Heather McPhee, who has served as deputy general counsel for the NFL Players Association since 2009, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging that former executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. and two current union executives conspired to prevent her from cooperating with a criminal investigation into the union’s finances, ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. reported.
According to Van Natta and ESPN’s Jeff Passan, McPhee was placed on paid administrative leave on August 14 after multiple employee complaints, which reportedly included allegations of not following supervisor instructions, bullying co-workers and disrupting a union work environment.
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McPhee said in the lawsuit that she was suspended to prevent her from testifying before the NFLPA and the Major League Baseball Players Association’s investigation into federal major injury matters, ESPN reported.
She was placed on leave months after she made allegations that sparked an FBI investigation into the NFLPA, MLBPA and their $2 billion licensing company, OneTeam Partners.
McPhee is reportedly seeking at least $10 million in damages, accusing Howell of unlawful misconduct, sex discrimination, breach of fiduciary duty and retaliation in her lawsuit, according to ESPN.
Howell, who became NFLPA executive director in 2022, resigned on July 17. Howell resigned after a month of intense criticism after Pablo Torre and Mike Florio reported that the NFL and NFLPA covered up a ruling on a collusion complaint. Arbitrator Christopher Droney found that after Deshaun Watson signed a $230 million fully guaranteed contract with the Cleveland Browns before the 2022 season, league executives encouraged team owners to reduce the amount of guaranteed money the player would receive on subsequent contracts.
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However, Drone concluded that he could not prove by “clear advantage” that NFL teams would follow suit. Still, the details revealed at the 2022 annual owners meeting are indelible, as is the fact that the NFLPA reportedly agreed that the NFL would keep the findings of the collusion complaint confidential. That left a stain on Howell’s reputation, as did other things, chief among them his reported spending of union funds to go to strip clubs.
According to ESPN, McPhee initially expressed concerns within the NFLPA in November 2024 that senior managers may have violated labor laws regarding conflicts of interest and the performance of fiduciary duties, and later claimed that union leaders targeted her “in an effort to conceal and deflect their own misconduct and failures.”
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According to ESPN, McPhee questioned the legality of a senior executive incentive plan proposed by OneTeam Partners that would have paid millions of dollars in bonuses to Howell, MLBPA executive director Tony Clark and others. ESPN also reported that McPhee said in the lawsuit that she objected to Howell’s decision to keep the findings of the conspiracy complaint confidential.
According to ESPN, the lawsuit alleges that union leaders’ signing of a nondisclosure agreement with the NFL “raises concerns about possible violations of the NFLPA’s obligation to fairly represent players.”
When union leaders found out McPhee was preparing to testify as a grand jury witness about what she believed was criminal misconduct by Howell and others, she claims she was removed from the meeting and cut off from the board and players.
She was subsequently suspended for “workplace conduct”. McPhee viewed this as a ploy to prevent her from cooperating with the Justice Department.
