An attorney for the National Football League Players Association is alleging union leaders retaliated against her after she agreed to testify in a criminal investigation into their actions, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
In a 52-page lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., district court, Heather McPhee alleges that union leaders retaliated against her for expressing concern about a deal that would direct millions of dollars to those leaders, and for agreeing to cooperate with a federal investigation into that deal. McPhee is seeking at least $10 million in damages in the suit, which accuses the union of obstruction of justice, sex discrimination, intentional emotional distress, and breach of contract.
McPhee’s suit centers around the federal investigation into an arrangement between OneTeam Partners, the joint collective bargaining entity created in 2019 by the NFLPA and the MLB Players Association, and the leaders of the unions it represents.
“We are reviewing the complaint. Due to the pending litigation, we have no further comment at this time,” an NFLPA spokesperson said in a statement to Front Office Sports.
The suit names NFLPA; ex-NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell; president of the union’s licensing and marketing arm Matt Curtin; and general counsel of the NFLPA Tom DePaso as defendants.
“After sixteen years zealously representing union members at the NFLPA, Ms. McPhee is saddened that she has been left with no other choice than to bring this lawsuit,” McPhee’s attorneys, Sarah Fink and Courtney Forrest, said in a statement to FOS. “Ms. McPhee believes this case reveals egregious failures by those still at the organization who owe legal and moral duties to thousands of union members. They deserve better, and she deserves accountability.”
McPhee, according to the lawsuit, first spoke up about OneTeam’s “Senior Executive Incentive Plan” in November 2024. These grants would benefit the union representatives on OneTeam’s board including Howell and Curtin, the lawsuit says.
The union got outside counsel to look into McPhee’s concerns, but leaders resisted the investigation, the suit alleges, and the “flawed” probe didn’t halt the incentive plan. Then, OneTeam “made baseless and ultimately disproven allegations” against McPhee, and Howell said she could no longer do any work related to OneTeam and threatened her employment, according to the filing.
A whistleblower from the MLBPA reported the concerns to the government late last year. In May, the Department of Justice asked McPhee to cooperate in its investigation into the whistleblowers’ concerns, the suit says. She agreed and informed the union, soon after which Howell told the union’s executive committee that McPhee “is a problem and we will deal with it,” the lawsuit claims. (ESPN reported that McPhee still has yet to speak with prosecutors or testify before the grand jury.)
The union did not tell players about an arbitrator’s ruling that found commissioner Roger Goodell and owners had discussed limiting guaranteed contracts for star quarterbacks, a decision McPhee also criticized, according to the suit. DePaso said McPhee was “making trouble” and was “too intense and emotional” with her concerns, the suit says.
Howell resigned amid scandal in July. In August, interim union chief David White put McPhee on paid administrative leave during an investigation into complaints about her “workplace behavior,” the suit says. McPhee was not informed what those allegations were or which policies she may have violated, the lawsuit says. Shortly after, Curtin said he had “ordered the Code Red” on McPhee, according to the filing. The investigators asked to “forensically image” McPhee’s personal phone, which the suit points out had not been done during previous probes into other NFLPA employees assessing claims of financial or sexual misconduct.
