The NFL Players Association has a new leader.
The NFLPA on Sunday night announced the hiring of David White to take over as the interim executive director in a move that was necessitated by the stunning resignation of Lloyd Howell Jr. on July 17.
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that JC Tretter, the union’s chief strategy officer, and Don Davis, the chief player officer, emerged as the lead candidates following Howell’s departure. Tretter later resigned from his position.
One union official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation, said that a voting player representative from all 32 teams participated in the Board vote. The person also said that on the final short list of candidates, there were multiple internal candidates and multiple external ones.
The Board conducted interviews with each candidate over the last two weeks, and the process was player-led and voted on by the Board. The person also said that ultimately, the Board voted on their elected candidate this evening.
NFLPA leadership initially expressed their support for Howell, but the fallout from the ‘Pablo Torre Finds Out’ podcast’s release of a 61-page arbitration report proved to be too much.
The report revealed the NFLPA agreed to keep the arbitration decision from earlier this year about potential collusion by the league confidential – despite evidence that ‘commissioner Roger Goodell and former general counsel Jeff Pash instructed teams at the March 2022 league meeting to limit guaranteed money in players’ contracts.’
Howell was later found to be a paid, part-time consultant for the private-equity firm The Carlyle Group since March 2023, as reported by ESPN. It highlighted a potential conflict of interest as the group was given approval by the NFL to seek a minority ownership stake in a team.
More revelations regarding Howell’s conduct have come to light following his resignation. On July 18, ESPN reported that Howell submitted expense reports charging the union for two visits to strip clubs.
The former leader’s controversial tenure was short-lived and came to an end just over two years following his hiring on June 28, 2023.
Now White will be tasked with cleaning up the mess that was left behind in addition to restoring trust between the union and its membership.
They won’t have the luxury of time, however, as training camps are already underway and the regular season is fast approaching.
NFL writer Chris Bumbaca contributed to this story.
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