Lloyd Howell's resignation is first logical step NFLPA has taken in a while

The day that needed to come has arrived at the NFLPA. After an avalanche of news leaks and stories over the past few weeks, NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell resigned from his post, marking the first logical step that the union has made since Pablo Torre unearthed a 61-page arbitration document that launched outside scrutiny at the NFLPA.

Since then, the union has been embroiled in controversy with additional reporting from ESPN detailing an overly secretive union that clearly does not have the best interests of its constituents in mind. Howell’s resignation was always going to come, but finally the union is able to move into a more constructive era where they have a chance to positively represent their players.

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In the wake of the initial report on Pablo Torre Finds Out, Howell has been exposed as someone who works for a firm investing in NFL teams; agreed to cover up collusion evidence in tandem with the owners; used union funds to pay for a trip to a strip club in Miami; and had a lawsuit against him for sexual harassment unearthed. There was simply no way that he could have remained the head of the union. Practically, morally — it just was not feasible. This is the ethos of someone who actively works against unions, not supporting them. Howell never had any business getting this job in the first place, but former president J.C. Tretter, who acted more as an agent of the owners than the players with regard to the collusion lawsuit, played a role in getting him hired.

The main, and perhaps only at this time, positive of Howell resigning is that this didn’t linger on and become an even bigger distraction for the union than it already is. Howell even noted in his public resignation statement that his "leadership has become a distraction to the important work the NFLPA advances every day.”

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Yeah. That’s one way to put it. The other way to put it is that his leadership was actively destroying the one piece of solidarity that keeps the league in a healthy space without owners running their workforce into the ground. However, that didn’t seem to bother Howell too much while he was embezzling funds to take trips to Tootsie’s on the union dime for what must have been an exquisite meal and entertainment.

A distraction is something that temporarily causes an entity to lose focus on their main task. How can someone be distracted from something they never intended on doing the right way? It was frankly offensive to usher Howell in at any point — the man fought against unions prior to taking over as the executive director of the union! How can you hire a union buster to lead a union? You can’t sleep in a den of lions and be surprised when they take a bite out of you. They’re lions. That’s what they do. And that’s what people like Howell do, and why he had to go. No serious union would have even entertained Howell’s candidacy, let alone using a borderline secret and rushed vote to get him in the door.

If the NFLPA is willing to be less sensitive to what people say about the union, this can be a great chance for inflection and change. A new collective bargaining agreement is five years away, giving them time to go through the proper election process for a new executive director. Perhaps one that isn’t involved with increasing the financial value of NFL teams that they’re investing in. A union director that isn’t receiving kickbacks off investments in NFL teams would be a great starting point as the NFLPA attempts to move on from this disaster.

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A few years before the negotiations on the CBA heat up is the perfect time to make a change in the culture of the union. Get back to doggedly fighting for the players instead of chumming it up with owners to gain more personal notoriety among the ruling class. The union has to be about the players. This is their chance to get back to that.