NFL Players Association president Jalen Reeves-Maybin released a statement Tuesday declaring the union is committed to “serving the best interests of our membership” and promising an interim executive director would be voted on “in the near future.”
The statement comes amid a difficult month for the union, in which both executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. and chief strategy officer JC Tretter resigned amid scandals that had enveloped Howell’s brief tenure.
“The players who make up the NFLPA are bound not only by our shared experiences on and off the field, but by our shared commitment to the success and well-being of our members,” Reeves-Maybin wrote. “While our union has been tested of late, we remain committed to the values of integrity, accountability, and progress in serving the best interests of our membership.
“The NFLPA Executive Committee and Board of Player Representatives are in the process of selecting an interim executive director. In recent days, the Board passed a resolution in accordance with the NFLPA Constitution to allow for the eventual vote of such an interim leader and agreed to processes and terms to select a candidate. We are conducting ongoing due diligence and will hold a vote in the near future as soon as that process is complete.
“In the meantime, I am in close contact with the NFLPA Executive Leadership Team to ensure good governance practices and continued union business until an interim executive director is elected.”
Reeves-Maybin was a linebacker for the Detroit Lions before the team released him this past spring. He took over as NFLPA president in March 2024.
Tretter, a former NFLPA president himself, was seen as a likely replacement for Howell until Tretter stepped down from the organization Sunday, telling CBS Sports he was “done taking bullets for the (NFLPA) on stuff I wasn’t a part of and did not do.”
Howell stepped down July 17 to no longer be a “distraction” for the NFLPA. The next day, an ESPN report detailed multiple instances of Howell expensing trips to a Miami strip club to the union’s account.
The “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast revealed that Howell agreed to a confidentiality agreement with the NFL after an arbitrator determined that there wasn’t sufficient evidence of collusion between owners — but that there was “a clear preponderance of the evidence” to suggest commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL’s general counsel encouraged owners to restrict guaranteed money in player contracts.
Howell was also found to be serving in a part-time consulting role for The Carlyle Group, one of a small handful of private equity firms that the NFL has approved to pursue minority ownership in franchises. Howell resigned from that position this week.
While Howell’s documented indiscretions have piled up throughout the summer, Tretter’s name appeared in the latest report by “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” covering a second arbitration ruling that was kept under wraps on the topic of fake injuries.
A grievance filed in 2023 complained that Tretter suggested players can fake injuries as a tactic in contract negotiations. The arbitrator in the case determined on Feb. 20 of this year that his comments violated the collective bargaining agreement.
Tretter told CBS Sports he was “not resigning in disgrace,” and he denied the notion that Howell created the position of chief strategy officer for him as a quid pro quo for helping him get appointed executive director.
–Field Level Media
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