NFLPA head also works for firm approved to invest in NFL

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NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. is working as a paid, part-time consultant for The Carlyle Group, one of a select group of league-approved private equity firms now seeking minority ownership in NFL franchises, sources told ESPN.

Howell joined the firm in March 2023, three months before the NFLPA hired him to be the players' chief representative in relations with the league.

Last August, the NFL named three private equity firms and a consortium of firms, including Carlyle, to a list of approved funds that can invest in minority franchise stakes not to exceed 10%.

A month later, a senior union lawyer spoke with Howell about whether it was appropriate for him to continue working as an operations executive in The Carlyle Group's aerospace and defense investment team, sources told ESPN.

The union lawyer asked Howell to consider resigning from the private equity firm to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest if the firm takes an ownership stake in an NFL franchise, a source with knowledge of the situation said. Howell declined to step away from Carlyle, the source said.

Howell could not be reached by ESPN and declined to comment through a union spokesperson, who also declined to comment for this story.

However, a source familiar with the matter told ESPN that Howell recalls only that concerns were raised by "a union employee," and he said he would "do his due diligence" before making a decision.

Ten months after the issue was raised, Howell continues to work as a part-time consultant for The Carlyle Group, which is actively exploring investments in NFL franchises but has not yet made one.

A Carlyle Group spokesperson said Howell had disclosed his work at the NFLPA to the firm. But she said Howell has had no involvement in the business or internal communications around the firm's NFL approval process or any of the firm's investment activities related to the NFL.

"He had no access to information about the NFL and Carlyle process beyond public news reports due to strict Carlyle information barriers in place," Kristen Ashton, a spokesperson for the firm, said in a statement to ESPN. "Carlyle was not aware of the request from union lawyers for Lloyd to resign from Carlyle."

Longtime union observers and executives said they find it baffling that Howell would continue to work at The Carlyle Group while leading the union, which paid him $3.4 million last year.

Jim Quinn, the NFLPA's former lead outside counsel of about 25 years, said that when he represented Howell's predecessors, Gene Upshaw and DeMaurice Smith, neither was allowed to be paid for outside work.

"As far as I knew, they never had the ability to earn outside income," Quinn said. "That wasn't their job. Their job was to represent the players."

Quinn said he would have expected Howell to resign from his position with Carlyle immediately upon being elected executive director.

"It would be an outrageous conflict for the head of a labor union to have an interest in a third party that is aligned with the NFL," Quinn told ESPN. "The relationship between a labor organization and the employer organization is adversarial by definition, and as a result, as a leader, you have to be absolutely clear and clean as to having no even appearance of conflict."

Howell has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks on multiple fronts.

As ESPN reported Wednesday, the union struck a confidentiality agreement with the NFL to keep the details of a January arbitration ruling under wraps from players. Arbitrator Christopher Droney determined there wasn't sufficient evidence of collusion by owners after Deshaun Watson signed a fully guaranteed, $230 million contract in 2022.

However, Droney concluded in his 61-page ruling that the NFLPA showed "by a clear preponderance of the evidence" that commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's general counsel Jeff Pash had urged owners to restrict guaranteed money in player contracts.

ESPN reported that Howell briefed the players on the decision but did not detail the findings or provide copies. The confidentiality agreement kept the details of Droney's finding from the players until the "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast published the full arbitrator's report on June 24.

On Tuesday night, two weeks after the report was published, the union decided to appeal the arbitrators' decision to a three-person panel.

Sources also told ESPN that the union last month hired Ronald C. Machen of the law firm Wilmer Hale to work with a special committee of players to review Howell's activities as the executive director. Machen has declined to comment.

According to sources, the Machen-led inquiry was triggered by ESPN reporting in May that the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating the union's financial dealings related to a multibillion-dollar group-licensing firm, OneTeam Partners. The firm was co-founded in 2019 by the NFLPA and the Major League Baseball Players Association. Howell and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark are on the OneTeam board.

Prior to joining the NFLPA, Howell worked for 34 years at technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, most recently as the company's chief financial officer from 2016 to 2022.

The firm paid a $377 million fine to settle a long-standing whistleblower lawsuit from the federal government that alleged overcharging by the firm. The fine was one of the largest awards in a government procurement case in history.

According to The Washington Post, the whistleblower said in her lawsuit that she had raised her complaint for months with senior executives, including Howell.

The Booz Allen settlement was announced in July 2023, a month after the NFLPA's executive committee hired Howell to be its executive director.

Besides his part-time work at The Carlyle Group, Howell serves on three boards of directors: GE HealthCare, Moody's and ManTech. According to financial filings, for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, Howell was paid $360,038 in cash and stock by Moody's, while GE HealthCare paid him $324,934 in cash and stock. ManTech has been privately held since its acquisition by Carlyle in 2022.

A source with knowledge of the matter said that the NFLPA executive committee was aware that Howell was serving on outside boards and working for The Carlyle Group.

Quinn said paid board positions can also pose a conflict. "​​Contractually, and just as a matter of common sense, you probably would not be on other boards to the extent they could possibly have some relationship with the league," he said.

"Marvin Miller, Don Fehr, Larry Fleisher, pick your favorite head of a players' association, all of whom I represented -- none of them had outside interests," Quinn said. "Their only interest was in representing the players, whether it was basketball players, hockey players, football players or baseball players. So to me, this is just very troubling."

ESPN editor Laura Purtell contributed to this report.

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