NFL Players Association elects first new executive director in 14 years

For the first time in 14 years, the NFL Players Association has a new executive director.

The NFLPA board of player representatives announced Wednesday that it elected Lloyd Howell as the union’s fourth executive director, succeeding DeMaurice Smith.

Howell spent 34 years at management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, most recently as the firm’s chief financial officer and treasurer and previously as head of its civil and commercial group. Howell serves on the boards of Moody Corporation and General Electric Healthcare and is a trustee at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Howell earned his MBA at Harvard Business School.

“I look forward to driving our bold goals and achieving them together in the future,” Howell said in a statement, in part. “I look forward to building relationships and the solidarity amongst our players.”

While Howell’s extensive corporate experience does not include work in sports, he said on a conference call Wednesday that he believes “my background and my leadership skills would be attractive” to players. He cited his ability to galvanize individuals around a common goal as one of his key strengths in the position. Howell declined to detail during the call any of his beliefs on the current NFL CBA, NFL players’ leverage or the role a strike could play, though he said he presented some of those views to the NFLPA board during the interview process.

“I'm really an agent of service for the players, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know the players, getting to know what their interests are, what their priorities are,” he said. “I have a learning curve, if you will, regarding the specifics. [But] I do have a track record of getting up those learning curves pretty quickly with the input and the support.”

Howell said he does not have a relationship with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who released a statement on the election congratulating Howell and thanking Smith for his “continued partnership and unstinting work” on behalf of players.

“We look forward to working with Lloyd and his team,” Goodell said, “to continue growing the game and making it better, safer, and more accessible and attractive to fans around the world."

How the NFLPA chose Howell to succeed Smith

NFLPA president J.C. Tretter said conversations among board members, as well as a report from the executive search firm they enlisted to survey stakeholders, did not indicate a strong desire to elect a former player as the next NFLPA executive director.

“You don’t need to be a former player to be able to motivate and galvanize a group of people,” Tretter said. “So we were really looking for anybody that was capable of doing that, and we found a great one.”

The search for an executive director spanned a 16-month process that involved an executive search firm, a legal counselor and input from the NFLPA executive committee. That committee includes Tretter, treasurer Alex Mack and vice presidents Calais Campbell, Austin Ekeler, Ryan Kelly, Jason McCourty, Brandon McManus, Thomas Morstead, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Richard Sherman and Michael Thomas.

Beyond those 11 members, some of whom are no longer active in the NFL, board members and players more broadly were not privy to most developments in the search. Tretter said Wednesday that the executive board unanimously voted in July to keep the search confidential in hopes of preventing outside influence from filtering into player decisions. Tretter was questioned repeatedly during the call about prioritizing confidentiality above transparency. He said his committee believed that was what “good governance” dictated and that other players had elected them to make such decisions.

“This [executive committee] poured a ton of time into vetting and qualifying candidates, and then the players in locker rooms empower board members to make decisions for them,” Tretter said. “That’s what a representative democracy does. You speak for your locker room, and you trust the people you elect.”

The broader board of player representatives was invited this week to learn about the finalists — Tretter would not confirm how many there were, simply that the executive committee had agreed to bring two to four — and then vote.

Thirty of 32 teams were represented in Wednesday’s vote, which Tretter said was facilitated by a third-party counting service that announced the top vote-getter as winner but not the breakdown. Tretter tweeted a picture after the vote of Howell alongside 47 members who were in attendance to vote. Up to 128 player representatives were eligible to vote, with four total representatives or alternates per team.

Several players tweeted their support for the transition after the news was announced. Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward praised how the committee “did an amazing job to keep it confidential, professional,” while Morstead, the New York Jets' punter, was part of a chorus expressing “100%” support for the selection.

Tretter thanked Smith in a statement and emphasized the players’ role in filling the vacancy.

“The process was 100% player-led and focused on leadership, competency, skills and experience,” Tretter said. “Our union deserves strong leadership and a smooth transition, and we are confident Lloyd will make impactful advances on behalf of our membership.”

Smith negotiated two collective bargaining agreements as executive director, navigating the 2011 lockout just two years into his tenure and most recently an agreement ratified in 2020 that will extend through the 2030 season. He oversaw increases to player salaries, benefits and health and safety arrangements. In 2020, the NFLPA and league collaborated to engineer a season amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic without eliminating any games, game checks or player benefits.

The union also recently launched its first team report cards, surveying 1,300 players last fall on team dynamics, including facility treatment, nutrition, locker room and travel. The union released that information during the scouting combine this spring; Tretter said he plans for the survey to become an annual exercise that brings to light divergent standards across teams.

Smith tweeted Wednesday that “serving the players has been the experience of a lifetime.”