Lloyd Howell Jr., who was elected in June 2023 replaced DeMaurice Smith as NFLPA (Union's) Executive Director, and simply put, it's been doing horrible ever since.
Under Howell, the NFLPA has decided to
- Get out of trading card contracts, which got them lawsuits, as judges deemed them leaving the deals to be a breach of contracts.
- "OneTeam", which is a collection of sports unions, first starting with Baseball and Football Unions joining RedBird Capital Partners in 2019, before later adding additional sport Union has come under FBI investigation. Which seems to be related to the Union Commissioners (including Lloyd Howell) attempting to fill their own pockets with possibly illegal "equity options" (at minimum, extremely shady) based on players based on monetize the name, image, and likeness rights of players.
- Supposedly due to these legal setbacks and loss lawsuits, the Union has had to cut half their staffing.
- The Union, made an agreement with the NFL to keep the results of their lawsuit, which proved the NFL had illegal had collusion against the players a secret from the public and more importantly their own players. (What did the Union get from hiding this!?!). Though important to note, while the judge found illegal collusion, he found no proof of damages, so the Union got $0. Which seems kinda BS... but they proved collusion which many thought would be the hard to impossible part.
- Union seems to be claiming, they hid it out of respect for JC Tretter saying bad things about Russell Wilson (which sounds like total BS, as Tretter said it on record and probably doesn't care Wilson or the public knows, and Wilson is a big boy and probably doesn't care what Tretter says about him... at least not as much as he would that they legally proved collusion).
- Now Lloyd Howell Jr. is blaming DeMaurice Smith for wasting money on the lawsuit... but while the lawsuit was started under Smith, it was continued many years under Lloyd and he could of stopped it much sooner, and they were seeking to prove illegal collusion and did, just the NFL squeaked out that the Union couldn't prove an amount.
- The Union has basically been totally quiet and letting the NFL control all narratives.
- The media found out about the secret agreement to keep the case ruling a secret, and NOW the Union wants to start something, only after the media finds out.
I'm not sure who Lloyd Howell Jr. is actually working for, but it SURE doesn't appear to be the players, despite supposedly being the leader of the Union, as he seems to keep hurting the players and Unions. Which brings me to this article below, sounds like the players leadership committee has hired outside legal form to look into Howell...
I'm not sure if this is a cover up or a real look into it, but I truly hope it's a true look and if he's not doing a good job they get him out and quickly, as he seems to be all about loading his own pockets... and not looking out for the players.
Heck, seems like working for the NFL more than the players, trying to knowledge away from the players, as he passes the blame and makes excuses. The players could be in trouble if they don't get a new leader in before the contract negotiations, as again, he seems to be more willing to help the NFL than the players.
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/nflpa-hires-outside-law-firm-to-review-lloyd-howells-work-as-executive-director