JULY 11: Howell does not plan on resigning in the wake of the recent controversy, Mark Maske and Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post report. For the time being at least, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio adds he is safe from potential efforts for a removal. That process will be long-running if it is sought, though, and efforts on the part of players and senior union leaders will be worth monitoring over the coming weeks.
JULY 10: NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell is under fire after a report by ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kalher that he has been working as a consultant for The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm approved by the league to pursue a minority ownership stake in an NFL team.
Howell began working at Carlyle in a part-time capacity in March 2023; three months later, he was hired by the NFLPA as the union’s principal administrative officer and chief player representative. In August 2024, Carlyle received league approval to invest in an NFL team via a minority stake worth up to 10%. Despite internal concerns by a senior union lawyer regarding a potential conflict of interest, Howell continued to work for Carlyle and received $3.4MM from the firm last year.
With the matter coming into the public eye, Howell will come under even more scrutiny amid criticism regarding the NFLPA’s handling of their collusion grievance against the league and an internal investigation of Howell’s leadership of the union. (The NFLPA has appealed the ruling on the collusion grievance after it, too, was made public.)
According to Pablo Torre of Pablo Finds Out, a Change.org petition calling for Howell’s resignation has been circulating among NFL players and NFLPA staff in the wake of today’s revelations. The NFLPA allows their player reps to remove the executive director with a two-thirds majority vote at a meeting with a two-thirds quorum, per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.
A Carlyle spokesperson insisted that Howell had no access in the firm’s activities related to the NFL and said that Howell had disclosed his work at the NFLPA to the firm but not the request by union lawyers for him to resign.
In addition to his compensation from Carlyle, Howell also received almost $700K from board positions at GE HealthCare and Moody’s, per ESPN. His pay for sitting on the board of ManTech, a company privately owned by Carlyle, is unknown.
Former NFLPA lead outside counsel Jim Quinn told ESPN that the union’s previous executive directors held neither outside jobs nor paid board seats during their tenure. Quinn characterized Howell’s position at Carlyle as an “outrageous conflict” and said that he would have expected Howell to resign upon being hired by the NFLPA.
NFL players have yet to publicly react to the latest news about Howell. Multiple members of the executive committee decline to comment on the collusion grievance confidentiality agreement, with Cameron Heyward calling the situation at the union “dicey.”
Fire him and throw him in a gulag. This is way beyond conflict of interest. I think everyone on the planet is sick of humans like this operating far beyond the most basic legal and ethical bounds.
yup get ride of him conflict of interest galore
Unless they do play by play for Fox…
Normally I’d say there’s no way he survives this, especially combined with the shadiness of the collusion investigation. But society has seemingly lost touch with basic ethical standards so who knows, he might get a raise from both jobs.
Yup truth doesn’t matter at all anymore to most
Extreme conflict of interest
Good lord. Punt this guy into the sun. Shouldn’t be representing the players, obviously, but this also casts an extra sketchy light on the league’s decision to allow private equity firms to buy stakes in teams last year.
That was always a terrible decision in anyone’s eyes but the owners’. In what way does selling off shares of a corporation to other corporations make anything better?
It’s interesting to me to see that Howell disclosed his working at Carlyle and yet was chosen anyway. I suppose that it was before the NFL approved the private equity madness, but it’s still odd that such a thing could escape such scrutiny for as long as it did.
Also look at what private equity does in other industries. Private equity loves to buy up perfectly good established businesses, sell off parts, saddle them with debt, and declare bankruptcy. Not that they would do that with an NFL team, but private equity ain’t generally in the business of making products or industries better. If owners need cash infusions, there are other buyers.
This guy had alot of hands in cookie jars. How did he do it?
“In addition to his compensation from Carlyle, Howell also received almost $700k from board positions at GE HealthCare and Moody’s, per ESPN. His pay for sitting on the board of ManTech, a company privately owned by Carlyle, is unknown.”
Seems like he did it through ethically compromised business decisions.
The rules of this land are clear: if you have the capital, you are allowed to commit corruption.
True, but…you have to admit…their ability to get the rubes to do their bidding over and over and over and over again is pretty impressive.
“Gays, trannies and brown people are SO scary, we’d better cut rich people’s taxes again!!!”
There’s one big team and you ain’t on it.
Sounds like a Politician
I mean if the players don’t remove this guy (and Tetter, dudes clearly a snake), do they even have a union? Sounds like both sides are doing everything they can for ownership. Are the players really that apathetic? This isn’t just negotiations, there’s 10+ indications of scandal and fraud here, with the properly funded investigation
Could he be more of a snake? Players really are clueless and will keep him because they don’t want to spend the energy to remove him.
I’m looking forward to the “spin” the union uses to convince the players that it was all a misunderstanding. Their damage control efforts could be as amusing as the Mark Sanchez butt fumble.