Some expenses probably shouldn’t be on your company’s dime.
Before his resignation Thursday from his position as executive director of the NFL Players Association, Lloyd Howell Jr. had been exposed for charging the union for two strip club visits, per ESPN.
Multiple controversies were pointed to Thursday as possible reasons for Howell stepping down, but the strip club visits seem to align most with his statement that read, “It’s clear that my leadership has become a distraction to the important work the NFLPA advances every day.”
Howell wasted no time during his first frisky fiasco.
He was reportedly picked up by a car service from the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) International Airport on Nov. 2, 2023, around 10:30 p.m. and went straight to a Miami Gardens strip club.
Howell then had the driver wait outside Tootsie’s Cabaret for seven hours while the NFLPA leader was inside at the self-described world’s largest strip club. After his time at the 76,000-square-foot venue, Howell was dropped off at his residence in Sunny Isles Beach around 6 a.m.
Howell’s price tag for the car service, which he charged to the union, was $738.82.
Bob Stropp, a widely respected veteran labor lawyer, said that the reimbursement for the car service is “the kind of sexy thing that gets the attention of the [U.S.] Department of Labor.”
“That’s unbelievable. I don’t know how you get around that,” Stropp added. “It’s hard to believe that anyone would be that stupid.”
Over a year later, Howell struck again — this time with two of his employees.
During the 2025 NFLPA summit in Atlanta this February, Howell and the two union employees spent a night out at the Magic City strip club and racked up charges of nearly $2,500. The charges included numerous cash withdrawals ranging from $200 to $525 from an ATM in the club as well as the use of two “VIP rooms.”
How did Howell and Co. note the $2,426 on the expense report? “Player Engagement Event to support & grow our Union.”
Former union officials told ESPN that the NFLPA has strict guidelines on reimbursements, especially when it comes to the category of “entertainment.” However, strip clubs are not specified in those guidelines.
”I don’t think anyone in their right mind would think that is an optically good scenario,” a former employee said, adding that the policy “should be revisited.”
The two instances were not even Howell’s first, as he was also investigated in 2015 by his former employer, Booz Allen, for a strip club visit on company time. Howell and a colleague at the time ran up thousands of dollars at a Manhattan strip club before the colleague sought reimbursement on an expense report.
Howell was reprimanded while his colleague was fired.
In his position with the NFLPA, Howell was paid $3.6 million last year.
ESPN reported that his resignation decision was made on his own and surprised some of the NFLPA’s executive committee. Some members of the committee even repeatedly tried to persuade him not to leave the union during a conference call Thursday night.
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