Kalyn Kahler
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Kalyn Kahler
ESPN
- Kalyn Kahler is a senior NFL author at ESPN. Kalyn stories on a variety of NFL matters. She reported in regards to the affect of teaching brokers on NFL hiring and discovered what present and former Cowboys gamers actually take into consideration the tour teams of followers that roam about The Star each day. Earlier than becoming a member of ESPN in July of 2024, Kalyn wrote for The Athletic, Defector, Bleacher Report and Sports activities Illustrated. She started her profession at Sports activities Illustrated as NFL columnist Peter King's assistant. She is a graduate of Northwestern College, the place she was a varsity cheerleader. In her free time, Kalyn takes Spanish lessons and teaches Irish dance. You'll be able to attain out to Kalyn by way of electronic mail.
Don Van Natta Jr.
CloseDon Van Natta Jr.
ESPN Senior Author
- Host and co-executive producer of the brand new ESPN collection, “Backstory”
- Member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning groups for nationwide, explanatory and public service journalism
- Writer of three books, together with New York Occasions best-selling “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush”
- 24-year newspaper profession at The New York Occasions and Miami Herald
NFL Gamers Affiliation government director Lloyd Howell Jr. resigned late Thursday evening, ending his embattled two-year tenure because the chief of the union.
“It is clear that my management has change into a distraction to the vital work the NFLPA advances each day,” Howell, 59, mentioned in a press release launched by the union. “Because of this, I've knowledgeable the NFLPA Govt Committee that I'm stepping down as Govt Director of the NFLPA and Chairman of the Board of NFL Gamers efficient instantly. I hope this may enable the NFLPA to keep up its deal with its participant members forward of the upcoming season.”
Sources advised ESPN that Howell resigned on his personal and stunned some members of the NFLPA's 10-person government committee, which had chosen the previous chief monetary officer of know-how consulting agency Booz Allen Hamilton as a finalist for the highest job after a 16-month search shrouded in secrecy.
Howell's tenure had come beneath scrutiny after a number of current stories from ESPN and the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast.
In Could, ESPN reported that the FBI was investigating the monetary dealings of the NFLPA and the MLB Gamers Affiliation associated to a multibillion-dollar group-licensing agency, OneTeam Companions. In response to sources, the report triggered the NFLPA to rent Ronald C. Machen of regulation agency Wilmer Hale to evaluation Howell's actions as government director. The FBI investigation, which is being performed at the side of the U.S. Lawyer's Workplace in Brooklyn, is constant, sources mentioned.
Final week, ESPN reported that Howell was working as a paid, part-time marketing consultant for the Carlyle Group, one of many league-approved non-public fairness companies looking for possession in NFL groups. Howell was requested by a union lawyer to think about resigning for conflict-of-interest causes, a supply mentioned, however one other supply mentioned he'd do his “due diligence” earlier than making a call. He stays as a marketing consultant to the Carlyle Group.
ESPN additionally reported final week that Howell struck a confidentiality settlement with the NFL six months in the past that hid from gamers the main points of a January arbitration determination, together with a discovering that league executives urged staff homeowners to scale back assured participant compensation. The 61-page ruling was first revealed by the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast on June 24.
As not too long ago as late Wednesday evening, two government board members nonetheless gave a ringing endorsement to Howell's management in an interview with ESPN.
“We felt nice in regards to the course of,” one in every of them mentioned. “We're one hundred pc behind Lloyd.”
And on Sunday, the manager committee backed Howell in a message despatched to membership, saying it had “established a deliberate course of to rigorously assess the problems which have been raised and won't have interaction in a rush to judgement.”
Sources advised ESPN's Adam Schefter that the manager committee was in contact with participant membership, and the board of participant representatives was anticipated to fulfill as quickly as potential to determine the subsequent steps, which might embrace naming an interim government director.
Howell succeeded DeMaurice Smith as the top of the NFLPA, which represents practically 2,000 professional soccer gamers. Smith was head of the union from 2009 to 2023. Earlier than Smith, the union was led by Gene Upshaw.
