NFLPA lawyer reveals she was fired in wake of raising legal concerns - ESPN

The National Football League Players Association has fired the veteran lawyer who sued the union and top executives last month, according to a court document filed in federal court this week.

Heather McPhee, the NFLPA's associate general counsel since 2009, revealed in a court filing that the union fired her on Dec. 30. The dismissal came less than two weeks after she sued the union, its former executive director, Lloyd Howell Jr., and two current senior executives for allegedly conspiring to keep her from cooperating with a yearlong federal criminal inquiry into union finances.

Last August, McPhee had been put on paid administrative leave for alleged workplace «misconduct» after she had repeatedly raised legal concerns about union leaders' decisions. She also alleged that executives had tried to keep her from testifying before a federal grand jury now investigating the NFLPA and the Major League Players Association.

In her federal lawsuit, filed last month, McPhee accused the current and former executives of illegal misconduct, sex discrimination, breach of fiduciary duty and retaliation as she prepared to become the star witness in the yearlong criminal inquiry being conducted by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

McPhee did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Union spokesman Brandon Parker declined to comment on the McPhee firing, saying the union doesn't discuss personnel matters. The two current executives being sued by McPhee are longtime union general counsel Tom DePaso and Matt Curtin, a Howell hire who is now the president of Players Inc., a union licensing arm.

Separately, multiple sources told ESPN the union placed Craig Jones, a veteran security and operations employee at NFLPA's Washington, D.C.,