NFLPA members disagree over knowledge of Lloyd Howell lawsuit - ESPN

NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. was sued in 2011 for sexual discrimination and retaliation while he was a senior executive at Booz Allen. But a dispute has emerged about whether the players who voted for him were aware of the lawsuit prior to his 2023 election — the latest development surrounding Howell's position as union leader.

Two player representatives who voted for Howell told ESPN, this week, they were surprised to learn of the lawsuit, because they said when they met as a group in June 2023 to select between two candidates for executive director, the subject never came up.

«I felt really good about the process leading up to it,» said one of the players, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. «Now that all this stuff is coming out, I am like — wait a second, what happened there?»

«To find this out after we elected Lloyd is concerning; it feels like it was quashed,» a different player rep told a confidant, who shared the comments with ESPN.

However, two other players, who sat on the union's executive committee that vetted and chose Howell as a finalist in 2023, disputed those accounts in a joint interview Wednesday night. They told ESPN that the existence of the lawsuit, which was ultimately settled, was shared with all player reps at the 2023 election meeting. They said Howell was «grilled» about the lawsuit in front of the player reps, so they failed to understand how some player reps now say they didn't know about it.

In a one-hour interview with ESPN, the executive committee players at times said they could not recall details about what was asked of Howell and how he responded to questions and, at other times, said they did not want to divulge details of what was said.

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