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Dan Wetzel
Of all the details concerning the tenure of now-former NFL Players Association leader Lloyd Howell Jr. uncovered by ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler, the one about his parking spot at union headquarters is fairly inconsequential.
It’s a parking spot, after all.
It certainly pales in comparison to Howell’s nondisclosure deal with the NFL, his side hustle as a consultant at a private equity group with NFL ties, the FBI’s investigation into a multibillion-dollar group licensing firm co-owned by the union or even Howell’s expense-report related to an all-night trip to a Miami Gardens, Florida, gentlemen’s club.
Yet maybe the parking spot says it all about not just where Howell’s tenure went wrong, but also how the union has lost focus in finding leaders who are driven more by the job — representing labor — than the accoutrements of the job: the $3.4 million in salary, the fame and, yes, the reserved office parking spot … or two.
During his two years at the union, Howell, as ESPN reported, had the line removed between two parking spots at the NFLPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. That provided him with a single, oversized slot so he could park his Porsche Cayenne Turbo without fear of anyone dinging the sides.
He then had the spaces — previously Nos. 10 and 11 — labeled No. 32 as an homage to his favorite all-time player, O.J. Simpson.
That was what was important to him?
The NFL has been running roughshod over the NFLPA for years now. It’s rarely a fair fight. The players are more independent businesses than a traditional brother-and-sisterhood of, say, a General Motors stamping plant in an Ohio factory town.
And there is almost no public sympathy for professional athletes, even in football with its undeniable health risks. The fight is uphill.
Collective bargaining agreements are vast and full of details. The players have gained in some areas through the years. However, in the rawest of terms, back in 2006, the last days of a CBA negotiated by the legendary Gene Upshaw, NFL players were getting 57.5% of league revenue and playing 16 regular-season games.
The latest deal was for about 47% and a 17-game schedule. Expect owners to seek 18 games — and potentially a greater share of revenue — when the current deal expires after the 2030 season.
It’s why the players need a force of nature to stand up for their interests, one completely entrenched in old-school union thinking — battling management at every turn — rather than seeming like they could switch teams at any moment.
“That’s an understatement,” said Bob Stropp, 77, who served as the general counsel with the United Mine Workers and through the years worked with the United Auto Workers, Teamsters and other trade and industrial unions, as well as some professional sports associations.
Stropp never understood the thinking, let alone many of the actions, of Howell or his NFLPA predecessor, DeMaurice Smith. Stropp said he saw leaders who appeared to want to work with the owners rather than for the players.
“They both came from the corporate world and didn’t have a labor fiber in their body,” Stropp told ESPN.
The players are, again, looking for a new leader following Howell’s resignation last week after a slew of details about his tenure came out.
That includes, as first reported by ESPN, a bizarre nondisclosure agreement with the NFL to hide the findings in an arbitration case that accused owners of working together to avoid giving star quarterbacks such as Russell Wilson and Lamar Jackson guaranteed contracts.
The owners were cleared of collusion, but the arbitrator’s ruling concluded “by a clear preponderance of the evidence” that commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s general counsel, Jeff Pash, urged owners to restrict guaranteed contracts. The podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” first obtained the ruling.
This should have been a significant — albeit not outright — victory for the union. It’s the kind of thing that could rally player unity and be used as a cudgel to bash owners in a way fans might understand.
Instead, Howell buried it?
From there it all unraveled. Questions emerged about his time at the corporate consulting firm Booz Allen, a side gig with a private equity group with clearance to buy a minority stake in teams, his use of his expense account, and so on.
It was fair to wonder just where his loyalties resided. If he would restrict revelations involving superstars such as Wilson and Jackson, how concerned was Howell with the rank-and-file?
Was this a professional calling or just a stop in a long career bopping between management and labor? Was he willing to make enemies and burn bridges with the nation’s biggest business leaders as this kind of job sometimes requires?
According to the reporting of Kahler and Van Natta, one player rep said Howell’s pitch during the interview process was: “I have been the guy fighting against unions for the corporation. So, I know exactly how they think and how they do things.”
It’s a good line. And maybe a reasonable one in some cases.
In this one, though, the NFLPA now needs someone all-in on labor, someone whose career goal is this high-powered job, not just a high-powered job.
Stropp, with all that real-world experience, recommends the NFLPA look to someone in the mold of the late Marvin Miller, whom baseball players hired from the United Steelworkers in 1966 to establish their still-powerhouse union.
There is no room for consulting gigs, let alone the perception of confused loyalties. If there is, the players are going to get run over … again.
“This is a full-time job — you’ve got to be committed to the NFLPA and only the NFLPA,” Stropp said. “You have to know what the labor movement is all about, because the owners know what they are all about.”
The job has to be about the work, not where you get to park your Porsche.
