NFLPA backs executive director Lloyd Howell amid reported conflict of interest

The circumstances around NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell’s role in keeping an arbitration ruling regarding potential collusive behavior between NFL clubs over guaranteed contracts for veteran players confidential continues to get uglier by the day.

On Sunday, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter reported that the union is backing Howell despite recent reports that the executive director also works as a paid consultant for The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that is one of the few approved for investment in NFL teams. Essentially, Howell is being paid by both the union and a financial firm with stakes in the exact group of people the union represents players against: owners of the 32 NFL franchises.

In a memo sent to the union’s player membership and obtained by Schefter, the NFLPA firmly backed Howell.

“As members of the NFLPA Executive Committee, we categorically reject false reports insinuating doubts within this committee or suggestions that we have asked our Executive Director to step down,” the statement read. “We further reject attempts to mischaracterize the committee’s views or divide our membership. We have established a deliberate process to carefully assess the issues that have been raised and will not engage in a rush to judgement. We believe in and remain committed to working with our Executive Director and other members of NFLPA staff and player leadership who have a shared mission to advance the best interests of players. As we approach the 2025 season, we look forward to continuing our important work together and ensuring the strength and unity of our association.”

It is unclear exactly what “false reports” the NFLPA Executive Committee is referring to when it suggests people within the committee were encouraging Howell to step down. Per a report by ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler last week, a union lawyer asked Howell to consider resigning from his consultant position at The Carlyle Group in order to tamp down any apparent conflicts of interest, but the executive director declined.

But that report said a union lawyer — not a member of the Executive Committee — urged Howell to resign from his consultant position with a private equity firm — not as head of the NFLPA.

The statement further illustrates a culture of dysfunction (and potentially even, corruption) within the NFLPA. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who helped break the initial story about possible collusive behavior regarding contract guarantees alongside Meadowlark Media’s Pablo Torre, suggests that “player apathy” is partly to blame.

The players themselves seem to be relatively unbothered by the reporting insomuch as it directly impacts their salaries. And that’s how the NFLPA is able to hire Howell under the darkness of night, allow him to work both sides, hiding arbitration rulings that could directly lead to higher salaries, then release gaslighting statements about “false reports” in the media. If the rank-and-file raised hell, like reporting about this case would suggest they have every right to do, it’s hard to imagine the NFLPA would be confident enough to send such a brazenly misleading statement to its membership.

However, that’s the strategy union leadership is deciding to employ in order to protect their own self-interests, likely at the harm of the players they represent.