NFLPA executive committee will meet "as soon as possible"

With NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell abruptly resigning on Thursday night, the NFLPA needs a new executive director.

Via Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, the NFLPA executive committee sent this message to players following Howell’s announcement: “This evening, Lloyd Howell informed us that he is stepping down as Executive Director of the union. We accepted his resignation and are grateful for his service. The Board will convene as soon as possible for a meeting on next steps and will be in touch with our membership soon.”

The “Board” is the board of player representatives, the duly-elected one-per-team group that voted for Howell, and that will eventually vote for the next executive director.

While the NFLPA Constitution doesn’t address the procedure for assigning an interim executive director, they did it in 2008, following the death of Gene Upshaw. Union general counsel Richard Berthelsen became the short-term replacement, pending the hiring of DeMaurice Smith.

Last week, Don Davis was gaining traction as the possible interim executive director. Another possibility is current general counsel Tom DePaso, who will be retiring.

It can be whoever the executive committee and/or the board of player representative wants it to be, and that person would then have an opportunity to prove that he or she should earn the permanent position — based on the work done while temporarily holding down the fort.