NFLPA members do not agree on the knowledge of Lloyd Howell's lawsuit

Lloyd Howell Jr., Executive Director of the NFL Players Association, was sued in 2011 for sexual discrimination and retaliation when he was a manager at Booz Allen. However, there has been a dispute over whether the players who voted for him were aware of the complaint before his elections in 2023 – the recent development of Howell's position as union leader.

Two players who voted for Howell said ESPN that they were surprised this week to find out about the lawsuit because they said when they met as a group in June 2023 to choose between two candidates for executor, the topic never arose.

“I felt very good in relation to the process that led to it,” said one of the players who spoke about the condition of anonymity. “Now that all of this stuff comes out, I think – wait a second, what happened there?”

“To find out this after we chose Lloyd, it is concerned. It feels like it was lifted,” said another confidant who shared the comments with ESPN.

Two other players who were selected as a finalist in the union's executive committee in 2023 contested these accounts in a joint interview on Wednesday evening. They said ESPN that the existence of the ultimately enclosed lawsuit was shared with all players with all players at the 2023 election meeting. They said howell was “grilled” about the complaint before the repetitions of the players so that they did not understand how some players' representatives now say that they didn't know about it.

In a one -hour interview with ESPN, the players of the Executive Committee did not temporarily say details about what was asked by Howell and how he answered questions and said at other times they didn't want to reveal any details about what was said.

“Full information was given to all … and questions were asked,” said one of the members of the Executive Committee, who spoke about the condition of anonymity. “The worst thing we could do was to get the wrong guy, right? [with Howell’s candidacy] Or we would have closed it. “

Although the executive committee distinguishes candidates and chooses finalists, the 32 employees of the players choose the union leader. The two sources of the Executive Committee said that they first raised the lawsuit for sexual discrimination against howell before making it the finalist. They said they were satisfied with his answers to all questions about his past. “Everything was very thorough,” the other member of the Executive Committee told ESPN. “We felt comfortable with his answers. And we felt good privately about what he said.”

One of the members of the Executive Committee said that it was “disgusting” that the employees of players told ESPN what happened in the elections behind closed doors. “And it wasn't true,” he said. “It is frustrating when this happens to people who go to reporters. Don't talk about our business with a damn reporter. This does not create confidence in our group.”

A union spokesman rejected a comment and said howell had no comment.

In August 2011, Margo Fitzpatrick, partner at Booz Allen, the company Howell and three other managers who claimed that the company had refused to lead women to lead women and excluded them from certain career opportunities for men.

Fitzpatrick claimed that Howell, who was her team leader in 2009, told her that the financial industry was “a good Aler boys club” in which only men could be successful “and that she had excluded from customer meetings. Fitzpatrick also claimed that Howell was asked whether two other colleagues were female in college because she had caused” drama “. Compared to the leadership of the leadership and was later denied and ended promotion, the lawsuit said.

A spokeswoman for Booz Allen did not respond to inquiries about comments on Wednesday.

The lawsuit was enclosed in July 2015 for an undisclosed sum, said sources ESPN. Fitzpatrick did not respond to a message that was looking for a comment on Wednesday. Her lawyer Debra Katz refused to comment on a speaker.

The NFLPA used the search company Russell Reynolds Associates to find an executive director who cited Demaurice Smith from 2009 to 2023. The NFLPA paid the company in the annual LM-2 report of the union in the financial year, on February 29, 2024, around 500,000.

Russell Reynolds did not respond to a message that was looking for a comment.

Union officers presented Howell and the only other finalists, the former SAG-ATTRA boss David P. White, after they had come to election on June 28, 2023 in the Salamander Resort in Middleburg, Virginia. The players of the players heard presentations and were able to ask questions to Howell and White over the course of two days before they made their ballot papers.

In the course of these meetings, the 32 players were either informed about Booz's lawsuit or not.

The player representative who said he knew nothing about the lawsuit that he had voted for Howell, but has no memory of the lawsuit or its details. “No, no, I hadn't heard anything,” he said. “I have the feeling that we only trusted them that they did all of this [research]. “

In the months -long review of the executive committee via Howell, before he was brought to the board member as a finalist, the two members of the Executive Committee stated closely with Russell Reynolds.

“We were aware of the lawsuit with Booz Allen … right at the beginning of the process. I can't remember whether we saw a copy of it,” said one of the members. “I would say the largest resource was Russell Reynold.

The members of the Executive Committee said they also advised themselves with Booz Allen lawyers and General Counsel of the union about the information from the lawsuit.

The lawyers “gave us the green light that we should feel comfortable,” said one of the members of the Executive Committee. “To be clear, nobody told us: 'Hey, he's good, you can now let him through the doors.' As a group, we made this decision – we did our Due Diligence.

“We all had to agree together, or we would not have progressed with it. We had the chance to speak to Lloyd for hours and hours and hours.”

Howell presented himself as someone who had fought against unions and was therefore familiar with their way of working, according to one of the employees of the players who had spoken to ESPN.

“In short, it was like: 'I will know how to negotiate with the owners because I get out of their world. I am a businessman,” said the player. “I was the guy who fought against unions for the company. So I know exactly how they think and how they do things. 'I was like shooting, he knows the other side, so maybe that's good for us.”

The players of the players in earlier elections for executive directors had more than two weeks to check the final candidates, but the union has changed their statutes in recent years in order to shorten the duration for Due diligence in order to avoid leaks, several sources shared with ESPN.

Howell's leadership has been examined after a number of ESPN reports in the past few weeks.

In May, ESPN reported that the FBI examined the union's financial transactions in connection with a group license company of multibillion dollars, OneTeam Partners. According to sources, the report triggered the union, Ronald C. make the law firm Wilmer Hale commissioned to check howell's activities as executive director.

Last week, ESPN reported that Howell works as a paid part-time consultant of the Carlyle Group, one of the private equity companies approved by the league who have NFL teams. ESPN also reported last week that Howell made a confidentiality agreement with the NFL six months ago, in which the details of an arbitration decision in January were hidden by players, including the fact that the league executives asked the team owners to reduce a guaranteed playback.

At least a dozen representatives of the players and members of the Executive Committee, of whom ESPN applied for a comment, rejected, and said several sources that the union asked the members not to speak to the media.

The Executive Committee of the NFLPA supported Howell in a message that was sent to membership on Sunday, and said that it “set a conscious procedure for careful evaluation of the problems raised and will not get involved in a hurry to judge.

In the interview on Wednesday evening, the two members of the Executive Committee Howell's leadership gave a sounding confirmation. “We felt good in relation to the process,” said one of them. “We are 100 percent behind Lloyd.”