Domonique Foxworth, Jeff Saturday among candidates considered for NFLPA executive director before finalists named

Update: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the reporting on the NFLPA executive director finalists was first reported by The Athletic. The news was first reported by ESPN, with The Athletic later confirming. This article has been updated to reflect that.

The NFLPA’s search for a new executive director has come down to three finalists — David White, J.C. Tretter, and Tim Pernetti — but two names from the sports media world made it further in the process than is widely known. Per ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler, Domonique Foxworth and Jeff Saturday were among the candidates considered before the search committee narrowed the field.

Foxworth confirmed to ESPN that he interviewed for the position and expressed disappointment at not advancing past the initial search committee stage. It’s the second time the ESPN analyst has come close to one of the most powerful jobs in professional sports labor. In 2023, Foxworth revealed on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast that he had been a candidate to replace DeMaurice Smith as executive director — a job that ultimately went to Lloyd Howell Jr. — and that he had initially declined to put himself forward before recognizing how significant the opportunity was.

“Outside of being an athlete, the one thing I felt professionally passionate about is sports unions,” Foxworth said at the time.

When Howell and Tretter both resigned last summer over fallout from a hidden collusion ruling that kept player reps in the dark, Foxworth’s name immediately surfaced as a potential interim candidate. He said on his eponymous show at the time that he hadn’t been formally contacted, but that people within the union kept bringing up his name. Now, he did formally interview but didn’t advance.

His credentials for the role are hard to argue with. During his playing career as a defensive back, Foxworth served as the NFLPA president from 2012 to 2014 — the youngest vice president on the union’s executive committee in history — before earning an MBA from Harvard and serving as the NBPA’s COO. He joined ESPN in 2016 and has since built one of the more substantive platforms in NFL media through The Domonique Foxworth Show, which covers labor dynamics and sports business with a depth that few programs match.

Saturday’s inclusion is a different kind of story. The former Colts center and current ESPN analyst — who signed a multi-year extension with the network in September — is best known to sports media audiences for his controversial 2022 stint as the Colts’ interim head coach. The hiring drew widespread criticism at the time — including from several of his own ESPN colleagues — largely because Saturday had no coaching experience above the high school level and the Colts bypassed the Rooney Rule by naming him to an interim role. He returned to ESPN’s Get Up in September 2023 and has remained a studio analyst since. His candidacy for the NFLPA job was not previously reported.

The three finalists — White, Tretter, and Pernetti — will now advance in the process. Former quarterback Matt Schaub, who was also a candidate during the previous executive director search, was also among those who drew early consideration.