The Draw Play

I feel like Pablo Torre took it personally when a few weeks ago I threw a few stray bullets at him for his TMZ style reporting of the Jordon Hudson situation. Since then he has essentially managed to out-do every sports journalist of the last several years in one fell swoop by exposing the documentation behind the NFL collusion case, resulting in Executive Director Lloyd Howell and Chief Strategy Officer JC Tretter both stepping down. Good riddance to the both of them, and a chapeau to Pablo.

Last time I focused on this story I focused mostly on the collusion aspect with the ownership and Watson. Now that both Tretter and Howell have been jettisoned into space maybe we can touch on that aspect of it. If you didn’t follow the story last time or watch Torre’s podcast (you should) JC Tretter was the NFLPA President during the previous CBA negotiations. Tretter was cut by the Browns, meaning he could no longer be the president, as he was not an active player. As he prepared to exit, Tretter was able to assist in landing Lloyd Howell as Executive Director. In turn, Howell created the Chief Strategy Officer role, and hired Tretter (Cough cough Quid pro Quo cough cough).

Lloyd Howell Jr. is a business ghoul. He worked at Booz Allen, a technology corporation (to extremely simplify) with somewhat ill repute, and he also functioned as a consultant for The Carlyle Group, which is a private equity firm. If your red flags aren’t flying at the mention of the words “Private Equity”, you are probably still young with hopes and dreams. Just remember: it’s what ruins all your favorite companies. The NFL recently voted to allow Private Equity a seat at the ownership table for up to 10% of teams. We have to assume Mr Howell here was a reason for this. The worst part about this is that Howell was working as this consultant at the same time he worked as NFLPA Executive Director. The NFL is a client of the Carlyle Group. This was a very clear conflict of interest to have the union director working for a partner of the union’s biggest opponent. Nobody seemed to notice until Pablo showed up.

Nothing much came of the first report Pablo released, at least publicly. Behind the scenes was probably some level of chaos. Pablo struck back with an aftershock this past week with another exposed document about the case and more information on Howell, and evidence that there might have been animosity behind the scenes the whole time. Howell stepped down on Thursday, probably to get out of dodge right before ESPN did a journalism of its own into Howell in a pretty scathing report that dropped the same day. Howell seemed to be behind the covering up of the big report about the collusion case. Probably to help protect his NFL buddies, and his little pal JC Tretter, who looked bad in the report.

Howell was sued for sexual discrimination at Booz Allen. He also used NFLPA funds to hang out at a strip club for 7 hours. Basically, this guy sucks ass, and thankfully, this dogpiling of good journalism has led to his stepping down. That’s about the best we can hope for these days, but at least he’s gone. But what of the moron who invited this vampire into the house to suck everyone’s blood? JC Tretter seemed to be trying to play it off like he’s a victim of sorts taking bullets for the NFLPA but he’s been involved in all of this coverup mess. Tretter finally stepped down over the weekend. Can’t say I’m sad to see him go.

So now the union has some roles to fill. Hopefully they fill them with good people this time. I’ve seen Domonique Foxworth championed as a favorable candidate to get back in there, and I hope he does get the gig. At the very least he seems to be on the right side of things, as you can see with him arguing with a baseball executive on one of Pablo’s follow up episodes.

Thank you, Pablo Torre, for your role in getting these dipshits out of power. I forgive you for being kinda weird about Jordon Hudson and now permit you to go be a little weirdo again, should you desire. You’ve earned it.