lawsuit when Howell was one of the finalists for the position in 2023. Two player representatives who voted for Howell told ESPN they don't remember the issue coming up during the election process. "I felt really good about the process leading up to it," said one of the players, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Now that all this stuff is coming out, I am like — wait a second, what happened there?" "To find this out after we elected Lloyd is concerning; it feels like it was quashed," a different player rep told a confidant, who shared the comments with ESPN. Two players who sat on the union's executive committee, however, claim that the lawsuit was shared with all player representatives, and that Howell was asked questions about the lawsuit in front of those player reps. The union's executive committee was tasked with finding and vetting candidates for the executive director role. After performing that search, the executive committee presented Howell and former SAG-AFTRA executive director and chief negotiator David P. White to the 32 player reps, who elect the union leader. Howell was eventually chosen to succeed DeMaurice Smith, who served in the role from 2009 to 2023. A member of the union's executive committee told ESPN that "full disclosures were made to everyone ... and questions were asked" regarding the lawsuit against Howell. The committee added it asked Howell questions about the lawsuit before deciding on him as a finalist, and said it was satisfied with his answers. The Committee also said it spoke with lawyers at Booz Allen and were given "the green light" to move forward with Howell. Howell and three other executives at Booz Allen were sued by Margo Fitzpatrick, a partner at the company, who alleged "the company denied female employees leadership roles and excluded them from certain career opportunities provided to men," according to ESPN. Fitzpatrick claimed that Howell once said the finance industry was "a good ole boys club in which only men could succeed." Fitzpatrick also claimed that Howell once asked whether two other female employees were involved with sororities because they caused "drama," per ESPN. Fitzpatrick reported Howell to senior leadership. Fitzpatrick was later denied and promotion and fired, per her lawsuit. The lawsuit was reportedly settled in 2015, according to ESPN. Multiple parties contacted by ESPN, including the NFLPA and Fitzpatrick, declined to comment about the situation. Howell's position has come under question after multiple reports emerged regarding questionable decisions made by the NFLPA under his leadership. Both the NFL and NFLPA reportedly worked together to bury multiple grievance rulings, one of which suggested the league encouraged teams to collude to reduce guaranteed money given to veteran players. Though the NFLPA lost that ruling, evidence of collusion among the owners should have been treated as a massive revelation. Instead, union leadership tried to keep the ruling from being released publicly. Both sides took the same track with a ruling revealed Thursday, in which an arbitrator found comments made by then-NFLPA president JC Tretter in 2023 violated the collective-bargaining agreement. That arbitrator was reportedly fired by the NFLPA on Wednesday, a day before the ruling was unearthed by journalists Mike Florio and Pablo Torre. Howell also found himself under fire after it was revealed he consulted with The Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm the league has allowed to buy ownership stakes in team, while serving in his position with the NFLPA. Howell was reportedly asked to resign from his consulting role with The Carlyle Group due to a possible conflict of interest, but declined to do so. This story will be updated.
