Lloyd Howell is out as executive director of the NFL players association after just over two years in the role, he announced on Thursday evening. The decision comes amid a string of reports calling into question the process by which he earned the high-profile position by Pablo Torre and Mike Florio, and concerns over conflicts of interest stemming from his role as a paid consultant for The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that was recently added to a list of NFL-approved groups able to seek minority ownership stakes in NFL franchises. His association with the firm was first reported by ESPN last week.
"Two years ago, I accepted the role of Executive Director of the NFLPA because I believe deeply in the mission of this union and the power of collective action to drive positive change for the players of America's most popular sport," Howell wrote in his statement. "Out members deserve a union that will fight relentlessly for their health, safety, financial futures, and long-term well-being. My priority has been to lead that fight by serving this union with focus and deciation.
"It's clear that my leadership has become a distraction to the important work the NFLPA advances every day. 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."
ESPN's Adam Schefter reports that Howell was not pressured to resign and the decision to leave was his.
His stewardship of the league came under scrutiny after Meadowlark Media's Torre and Pro Football Talk's Florio released an episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out about the buried result of a collusion grievance filed by the players, in which arbitrator Christopher Droney wrote, "There is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL Clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans’ contracts at the March 2022 annual owners’ meeting.” Even so, Droney ruled on the side of the league, though the 61-page ruling featured text messages shared between Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill openly discussing the contracts handed to quarterbacks Justin Herbert and Kyler Murray and expressed dismay over the fully-guaranteed deal the Browns gave to Deshaun Watson.
The NFLPA has since appealed the ruling in light of its belated release.
Torre reports that the union did not publicize the findings in part to protect former NFLPA president J.C. Tretter, who disparaged Russell Wilson for his failure to receive a fully guaranteed deal with the Broncos in text messages, a detail later used against the NFLPA in the collusion hearing. During his time as president, Tretter was instrumental in the hiring of Howell as executive director, and after retiring from football, Tretter was hired by Howell to fill a newly-created role at the union: chief strategy officer.
The collusion case put a microscope on both Howell and Tretter. In ESPN's report on Howell's role with The Carlyle Group, former NFLPA outside counsel Jim Quinn was incredibly critical of the situation.
"It would be an outrageous conflict for the head of a labor union to have an interest in a third party that is aligned with the NFL," Quinn said. "The relationship between a labor organization and the employer organization is adversarial by definition, and as a result, as a leader, you have to be absolutely clear and clean as to having no even appearance of conflict."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell Resigns Amid Conflict of Interest Concerns.
