Don Van Natta Jr.
Kalyn Kahler
Kalyn Kahler
ESPN
Kalyn Kahler is a senior NFL author at ESPN. Kalyn stories on a variety of NFL matters. She reported concerning the affect of teaching brokers on NFL hiring and came upon what present and former Cowboys gamers actually take into consideration the tour teams of followers that roam about The Star day by day. Earlier than becoming a member of ESPN in July of 2024, Kalyn wrote for The Athletic, Defector, Bleacher Report and Sports activities Illustrated. She started her profession at Sports activities Illustrated as NFL columnist Peter King’s assistant. She is a graduate of Northwestern College, the place she was a varsity cheerleader. In her free time, Kalyn takes Spanish lessons and teaches Irish dance. You possibly can attain out to Kalyn through e mail.
NFL Gamers Affiliation govt director Lloyd Howell Jr. is working as a paid, part-time advisor for The Carlyle Group, one in every of a choose group of league-approved non-public fairness corporations now looking for minority possession in NFL franchises, ESPN has realized.
Howell joined the agency in March 2023, three months earlier than the NFLPA employed him to be the gamers’ chief consultant in relations with the league.
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Final August, the NFL named three non-public fairness corporations and a consortium of corporations, together with Carlyle, to an inventory of authorised funds that may put money into minority franchise stakes to not exceed 10%.
A month later, a senior union lawyer spoke with Howell about whether or not it was acceptable for him to proceed working as an operations govt in The Carlyle Group’s aerospace and protection funding group, sources instructed ESPN.
The union lawyer requested Howell to think about resigning from the non-public fairness agency to keep away from the looks of a battle of curiosity if the agency takes an possession stake in an NFL franchise, a supply with information of the state of affairs stated. Howell declined to step away from Carlyle, the supply stated.
Howell couldn’t be reached by ESPN and declined to remark by way of a union spokesperson, who additionally declined to remark for this story.
Nonetheless, a supply acquainted with the matter instructed ESPN that Howell recollects solely that issues have been raised by “a union worker,” and he stated he would “do his due diligence” earlier than making a call.
Ten months after the difficulty was raised, Howell continues to work as a part-time advisor for The Carlyle Group, which is actively exploring investments in NFL franchises however has not but made one.
A Carlyle Group spokesperson stated Howell had disclosed his work on the NFLPA to the agency. However she stated Howell has had no involvement within the enterprise or inside communications across the agency’s NFL approval course of or any of the agency’s funding actions associated to the NFL.
“He had no entry to details about the NFL and Carlyle course of past public information stories as a result of strict Carlyle data boundaries in place,” Kristen Ashton, a spokesperson for the agency, stated in an announcement to ESPN. “Carlyle was not conscious of the request from union legal professionals for Lloyd to resign from Carlyle.”
Longtime union observers and executives stated they discover it baffling that Howell would proceed to work at The Carlyle Group whereas main the union, which paid him $3.4 million final 12 months.
Jim Quinn, the NFLPA’s former lead exterior counsel of about 25 years, stated that when he represented Howell’s predecessors, Gene Upshaw and DeMaurice Smith, neither was allowed to be paid for outdoor work.
“So far as I knew, they by no means had the power to earn exterior revenue,” Quinn stated. “That wasn’t their job. Their job was to characterize the gamers.”
Quinn stated he would have anticipated Howell to resign from his place with Carlyle instantly upon being elected govt director.
“It will be an outrageous battle for the top of a labor union to have an curiosity in a 3rd social gathering that’s aligned with the NFL,” Quinn instructed ESPN. “The connection between a labor group and the employer group is adversarial by definition, and in consequence, as a pacesetter, you need to be completely clear and clear as to having no even look of battle.”
Howell has come below elevated scrutiny in latest weeks on a number of fronts.
As ESPN reported Wednesday, the union struck a confidentiality settlement with the NFL to maintain the small print of a January arbitration ruling below wraps from gamers. Arbitrator Christopher Droney decided there wasn’t adequate proof of collusion by homeowners after Deshaun Watson signed a totally assured, $230 million contract in 2022.
Nonetheless, Droney concluded in his 61-page ruling that the NFLPA confirmed “by a transparent preponderance of the proof” that commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s basic counsel Jeff Pash had urged homeowners to limit assured cash in participant contracts.
ESPN reported that Howell briefed the gamers on the choice however didn’t element the findings or present copies. The confidentiality settlement saved the small print of Droney’s discovering from the gamers till the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast revealed the complete arbitrator’s report on June 24.
On Tuesday evening, two weeks after the report was revealed, the union determined to attraction the arbitrators’ determination to a three-person panel.
Sources additionally instructed ESPN that the union final month employed Ronald C. Machen of the legislation agency Wilmer Hale to work with a particular committee of gamers to evaluate Howell’s actions as the chief director. Machen has declined to remark.
In accordance with sources, the Machen-led inquiry was triggered by ESPN reporting in Could that the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating the union’s monetary dealings associated to a multibillion-dollar group-licensing agency, OneTeam Companions. The agency was co-founded in 2019 by the NFLPA and the Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation. Howell and MLBPA govt director Tony Clark are on the OneTeam board.
Previous to becoming a member of the NFLPA, Howell labored for 34 years at expertise consulting agency Booz Allen Hamilton, most not too long ago as the corporate’s chief monetary officer from 2016 to 2022.
The agency paid a $377 million nice to settle a long-standing whistleblower lawsuit from the federal authorities that alleged overcharging by the agency. The nice was one of many largest awards in a authorities procurement case in historical past.
In accordance with The Washington Put up, the whistleblower stated in her lawsuit that she had raised her grievance for months with senior executives, together with Howell.
The Booz Allen settlement was introduced in July 2023, a month after the NFLPA’s govt committee employed Howell to be its govt director.
Apart from his part-time work at The Carlyle Group, Howell serves on three boards of administrators: GE HealthCare, Moody’s and ManTech. In accordance with monetary filings, for the fiscal 12 months ended Dec. 31, Howell was paid $360,038 in money and inventory by Moody’s, whereas GE HealthCare paid him $324,934 in money and inventory. ManTech has been privately held since its acquisition by Carlyle in 2022.
A supply with information of the matter stated that the NFLPA govt committee was conscious that Howell was serving on exterior boards and dealing for The Carlyle Group.
Quinn stated paid board positions may pose a battle. “​​Contractually, and simply as a matter of widespread sense, you most likely wouldn’t be on different boards to the extent they may presumably have some relationship with the league,” he stated.
“Marvin Miller, Don Fehr, Larry Fleisher, choose your favourite head of a gamers’ affiliation, all of whom I represented — none of them had exterior pursuits,” Quinn stated. “Their solely curiosity was in representing the gamers, whether or not it was basketball gamers, hockey gamers, soccer gamers or baseball gamers. So to me, that is simply very troubling.”
ESPN editor Laura Purtell contributed to this report.
