NFLPA Fired Lawyer Who Accused It of Retaliation

The NFLPA fired Heather McPhee, its former associate general counsel, on the last day of 2025.

The lawyer had previously been on paid leave after she cooperated with an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the union’s relationship to group licensing venture OneTeam Partners. The DOJ investigation also focuses on OTP and the Major League Baseball Players Association.

OneTeam Partners is a venture between major sports unions to collectively sell group licensing rights.  The NFLPA has four of the nine board seats.  The entity was valued at $2 billion in 2022 as part of a private equity transaction. 

The firing was disclosed by McPhee and her lawyers in recent filings in a lawsuit she filed last month against the union, its former executive director, chief legal officer, and the current president of the labor group’s commercial arm.

“On December 30, 2025, I received a Notice of Termination from the NFLPA,” McPhee wrote in a declaration filed along with a brief opposing the union’s motion to see much of her lawsuit. “This Notice was sent mere hours before the NFLPA filed its Motion to Seal Portions of (the) Complaint.”

McPhee’s lawsuit, filed Dec. 18, alleges the union retaliated against her for whistleblower actions. The union placed her on leave following her inquiry into how NFLPA executives who also sat on the board of OneTeam Partners structured prospective equity incentives.The undercurrent of her focus—and likely the Justice Department’s—is the question of whether these payments were structured to intentionally evade scrutiny.

All unions must file annual reports with the federal Department of Labor detailing their financials, including compensation, but the equity incentive plan would not have been included. 

She also alleges the NFLPA retaliated when she questioned why the group agreed to keep a now-notorious report from an arbitrator that found some evidence of collusion among NFL owners in collectively not giving fully guaranteed contracts to star quarterbacks. And she alleges she was treated differently, and more harshly, than her male peers.

McPhee’s 52-page complaint is still unredacted, but the NFLPA wants to black out key parts of it, alleging they were derived from McPhee’s work as a lawyer for the union and are therefore confidential under attorney-client privilege. McPhee, in her declaration, and through the motion opposing the sealing, argued her insights into OneTeam were derived from non-confidential information.

Nevertheless, key portions of her declaration are redacted, signalling her lawyers for now are being more careful with what to uncloak at least until the judge rules on the sealing motions.

“It appears the NFLPA will not send unredacted court filings to its union members unless the Court orders it to do so,” McPhee’s motion argues.

The NFLPA declined to comment on McPhee’s ouster. McPhee plans to amend her complaint to include new developments, like her employment termination, according to the motion.