Former Detroit Lions Linebacker Is Weak NFLPA President

The role of union leadership is to always have the best interest of players at the forefront of their minds.

Former Detroit Lions linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who was elected NFLPA president in March of 2024, appears to be serving as merely a figure-head, left in the dark on numerous issues that were highly pertinent to the players he was supposed to represent.

Maybe the free agent linebacker was too focused or distracted by silly, immature issues to open up publicly about leaders in the union with clear conflicts of interest. The issues may run deeper than him, but responsibility for identifying and working to solve these issues lies with him as the union president.

In the wake of findings the league and the players union worked together to keep hidden the findings of collusion hearings, issues of conflict of interest have now arisen regarding the NFLPA's Executive Director Lloyd Howell Jr.

In addition to his duties with the NFLPA, Howell Jr. also had part-time consulting opportunity with the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that seek minority ownership in NFL franchises with league approval.

A recent podcast episode from investigative journalist Pablo Torre recently uncovered a myriad of issues within the NFLPA, including the potential of collusion between NFL owners on contracts.

According to ESPN, "That's the union's job ... to represent the interest of the players. Instead, almost no one knew about it. Why the NFLPA would hide such a thing is unknown or at least limited to speculation. It happened though. It wasn't until two weeks after the Torre podcast -- and six months after the initial ruling -- that the union filed an appeal. Why the delay? NFL players should be outraged by all of the above: the inexplicable confidentiality deal with the league, the executive director's side hustle, the general confusion."

Players have been left in the dark and have not been given the neccesary information to ensure their interests are being focused on.

Through investigative reports such as the one from Torre and ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio, numerous players are finding out how their union has been acting and how the NFL reportedly colluded with the union to keep private information regarding contracts and owner discussions regarding guaranteed dollars.

Jim Quinn, who spent two decades working as the union's outside counsel, told ESPN, "It would be an outrageous conflict for the head of a labor union (Howell) to have an interest in a third party that is aligned with the NFL."

The union made strides with player surveys to improve working conditions, but the growing secrecy and lack of transparency should have been trumpeted loudly by union leadership.

By all accounts, the league and the union should not be working together in any fashion to reportedly keep important information away from NFL players.

Reeves-Maybin not knowing or not fighting harder to inform those he represented assisted to set back the cause of the players in the league.