NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell steps down after weeks of criticism

NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. is stepping down, effective immediately, he announced in a statement via the NFLPA on Thursday. A source briefed on the procedure told The Athletic that the NFLPA executive board plans to meet in the coming days to discuss next steps, including naming an interim executive director.

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The move follows several weeks of criticism aimed at the NFLPA, including concerns about a potential conflict of interest involving Howell and reporting that the NFLPA agreed to a confidentiality agreement with the NFL to hide information about an arbitration decision.

“It’s clear that my leadership has become a distraction to the important work the NFLPA advances every day,” Howell wrote in the statement. “… I hope this will allow the NFLPA to maintain its focus on its player members ahead of the upcoming season.”

Statement from Lloyd Howell Jr. pic.twitter.com/levOYblG2T — NFLPA (@NFLPA) July 18, 2025

Last week, ESPN reported, and sources familiar with the situation confirmed, that in addition to Howell’s work with the NFLPA, he is also a paid, part-time consultant for a private equity firm approved by the NFL to pursue minority ownership stakes in franchises.

Sources familiar with the situation told The Athletic that Howell joined the firm, The Carlyle Group, in March 2023. That was months before the NFLPA hired him in June of that year. The NFL would not approve private equity minority investors until August 2024. Two sources with knowledge of the NFLPA’s hiring process told The Athletic that union leadership knew about Howell’s work with the firm during the hiring process and that members of the NFLPA’s legal team and the independent search firm vetted his outside affiliations to ensure no conflicts of interest.

When the firm had the opportunity to invest in the NFL, four sources with knowledge of the situation said discussions about Howell’s role occurred and that lawyers for the NFLPA and The Carlyle Group decided Howell’s work in the aerospace and defense division was distant enough from the group’s work with the NFL. The Carlyle Group said in a statement that Howell “had no access to information about the NFL.”

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An NFLPA source with knowledge of the situation disputed details in the ESPN report, which said that an NFLPA attorney requested that Howell consider resigning from his role with The Carlyle Group. Three other sources said they had not heard of an NFLPA lawyer making that request to Howell.

On Sunday, the NFLPA executive committee sent a message to members in support of 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,” read the statement, which was obtained by The Athletic. “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 judgment.

“We believe in and remain committed to working with our Executive Director and other members of the NFLPA staff and player leadership who have a shared mission to advance the best interests of players.”

Now, Howell is out two years after he was hired and before negotiating his first collective bargaining agreement; the current CBA expires in March 2031.

“I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish at the NFLPA over the past two years,” Howell said in his statement. “I will be rooting for the players from the sidelines as loud as ever, and I know the NFLPA will continue to ensure that players remain firmly at the center of football’s future.”

Howell’s departure is just the latest controversy facing the NFLPA. Earlier this month, “Pablo Torre Finds Out” and ESPN reported, and a union source confirmed, that the NFLPA entered into a confidentiality agreement with the league to hide information about an arbitration agreement. The arbitration agreement found that league executives pushed team ownership to reduce guaranteed player compensation, but the arbitrator ruled in January that there was not enough evidence of collusion. ESPN reported, and the source confirmed, that the NFLPA plans to appeal the ruling.

A month after the collusion ruling, an arbitrator ruled in favor of the NFL in a grievance filed in 2023 that accused the NFLPA of advising players to fake injuries as a contract negotiation tactic. The grievance stemmed from comments by JC Tretter, former union president and current NFLPA chief strategy officer, suggesting that while seeking a new contract, players could fake injuries to sit out practice. “Pablo Torre Finds Out” first reported the ruling Thursday; the NFL told The Athletic it had reported the results to club personnel and ownership at the March league meetings.

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The NFLPA’s fourth leader since the league’s merger in 1970, Howell replaced former executive director DeMaurice Smith, who led the association from 2009 to 2023. The NFLPA began looking for new leadership after some members criticized Smith’s leadership during collective bargaining agreement negotiations; Smith barely survived a vote in 2021 for a fifth term.

The NFLPA hired Howell in 2023 in the culmination of a search process that was criticized for its lack of transparency. Before his work at the NFLPA, Howell worked for 34 years at Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., including as the chief financial officer. Like Smith, Howell did not have a background in sports before his work at the NFLPA; his BA is in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and he has an MBA from Harvard.

(Photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

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