On Sunday night, with no advance notice, the NFL Players Association picked an interim executive director.
The appointment of David White carries the same cloak of secrecy that accompanied the ultimately disastrous hiring of Lloyd Howell in June 2023.
Like the last time around, the union has disclosed none of the other candidates. It’s not known when the board of player representatives became aware of the options. It’s not known how many options there even were.
The rank-and-file members likely didn’t know the names of the candidates. If that information had been communicated to the full membership, it would have been leaked and reported.
And so, in an effort to maintain a secret, the players had no opportunity to give any input to their elected representatives on the question of whether one candidate is better than another. Or as to the more basic question of whether White, one of two finalists to cap a horrendous search process in 2023, should be disqualified from consideration.
That’s not how a union should operate, frankly.
According to Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler of ESPN.com, the finalists included NFLPA chief player officer Don Davis and former NFL quarterback and NFLPA rep Charlie Batch.
An internal document apparently prepared by a union lawyer identified five potential candidates for the position: Davis, NFLPA senior director of player affairs Lester Archambeau, NFLPA COO Teri Smith, and former NFLPA presidents Eric Winston and Domonique Foxworth. White was not mentioned.
White surely will be mentioned in upcoming stories about his background, regardless of whether those things did or didn’t make it onto the radar screen of Russell Reynolds, which presided over the search process that culminated in the hiring of Howell.
