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Don Van Natta Jr.
The National Football League Players Association has fired the veteran attorney who sued the union and top executives last month, according to a court document filed in federal court this week.
Heather McPhee, the NFLPA’s associate general counsel since 2009, revealed in a court filing that the union fired her on December 30. The dismissal came less than two weeks after he sued the union, its former executive director, Lloyd Howell Jr., and two current senior executives for allegedly conspiring to prevent him from cooperating in a year-long federal criminal investigation into union finances.
Last August, McAfee was placed on paid administrative leave for alleged workplace “misconduct” after she repeatedly raised legal concerns about decisions made by union leaders. He also alleged that officials had tried to prevent him from testifying before a federal grand jury investigating the NFLPA and the Major League Baseball Players Association.
In her federal lawsuit filed last month, McPhee accused current and former officials of illegal misconduct, gender discrimination, breach of fiduciary duty and retaliation as she prepared to become the star witness in the year-long criminal investigation being conducted by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
McAfee did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Union spokesman Brandon Parker declined to comment on the McPhee firing, saying the union does not discuss personnel matters. The two current executives being sued by McAfee are longtime union general counsel Tom DePasso and Howell’s hire Matt Curtin, now president of the union’s licensing arm, Players Inc.
Separately, multiple sources told ESPN that the union placed Craig Jones, a veteran security and operations staffer at the NFLPA’s Washington, D.C. headquarters, on administrative leave this week.
A source said one of the union’s concerns about Jones was that he spoke to an ESPN reporter last summer about Howell’s decision to use union resources to convert two parking garage spaces into one for his Porsche Cayenne Turbo. Jones told ESPN that he decorated the new space with the number 32, an homage to the jersey worn by OJ Simpson. Story published on July 23. A second source said a formal complaint was filed against Jones last summer.
Parker declined to discuss the case, and Jones did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment Thursday.
In an email with ESPN last July, Jones said he was reprimanded by superiors for talking to the reporter. He told ESPN that his bosses reminded him that “all interactions with the media should be through the communications director.”
“I ask myself why I am receiving criticism for my email, which I interpret as an act of love for all of my colleagues who were victims of strip-club dreams,” Jones wrote in the email.
Last July, Howell resigned as ESPN prepared to report that he had used union funds to pay for car service from the Fort Lauderdale airport to a Miami strip club and sought union reimbursement for a trip to an Atlanta strip club with a pair of union employees.
McPhee’s announcement that she was fired was filed in response to a union motion to seal parts of her December 18 complaint. Parker declined to say why the union is trying to seal the 51-page complaint that has been public for more than a month.
