Ex-NFLPA boss Howell's strip club expenses sent to investigator
Former NFL Players Association leader Lloyd Howell Jr. resigned after an outside investigator hired by the union received documents this week showing he charged the union for two visits to strip clubs, including a $738.82 car service that took him from the airport to one of the clubs.
The documents are union-approved expense reports and receipts, which ESPN began asking questions about hours before Howell abruptly resigned late Thursday night.NFLPA dispute emerges over lawsuit awareness
One receipt, obtained by ESPN, shows Howell was picked up in a sedan by a car service at Fort Lauderdale International Airport on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, at 10:26 p.m. The car's first stop was at a nearby Miami Gardens address, where the driver was hired to wait seven hours outside.
Nearly eight hours later, at 6 a.m., the car dropped off Howell at his luxury condominium in Sunny Isles Beach, the receipt shows.
Later, a young union finance worker noticed the car service's exorbitant cost. The employee Googled the Miami Gardens address, discovering it was Tootsie's Cabaret.
The 76,000-square-foot venue bills itself as the world's largest strip club -- "full nude No. 1 rated."
The employee flagged the receipt to the union's travel department for a higher level of review, two people familiar with union operations told ESPN. The head of union travel then forwarded the documents to compliance for review by union lawyers, the sources said.
More than a year later, Howell and two employees visited a strip club in Atlanta, according to the expense reports obtained by ESPN.
During this year's NFLPA summit on Feb. 21, Howell accompanied two union employees to the Magic City strip club for an outing that included $2,426 in charges including cash withdrawals, ranging from $200 to $525, from a club ATM, sources and documents show. They used two "VIP rooms."
According to the expense report, the purpose of the strip club outing: "Player Engagement Event to support & grow our Union."
The NFLPA summit is an annual event to foster leadership among players and young union employees.
One of the employees who accompanied Howell submitted expense reports for this outing, the documents show. Howell instructed the employee to file the expense reports, two sources familiar with the matter told ESPN.
The employee noted on a March 23 expense report: "$736 = This was the final amount I was charged to close the tab for both secluded sections for our Player Members. This included Food, Alcoholic Drinks, fees, taxes, and gratuity." No players' names are listed on receipts or the reports.
Documents show four cash withdrawals were flagged with "alerts," apparently referring to potential reimbursement violations.
Howell could not be immediately reached for comment. A union spokesperson declined to comment.
Ronald C. Machen, a lawyer for Wilmer Hale, was hired by a special committee of players to investigate Howell's activities. "Our work continues," a source close to Machen told ESPN.
Federal labor laws are strict when it comes to a union's expenses and reimbursement actions; the laws aim to protect union members whose dues fund all of the operations, unlike what happens in a corporate environment.
Bob Stropp, a widely respected, veteran labor lawyer, told ESPN that the car service reimbursement is "the kind of sexy thing that gets the attention of the [U.S.] Department of Labor."
"That's pretty horrible," said Stropp, 77, the former general counsel of the United Mine Workers of America. "That's unbelievable. I don't know how you get around that. It's hard to believe that anyone would be that stupid."
The NFLPA has its own set of strict guidelines on reimbursements of all kinds, but particularly for entertainment, former union officials say. A former union employee said that there are no specific exclusions for venues, like a strip club, within the union's "entertainment" category.
"But I don't think anyone in their right mind would think that is an optically good scenario," the former employee said. "In light of this, clearly that aspect of the policy should be revisited."
Howell was elected union president in 2024 and was paid $3.6 million last year. He has lived in Miami since 2019; records show he paid $6.8 million in September 2019 for a three-bedroom condominium in the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles Beach. The building features "in-unit garages for owners to house their prized vehicles." Like his neighbors in the 132-unit building, Howell has access to an elevator to deliver his car directly to his residence.
Questions about expense reports submitted for strip clubs have come up in Howell's career before. His prior employer, Booz Allen, questioned him about a strip club visit on company time, too.
In 2015, Howell and a senior vice president visited a Manhattan, New York, strip club, where they racked up thousands of dollars for the night's entertainment, a former Booz Allen executive told ESPN. Afterward, Howell's colleague sought reimbursement on an expense report, which was referred to the firm's compliance lawyers.
The colleague was fired, and Howell reprimanded, the executive said. At the time, Howell was a defendant in a sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by a Booz Allen partner. Booz Allen settled - for an undisclosed sum - the case that had alleged Howell and the company denied female employees leadership roles and excluded them from certain career opportunities provided to men.
Damn that's some nasty work
lol
