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Kalyn Kahler
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Kalyn Kahler
ESPN
- Kalyn Kahler is a senior NFL author at ESPN. Kalyn stories on a variety of NFL subjects. She reported concerning 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 daily. 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 may attain out to Kalyn through electronic mail.
Former NFL Gamers Affiliation chief Lloyd Howell Jr. resigned after an outdoor investigator employed by the union obtained paperwork this week displaying he charged the union for 2 visits to strip golf equipment, together with a $738.82 automobile service that took him from the airport to one of many golf equipment.
The paperwork are union-approved expense stories and receipts, which ESPN started asking questions on hours earlier than Howell abruptly resigned late Thursday night time.
One receipt, obtained by ESPN, exhibits Howell was picked up in a sedan by a automobile service at Fort Lauderdale Worldwide Airport on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, at 10:26 p.m. The automobile’s first cease was at a close-by Miami Gardens tackle. The receipt exhibits just one different cease, almost eight hours later.
At 6 a.m., the automobile dropped off Howell at his luxurious condominium in Sunny Isles Seaside, the receipt exhibits.
Later, a younger union finance employee seen the automobile service’s exorbitant price. The worker Googled the Miami Gardens tackle, discovering it was Tootsie’s Cabaret.
The 76,000-square-foot venue payments itself because the world’s largest strip membership — “full nude No. 1 rated.”
The worker flagged the receipt to the union’s journey division for the next degree of assessment, two folks acquainted with union operations informed ESPN. The top of union journey then forwarded the paperwork to compliance for assessment by union attorneys, the sources mentioned.
Greater than a yr later, Howell and two workers visited a strip membership in Atlanta, in line with the expense stories obtained by ESPN.
Throughout this yr’s NFLPA summit on Feb. 21, Howell accompanied two union workers to the Magic Metropolis strip membership for an outing that included $2,426 in fees together with money withdrawals, starting from $200 to $525, from a membership ATM, sources and paperwork present. They used two “VIP rooms.”
In line with the expense report, the aim of the strip membership outing: “Participant Engagement Occasion to help & develop our Union.”
The NFLPA summit is an annual occasion to foster management amongst gamers and younger union workers.
One of many workers who accompanied Howell submitted expense stories for this outing, the paperwork present. Howell instructed the worker to file the expense stories, two sources acquainted with the matter informed ESPN.
The worker famous on a March 23 expense report: “$736 = This was the ultimate quantity I used to be charged to shut the tab for each secluded sections for our Participant Members. This included Meals, Alcoholic Drinks, charges, taxes, and gratuity.” No gamers’ names are listed on receipts or the stories.
Paperwork present 4 money withdrawals had been flagged with “alerts,” apparently referring to potential reimbursement violations.
Howell couldn’t be instantly reached for remark. A union spokesperson declined to remark.
Ronald C. Machen, a lawyer for Wilmer Hale, was employed by a particular committee of gamers to research Howell’s actions. “Our work continues,” a supply near Machen informed ESPN.
Federal labor legal guidelines are strict relating to a union’s bills and reimbursement actions; the legal guidelines purpose to guard union members whose dues fund the entire operations, in contrast to what occurs in a company setting.
Bob Stropp, a extensively revered veteran labor lawyer, informed ESPN that the automobile service reimbursement is “the sort of attractive factor that will get the eye of the [U.S.] Division of Labor.”
“That is fairly horrible,” mentioned Stropp, 77, the previous basic counsel of the United Mine Staff of America. “That is unbelievable. I do not understand how you get round that. It is laborious to imagine that anybody can be that silly.”
The NFLPA has its personal set of strict tips on reimbursements of every kind, however notably for leisure, former union officers say. A former union worker mentioned that there are not any particular exclusions for venues, like a strip membership, throughout the union’s “leisure” class.
“However I do not assume anybody of their proper thoughts would assume that’s an optically good situation,” the previous worker mentioned. “In mild of this, clearly that facet of the coverage must be revisited.”
Howell was elected union president in 2024 and was paid $3.6 million final yr. He has lived in Miami since 2019; data present he paid $6.8 million in September 2019 for a three-bedroom condominium within the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Seaside. The constructing options “in-unit garages for house owners to accommodate their prized automobiles.” Like his neighbors within the 132-unit constructing, Howell has entry to an elevator to ship his automobile on to his residence.
Questions on expense stories submitted for strip golf equipment have come up in Howell’s profession earlier than. His prior employer, Booz Allen, questioned him a few strip membership go to on firm time, too.
In 2015, Howell and a senior vice chairman visited a Manhattan, New York, strip membership, the place they racked up 1000’s of {dollars} for the night time’s leisure, a former Booz Allen govt informed ESPN. Afterward, Howell’s colleague sought reimbursement on an expense report, which was referred to the agency’s compliance attorneys.
The colleague was fired, and Howell reprimanded, the chief mentioned. On the time, Howell was a defendant in a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by a Booz Allen associate. Booz Allen settled — for an undisclosed sum — the case that had alleged Howell and the corporate denied feminine workers management roles and excluded them from sure profession alternatives offered to males.
One other former Booz Allen govt informed ESPN the corporate was involved about disciplining Howell whereas the lawsuit was lively. A yr later, Booz Allen promoted Howell to be its chief monetary officer, with the help of the CEO and executives on the Carlyle Group, the sources mentioned.
In his resignation assertion Thursday night time, Howell, 59, mentioned: “It is clear that my management has change into a distraction to the vital work the NFLPA advances daily. For that reason, I’ve knowledgeable the NFLPA Government Committee that I’m stepping down as Government Director of the NFLPA and Chairman of the Board of NFL Gamers efficient instantly. I hope this can enable the NFLPA to take care of its give attention to its participant members forward of the upcoming season.”
Howell’s resignation was made on his personal and shocked some members of the NFLPA’s 10-person govt committee, who tried repeatedly to influence him to not depart the union throughout a prolonged convention name Thursday night time, in line with folks briefed on the decision.
The resignation got here after a number of current stories from ESPN and the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast:
Earlier on Thursday, ESPN reported on the Booz Allen sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit that concerned Howell and whether or not the gamers who voted for him to guide the NFLPA had been conscious of it.
In Could, ESPN reported that the FBI is investigating the monetary dealings of the union and the MLB Gamers associated to a multibillion-dollar group-licensing agency, OneTeam Companions. In line with sources, the report triggered a particular committee of gamers’ union to rent Machen to assessment Howell’s actions as the chief director.
Final week, ESPN reported that Howell is working as a paid, part-time guide for the Carlyle Group, one of many league-approved personal fairness corporations searching for possession in NFL groups.
ESPN additionally reported final week that Howell struck a confidentiality settlement with the NFL six months in the past that hid the small print of the January arbitration resolution from gamers, together with a discovering that league executives urged crew house owners to scale back assured participant compensation. The 61-page ruling was revealed by the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast on June 24.
On Sunday, the union’s govt committee backed Howell in a message despatched to membership, saying that they had “established a deliberate course of to rigorously assess the problems which were raised and won’t have interaction in a rush to judgement.”
As not too long ago as late Wednesday night time, two govt committee members gave a powerful endorsement to Howell’s management and imaginative and prescient for the NFLPA in a joint interview with ESPN. “We felt nice concerning the course of,” one in every of them mentioned. “We’re one hundred pc behind Lloyd.”