NFL Players Union Head Lloyd Howell Resigns After $2,426 in Strip Club Receipts Scrutinized
Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! Hold onto your pool noodles, it’s hot out there.
We’re covering three huge stories this week, and I don’t want to shortchange any of them: Two NFL players union officials resigned in disgrace, WNBA players want more money, and President Donald Trump wants to bring the Redskins back. Let’s get to it.
Locker Room Links
- No, the MLB All-Star Game did not generate $100 million for Georgia, and no one even knows where that number came from.
- TV ratings for the All-Star Game were good, but were blown out of the water by the NHL‘s 4 Nations Face-Off.
- Something to watch out for: Yahoo Sports got a draft of a presidential executive order on college sports.
- Elsewhere in Reason: “Hunter Biden Walks Free While This Iowa Man Serves 4 Years for the Same ‘Crime’“
- Sorry not sorry that I’m a huge Scottie Scheffler fan.
Winning golf tournaments: cool
Being a dad: cooler
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) July 20, 2025
Stripped of a Job
Lloyd Howell Jr. is going to have to find a new employer to expense his strip club visits.
The now-former executive director (i.e. head) of the NFL Players Association resigned last week after getting embroiled in more and more negative news cycles. There was the weird conclusion to the collusion arbitration case (that we covered here). Then there was an ESPN report that Howell was working as a “paid, part-time consultant” for a private equity firm that may seek ownership in NFL teams, a clear conflict of interest for the players union head. But ESPN asking questions about strip club receipts is apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back.
During the union’s summit in February, Howell, two union employees, and some players went to the Magic City strip club in Atlanta and racked up $2,426 in expenses, including use of two “VIP rooms.” The expense report calls the trip a “Player Engagement Event to support & grow our Union.” In another instance, Howell expensed a car service to take him to an all-night visit to the world’s largest strip club, conveniently located just 6.5 miles away from his luxury Miami condo.
Folks, even at Reason this is not allowed—I asked. (It might be allowed for a valid journalistic purpose.)
The bawdy details are laughable, but Howell may be in some legal trouble because of it. Federal labor laws don’t look kindly on union leaders using dues money improperly. The union had already hired a lawyer to investigate Howell, and is still investigating after his resignation.
As labor lawyer Bob Stropp told ESPN about the strip club expense reports, “It’s hard to believe that anyone would be that stupid.”
And yet, it happened—because Howell didn’t learn his lesson from when his private sector job wasn’t pleased with him expensing thousands of dollars at a strip club in 2015.
Naturally, Howell’s sketchy right-hand man, J.C. Tretter, was the favorite to succeed Howell until Tretter wisely resigned from the union too. The union is going to need some help—former linebacker Will Compton said, “We’ve gotta be the dumbest Union in all of sports.”
Payday for the W
WNBA players are abo
Article from Reason.com
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