For someone who’s on television for several hours every day, Pat McAfee chooses his spots.
Sometimes it’s Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, other times it’s leaky ESPN suits. But when McAfee takes aim at someone and clears his throat, he usually has something real to say.
With his show off-air Friday, McAfee did just that as new details emerged on the recent resignation of Lloyd Howell Jr., the former executive director of the NFL players’ association. In a lengthy post on X, McAfee criticized Howell and others who run the NFLPA for allegedly lacking empathy for players and prioritizing their own fame and fortune over their jobs.
“I don’t know what it was exactly like before my time in the NFL (2009 Draft)… But I know that literally since a week after I got drafted, at my rookie symposium listening to DeMaurice Smith speak for the first time, all the way thru now.. the NFLPA has been led by people who would much rather be known that they’re the heads of the NFLPA than actually work and act like they are the heads of the NFLPA,” McAfee wrote.
“These dudes think they’re celebrities. These dudes think they’re powerful. These dudes hire all of their friends and overpay them with the players’ money. Then these dudes flex while using and abusing all of the connections that the players and the league have worked their asses off their entire lives for… and act like sanctimonious heroes thru it all.”
The ESPN host, former All-Pro punter, and 2009 AFC champion also called for significant change in the union’s ranks.
Wrote McAfee:
“The NFLPA needs a dawg that knows legitimate business and generating capital running the NFLPA. We need people that have empathy for the players who play/played in the NFL and don’t just view them as an annual fee. We need creative negotiators, creators, and innovators.
The league and the game are in an amazing place. The players of our sport have committed more of themselves to it than ever before. The public’s adoration of the product is higher than any league has ever had in the history of sport. EVERYBODY wants to do business with the NFL, the players should be seeking to be doing that as well. MONEY, PROTECTION, AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE PLAYERS. That’s the gig.”
In a segment earlier in the week on his show, after the NFLPA released a statement in defense of Howell, McAfee questioned the union. The host supported the investigation into Howell’s actions, which was launched after reports from Meadowlark Media and ESPN revealed how the league and union collaborated to conceal a ruling from an arbitrator that included evidence of potentially collusive behavior by team owners regarding guaranteed money in players’ contracts.
McAfee argued that the NFLPA did not always act in the best interests of players regarding licensing agreements, staffing, and other matters. He also revealed that he did not sign up as a member of the union during his final seasons with the Colts, citing frustration.
What has been highlighted during the fallout from the hidden arbitration ruling is that NFL players band together. They are reticent to criticize one another or the people who represent them in the media, in the union, or anywhere.
Elsewhere at ESPN, former NFLPA president turned analyst Domonique Foxworth has been far more careful than McAfee in taking aim at the union he once helped run.
However, with Howell out and new reports on a seemingly daily basis revealing the full extent of the fraudulent activity that has occurred in recent years at the NFLPA, the switch may have flipped. McAfee marches to the beat of his own drum on most things, but even he appears to be breaking the cardinal rule among NFL athletes because of behavior by Howell and others and the harm it may have caused to his football brothers.