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Don Van Natta Jr.
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Don Van Natta Jr.
ESPN Senior Author
- Host and co-executive producer of the brand new ESPN sequence, “Backstory”
- Member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning groups for nationwide, explanatory and public service journalism
- Writer of three books, together with New York Instances best-selling “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush”
- 24-year newspaper profession at The New York Instances and Miami Herald
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Kalyn Kahler
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Kalyn Kahler
ESPN
- Kalyn Kahler is a senior NFL author at ESPN. Kalyn experiences on a spread of NFL subjects. She reported in regards to the affect of teaching brokers on NFL hiring and came upon what present and former Cowboys gamers actually take into consideration the tour teams of followers that roam about The Star each day. Earlier than becoming a member of ESPN in July of 2024, Kalyn wrote for The Athletic, Defector, Bleacher Report and Sports activities Illustrated. She started her profession at Sports activities Illustrated as NFL columnist Peter King’s assistant. She is a graduate of Northwestern College, the place she was a varsity cheerleader. In her free time, Kalyn takes Spanish lessons and teaches Irish dance. You possibly can attain out to Kalyn by way of e-mail.
NFL Gamers Affiliation government director Lloyd Howell Jr. is working as a paid, part-time advisor for The Carlyle Group, one among a choose group of league-approved non-public fairness companies now in search of minority possession in NFL franchises, sources informed ESPN.
Howell joined the agency in March 2023, three months earlier than the NFLPA employed him to be the gamers’ chief consultant in relations with the league.
Final August, the NFL named three non-public fairness companies and a consortium of companies, together with Carlyle, to an inventory of accredited funds that may spend money on minority franchise stakes to not exceed 10%.
A month later, a senior union lawyer spoke with Howell about whether or not it was acceptable for him to proceed working as an operations supervisor in The Carlyle Group’s aerospace and protection funding workforce, sources informed ESPN.
The union lawyer requested Howell to think about resigning from the non-public fairness agency to keep away from the looks of a battle of curiosity if the agency takes an possession stake in an NFL franchise, a supply with data of the scenario stated. Howell declined to step away from Carlyle, the supply stated.
Howell couldn’t be reached by ESPN and declined to remark via a union spokesperson, who additionally declined to remark for this story.
Nevertheless, a supply conversant in the matter informed ESPN that Howell remembers solely that considerations have been raised by “a union worker,” and he stated he would “do his due diligence” earlier than making a call.
Ten months later, Howell continues to work as a part-time advisor for The Carlyle Group, which is actively exploring investments in NFL franchises however has not but made one.
A Carlyle Group spokesperson stated Howell had disclosed his work on the NFLPA to the agency. However she stated Howell has had no involvement within the enterprise or inner communications across the agency’s NFL approval course of or any of the agency’s funding actions associated to the NFL.
“He had no entry to details about the NFL and Carlyle course of past public information experiences as a result of strict Carlyle info obstacles in place,” Kristen Ashton, a spokesperson for the agency, stated in a press release to ESPN. “Carlyle was not conscious of the request from union attorneys for Lloyd to resign from Carlyle.”
Longtime union observers and executives stated they discover it baffling that Howell would proceed to work at The Carlyle Group whereas main the union, which paid him $3.4 million final 12 months,.
Jim Quinn, the NFLPA’s former lead exterior counsel of about 25 years, stated that when he represented Howell’s predecessors, Gene Upshaw and DeMaurice Smith, neither was allowed to be paid for out of doors work.
“So far as I knew, they by no means had the flexibility to earn exterior revenue,” Quinn stated. “That wasn’t their job. Their job was to symbolize the gamers.”
Quinn stated he would have anticipated Howell to resign from his place with Carlyle instantly upon being elected government director.
“It will be an outrageous battle for the top of a labor union to have an curiosity in a 3rd social gathering that’s aligned with the NFL,” Quinn informed ESPN. “The connection between a labor group and the employer group is adversarial by definition, and consequently, as a pacesetter, you must be completely clear and clear as to having no even look of battle.”
Howell has come beneath elevated scrutiny in latest weeks on a number of fronts.
As ESPN reported Wednesday, the union struck a confidentiality settlement with the NFL to maintain the main points of a January arbitration ruling beneath wraps from gamers. Arbitrator Christopher Droney decided there wasn’t adequate proof of collusion by house owners after Deshaun Watson signed a completely assured, $230 million contract in 2022.
Nevertheless, Droney concluded in his 61-page ruling that the NFLPA confirmed “by a transparent preponderance of the proof” that commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s common counsel Jeff Pash had urged house owners to limit assured cash in participant contracts.
ESPN reported that Howell briefed the gamers on the choice however didn’t element the findings or present copies. The confidentiality settlement saved the main points of Droney’s discovering from the gamers till the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast revealed the complete arbitrator’s report on June 24.
On Tuesday evening, two weeks after the report was revealed, the union determined to attraction the arbitrators’ resolution to a three-person panel.
Sources additionally informed ESPN that the union final month employed Ronald C. Machen of the regulation agency Wilmer Hale to work with a particular committee of gamers to assessment Howell’s actions as the manager director. Machen has declined to remark.
In line with sources, the Machen-led inquiry was triggered by ESPN reporting in Might that the FBI and federal prosecutors are investigating the union’s monetary dealings associated to a multibillion-dollar group-licensing agency, OneTeam Companions. The agency was co-founded in 2019 by the NFLPA and the Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation. Howell and MLBPA government director Tony Clark are on the OneTeam board.
Previous to becoming a member of the NFLPA, Howell labored for 34 years at know-how consulting agency Booz Allen Hamilton, most just lately as the corporate’s chief monetary officer from 2016 to 2022.
The agency paid a $377 million high-quality to settle a long-standing whistleblower lawsuit from the federal authorities that alleged overcharging by the agency. The high-quality was one of many largest awards in a authorities procurement case in historical past.
In line with the Washington Put up, the whistleblower stated in her lawsuit that she had raised her criticism for months with senior executives, together with Howell.
The Booz Allen settlement was introduced in July 2023, a month after the NFLPA’s government committee employed Howell to be its government director.
Moreover his part-time work at The Carlyle Group, Howell serves on three boards of administrators: GE HealthCare, Moody’s and ManTech. In line with monetary filings, for the fiscal 12 months ended Dec. 31, Howell was paid $360,038 in money and inventory by Moody’s, whereas GE HealthCare paid him $324,934 in money and inventory. ManTech has been privately held since its acquisition by Carlyle in 2022.
A supply with data of the matter stated that the NFLPA government committee was conscious that Howell was serving on exterior boards and dealing for The Carlyle Group.
Quinn stated paid board positions may also pose a battle. “Contractually, and simply as a matter of widespread sense, you most likely wouldn’t be on different boards to the extent they may probably have some relationship with the league,” he stated.
“Marvin Miller, Don Fehr, Larry Fleisher, choose your favourite head of a gamers affiliation, all of whom I represented — none of them had exterior pursuits,” Quinn stated. “Their solely curiosity was in representing the gamers, whether or not it was basketball gamers, hockey gamers, soccer gamers or baseball gamers. So to me, that is simply very troubling.”
ESPN editor Laura Purtell contributed to this report.
