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With the official opening of the National Football League’s training camps this past week, news of a scandal at the executive level of its players’ association has made headlines. Lloyd Howell Jr. resigned as the executive director of the National Football League Players’ Association (NFLPA) amid allegations of conflicts of interest and expense impropriety.

This situation is an embarrassing turn of events for a union that has prided itself on stability at the top of its organization over the past 42 years. In that time, there have been only three men to hold the position of executive director: Gene Upshaw (1983-2008), DeMaurice Smith (2009-2023), and Howell (2023 to the present).

Pro football players, like all professional athletes, tak

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