The new NFL Players Association executive director spent more than three decades with a firm that has a long history with the NFL.
As Lloyd Howell noted during a Wednesday press conference, the firm Booz Allen Hamilton “was instrumental . . . when the NFL and the AFL were combined.”
Per the firm’s web site, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle engaged Booz Allen in 1966 to assist with the merger.
“Rozelle believed a merged NFL-AFL could stem the inter-league rivalry, but there were huge complications,” the item at BoozAllen.com explains. “Some cities had two teams. Federal antitrust laws would need to be waived. Each team was its own independent franchise, raising serious business concerns. Also, Rozelle himself often clashed with the AFL commissioner. With Booz Allen’s help, the merger overcame every hurdle, paving the way for Super Bowl I — the first national championship game in 1967.” (Of course, it wasn’t called the Super Bowl at the time; that name came later.)
More recently, Booz Allen provided services for individual teams.
“In the 2000s, I believe, our then-commercial side of the business did analytical work for specific teams that I don’t recall who they were, and at that time I had no involvement in that work or in those engagements,” Howell said during the press conference.
Howell also said he has no existing relationship with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. As previously noted, there’s a balance they’ll need to strike. A healthy tension, that takes into consideration the shared interests of labor and management and the individual objectives of each party to the relationship.
The players have decided that Howell is the best person to strike that balance. For those of us who are stakeholders in the broader viability of the game, and who prefer not to cover or to endure another work stoppage, we can only hope they got it right.
