Powerful white men withheld guaranteed money from a majority Black group. It seems like the NFL is following a political playbook.

America is becoming increasingly complacent regarding allegations of collusion in both sports and politics.

By Carron J. Phillips

What’s done in the dark always comes to light. However, what happens when people become numb to the dirt that’s revealed? The latest scandal involving the NFL shows that we might have reached that point.

During Donald Trump's first term in office, the NFL and the president frequently clashed, making the intersection of politics and sports a regular topic in the news. However, despite the past turmoil, America's most popular sports league is now caught in one of its most serious scandals. Surprisingly, it seems that no one outside the sports world is paying attention, even though the situation feels like something straight out of a political playbook.

After weeks of rumors, it was recently confirmed that the NFL and NFL Players Association leadership had made a secret pact. League executives had urged team owners to decrease the amount of guaranteed money players could receive. Given the league's history of questionable behavior, it's not surprising that the NFL and its owners wanted to limit the financial benefits for athletes in a violent sport that doesn’t offer guaranteed contracts to all players.. However, the most shocking aspect is that the very leadership appointed to advocate for the players' rights was helping keep it all under wraps.

Not only did a bunch of old, white, wealthy men come up with a plan to not give guaranteed millions to most players in a majority Black league, but the man who’s supposed to be in charge of protecting the players is Black.

As the old African American proverb goes: “All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.”

"As the head of the union, Lloyd [Howell] has an obligation to protect the best interests of the players," Peter Ginsberg, who represented NFL players as a lawyer at Moskowitz Colson Ginsberg & Schulman, recently told ESPN. "By agreeing to a confidentiality agreement, the union purposefully blocked the players from receiving crucial information about the operations of the NFL.

"The NFL and the union should not be conspiring together to keep important information from the players."

There were questions swirling around Lloyd Howell even before he took control of the players' union, especially after it was discovered that he consulted for private equity firms with ties to the league. We’ve also learned that he was sued for sexual discrimination and retaliation when he was a senior executive at Booz Allen, which is something that players might not have previously known. It’s also been reported that there was another case in which the NFL and NFLPA concealed a grievance ruling from the players.

It’s been a bad week for Howell. Not only because of what’s been reported but also because as the head of the NFLPA, he’s the one who’s going to have to carry all the blame. It costs to be the boss.

By Thursday night, he’d resigned.

“It's clear that my leadership has become a distraction to the important work the NFLPA advances every day. For this reason, I have informed the NFLPA Executive Committee that I am stepping down as Executive Director of the NFLPA and Chairman of the Board of NFL Players effective immediately,” Howell wrote in a statement. “I hope this will allow the NFLPA to maintain its focus on its player members ahead of the upcoming season.”

Earlier in the week, the NFL Players Association’s executive committee had expressed its support for Howell. Future first-ballot Hall of Famer J.J. Watt took to social media to highlight inconsistencies in the statement. He said that the phrases, “We categorically reject false reports insinuating doubts” and “We have established a deliberate process to carefully assess the issues that have been raised and will not engage in a rush to judgment” seem contradictory.

Funny enough, in April 2023, DeMaurice Smith, the former executive director of the NFLPA, predicted in an interview with NFL reporter Darren Smith that manipulations could happen to keep players from receiving guaranteed salaries. “So now that we’re at a point where there is no misconception, I think the only question is whether players are going to continue to fight for these fully guaranteed contracts, and whether the league is going to collude and try to prevent them. It’s that simple,” he said.

The issue with the idea of collusion, whether in sports or politics, is that the mere suggestion of it creates a lingering suspicion that is hard to shake off. When trust is broken, it can never be fully restored. Once people believe that an election or a game has been rigged, it is nearly impossible to change their minds. However, this is America, where it has often been demonstrated that people can overlook or conveniently forget issues to get back to business as usual—be it election results or the scheduling of football games.

In politics, we observed investigations into the relationship between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. We know for certain that Trump was indicted for racketeering and conspiracy for attempting to interfere with the 2020 presidential election. He infamously called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to urge him to "find" more votes in Trump’s favor. Given this history, it's reasonable to raise eyebrows when someone like Elon Musk publicly claims, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election.” It's fair to wonder if Musk was alluding to something more sinister than his large political donations.

In the NFL, we saw the league reach a settlement in 2019 regarding the collusion case brought by Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid. They alleged they were blackballed for kneeling during the national anthem. Brian Flores's lawsuit against the NFL, which addresses the lack of Black head coaches, has stalled. Flores claims that Black coaches have been deliberately excluded from coaching positions. Moreover, just last year, former NFL reporter and NFL Media employee Jim Trotter reached a settlement with the NFL after alleging—with compelling evidence—that the league was hindering Black journalists from covering a league that is predominantly Black.

Pablo Torre, the journalist who broke the story, has raised questions regarding why NFL players haven't taken legal action. A source within the NFL Players Association informed The Contrarian that the timing of this story has significantly impacted the situation, as it surfaced during the offseason when most players are apart. As players begin reporting to training camp, some as early as this week, they will have the opportunity for face-to-face conversations to discuss their next steps, especially as they look for a new leader.

Collusion occurs when individuals believe or know they can evade consequences for their actions. This situation reveals the true opinions that the league, its owners, and the top leaders of the NFLPA hold about the players. If the right thing is to be accomplished, the players must take the initiative. Unfortunately, history has shown us that relying on large groups to unite for the greater good isn't usually the safest bet.

This situation isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, it just became even more complicated given Howell’s resignation. As we approach the 2025 season, one of the major storylines will revolve around the players' actions on the field and who they choose to represent them when it comes to having discussions with the suits in the suites.

Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University.

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