Surprising news dropped late Thursday night when NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell Jr. announced that he was resigning.
The move comes as Howell is facing scrutiny over reporting done by ESPN and the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” regarding Howell’s activities both with the NFLPA and outside of it.
“It’s clear that my leadership has become a distraction to the important work the NFLPA advances every day,” said Howell, 59, in a statement released by the union. “For this reason, I have informed the NFLPA Executive Committee that I am stepping down as Executive Director of the NFLPA and Chairman of the Board of NFL Players effective immediately. I hope this will allow the NFLPA to maintain its focus on its player members ahead of the upcoming season.”
Howell, who was elected to the position in 2023, had a slew of bad strikes against him emerge recently.
This past May, ESPN reported that the FBI was looking into the financial dealings of the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) and the NFLPA with the licensing firm, OneTeam Partners, which both entities helped start and partly own. That investigation led the NFLPA to hire a law firm to review Howell’s actions at the union.
Then, last week, two additional bombshells dropped.
First came ESPN’s report that Howell was being paid as a part-time consultant for the Carlyle Group, which is a league-approved private equity firm that is looking for ownership in NFL teams.
Next came news that Howell struck, per ESPN, “a confidentiality agreement with the NFL six months ago that hid from players the details of a January arbitration decision, including a finding that league executives urged team owners to reduce guaranteed player compensation.”
That ruling was first published by Pablo Torre’s podcast in late June.
To top things off, ESPN reported that in 2011, Howell was sued for sexual discrimination and retaliation while he was working at Booz Allen as a senior executive. ESPN also revealed that there are conflicting reports about whether players who voted for him as executive director knew about the lawsuit.
All of these incidents were too much to overlook, and, despite the union issuing a statement of confidence in Howell on Sunday, he announced his immediate resignation.
Howell took over for DeMaurice Smith, who served as the head of the NFLPA from 2009 to 2023.
