Report: NFLPA places attorney on leave after claims of abuse

The NFL Players Association’s legal issues don’t appear to be going away anytime soon.
Less than a month after Lloyd Howell Jr. stepped down as executive director, the NFLPA on Tuesday placed one of its top attorneys on paid administrative leave, ESPN reported on Thursday.
According to the report, Heather McPhee, associate general counsel for the NFLPA, was put on leave after multiple union employees filed complaints with the human resources department.
The complaints, according to five sources who spoke with ESPN, included allegations of failing to follow supervisors’ directions, bullying coworkers and disrupting the work environment within the union.
ESPN reported that the union retained an outside firm “months ago” to investigate the claims against McPhee, and that those allegations were officially outlined in a letter signed by interim executive director David White on Tuesday.
McPhee, who has held her role since 2009, reportedly wrote several memos warning the NFLPA of potential legal troubles with OneTeam Partners, a $2 billion licensing company owned in part by the NFLPA and the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Among McPhee’s reported claims were that OneTeam board members allocated equity shares to themselves as part of a bonus plan. Unrelated allegations of wrongdoing reportedly were made by an MLBPA whistleblower against that union’s head, Tony Clark.
Howell was also accused of a conflict of interest as he served as a consultant for The Carlyle Group, one of a small handful of private equity firms that the NFL has approved to pursue minority ownership in franchises, as well as potential collusion with the league to stem the increasing value of quarterback contracts.
ESPN’s reporting last month also included a former lead outside counsel for the NFLPA, Jim Quinn, calling it “an outrageous conflict for the head of a labor union to have an interest in a third party that is aligned with the NFL.”
Howell ultimately resigned after ESPN reported that receipts from a November 2023 trip taken by Howell showed car service and other costs billed to the NFLPA from Tootsie’s Cabaret, which promotes itself as the world’s largest strip club.