Exclusive: The NFL Players' Union, the Silenced Top Cop and the Cabal of "Strip-Club Dreams"

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This is the first time we've met in person. We just shook hands.

Minutes ago, we spoke for the first time on the phone a couple weeks ago, but I've heard

a lot about you. I've heard your legend.

And it is a lit. I mean, it's an amazing, it's an amazing life you've lived. Do you mind

if you establish here at the top? How old are you, Mr. Craig Jones?

I am 71 years old. Your job, Craig. Your job title at the union was what and how long did you have

that title? I was the lead security officer. I was the special police officer and I was hired

at first in October of 2008. And then after two years being there as a contractual employee,

the esteemed Timothy Christine, who was my security director,

bought me on in 2010 to work as the lead security officer for the union as an employee.

I got there two months after Gene Upshaw had passed away. And so everybody was telling me

what his methodology was. And that was to truly, truly care and speak plainly to the powers

that needed to be spoken to, so they can care as well. And then when the intellectually

pugilistic, the more Smith came on, then that continued to elevate the game on how we were

every day to come in with the very best of ourselves. So for people who have never visited the NFL

VA headquarters in Washington, DC, where you worked for almost two decades, what does it look like?

Can you paint the picture for us of the building? Well, the building I'm in is then what they call

the Golden Triangle Washington DC, which is the business area of Washington DC, Kay Street,

Connecticut Avenue. It's a modern building, but it doesn't bring any attention to itself because

of the way that it was architecturally drawn, the simplicity of all of the buildings on that street

is what brings about the elegance. One of the last weeks I was working there, there was a security

guard having a problem across the street with someone. And I went across the street and asked

him, was everything okay? Did he needed any assistance? And he saw my work badge. He said, the

NFL PA, he said, what is that? I said, that's who I work for. He said, the NFL PA, I said, yeah,

it's right across the street in that building right there. And he said, I'd be there. I've been here

for eight years and I never knew what was going on at that building. You're describing this building

literally like the person who swore to protect it with his life. And when you say, you know,

the NFL PA, like someone wouldn't even know that it was there. I mean, there's a larger metaphor

there, I think, for how sports fans understand the union, which is to say, they know what's kind of

there somewhere, but it's rare that they really get an inside view of like, what happens here?

Why does this matter? Why should I care? I am a fan of the most popular sport in America,

the national football league. I love football. But now that I've done so much reporting on it,

it's crazy how much less we think about how important and fraught the union itself is.

And yet your response is pride. The term that multiple former NFL players and NFL players

association union leaders have used to describe you in my previous reporting is that you're the

conscience of the NFL PA. What does that mean to you? That means the world to me because my parents

we grew up doing the civil rights era and my parents would always say to myself and my six sisters

when it's time for you to stand up for what is right. Not only for yourself, but most importantly,

for other people, raise your hand and do so. And because I was protecting people,

I don't get doovers. So I have to be on point every day. There was a famous sports photographer

by the name of Kazmiichi, who used to be at all of the boxing matches. And he once told me that

the reason why your pictures seem to be too late or too early is because you got to know when

the proper moment is. And in security work and protecting people, you have to know the moment

before the actuality if someone's trying to harm people. And so I found that people began to say,

this Mr. Jones, he's something else. You're more comfortable than I imagine given how many

people are afraid. Craig, to do this, which is to sit down talking to a microphone about the things

you saw at the NFL PA. I think the reason why so many people are afraid is because there were

people who had livelihoods. And they knew that the new regime that came in under Lloyd Howe

was more we will punish you for you speaking the truth. Yes. When the new regime came in,

they were interested in what we knew. They were only interested in what they wanted to perpetrate.

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One of the richest labor unions in America is up for grabs right now.

With total assets according to the NFLPA's latest federal filing,

a more than $1.3 billion dollars. And oversight of that fortune belongs to the union's executive

director. One of the high stakes jobs in all the sports. You get a seven-figure salary to serve

as the direct counterpoint to NFL Commissioner Roger Gidal, sitting in labor negotiations for the

most popular cultural institution in America. But the last executive director, the union elected,

you may recall in 2023, was Lloyd Howell. Lloyd Howell resigned amid a corruption scandal.

As reported on this show, last July, NFL players association executive director Lloyd Howell

resigned late Thursday ending his two-year tenure as the leader of the players union.

It has come out now of all the things that have been coming out about him which caused his

haste resignation that he had been sending in expense reports for trips to the strip club.

He submitted a statement. It's clear that my leadership has become a distraction to the importance

work the NFLPA advances every day. But it wasn't just Lloyd Howell who had to resign, of course.

His top lieutenants, former Browns lineman JC Treter, stepped down just three days after that.

And now, with the election of the union's next executive director underway officially as we speak,

the same regime responsible for that scandal last summer is on the cusp of power again.

It at best is scandalous. They want to reinstate people in positions of power and governance

who have already proven time and time again that they lack ethics.

I immediately said to myself, they want to keep the strip club dreams going. They want to keep

the party going. They want to maintain the niceties that they were affording to themselves

at the expense of the players. And the players, it is worth remembering here,

were kept in the dark by Lloyd Howell and JC Treter when it came to the very thing that kicked

off this entire saga on this show last June, which is when we published what one union source called

the Holy Grail of NFL documents, a 61-page collusion ruling that have been buried covered up.

It's part of a secret confidentiality agreement between leadership at the NFL and the NFLPA.

Because back in January of 2025, it turned out, an arbiter had delivered a partial victory in favor

of the union that concluded that the NFL had encouraged teams to collude against their players.

Quote, there is little question that the NFL Management Council with the blessing of the commissioner

encouraged the 32 NFL clubs to reduce guarantees and veterans contracts at the March 2022

annual owners meeting end quote. The arbiter, a retired federal judge, did not find damages.

But he included private texts and emails and closed door testimony from eight billionaire owners,

plus NFL commissioner Roderick Adal, a top of a whole roster of league and union executives,

including JC Treter. It was this all-you-can-eat buffet of truly embarrassing discovery around

the free agency of star quarterbacks Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, and Russell Wilson. None of who?

We're ultimately offered fully guaranteed contracts, even though Cleveland had just given one

to Deshaun Watson. As my special guest to Prof. Paul Talk's Mike Florio,

helped relay. I need you to play the role of charge his owner, Dean Spannos, and I'll be Cardinal's

owner, Michael Bidwill, if you please. Congratulations on signing Murray! Thanks, Dino! These

QB deals are expensive, but we limited the fully guaranteed money and have some pretty good

language. Thankfully, we have a QB that's worth paying. Your deal helps us for our quarterback

next year. I think many teams will be happy with it once they have a chance to review. Cleveland

really screwed things up, but I was resolved to keep the guaranteed, relatively quote, low,

unquote. And yet the most shocking part wasn't that the NFL wanted to bury all of these

communications. It's that Roger Gidell found a cover-up partner in the regime of Lloyd Howell,

whose strip club receipts would prove relevant to a larger ongoing federal investigation,

and JC Treter, the ex-player president who engineered Howell's election only to try and

wash his hands of it. Not least, I am told, because JC Treter now is back. And somehow,

favored to secure the job he has been targeting this entire time, executive director of the NFL PA,

but one employee who refused in writing to be complicit with any of this was the union's lead

security officer, Mr. Craig Jones. My employment with the NFLPA ended, I call it a termination

of retaliation on February 13th of 2026. I was told that the reasons were for calls,

and in my work contract, they have calls defined as things that an individual would do,

that would violate a policy and procedure in the workplace. And the causes were three emails,

but in the 17 years that I was there, all of my reviews as an employee were stellar.

There was constant ascension. I was giving more and more responsibility. As I grew,

there was never a time that my work ethic was ever questioned. The way that it was questioned

in the last month of my employee there, that's why I'm looking into a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

Well, I should say, as you contemplate your own legal recourse, that the emails that were

problematic in the eyes of this regime are some of my favorite pieces of sports writing in a very

long time. And I want to walk through some of them with you here today, because they're examples of

someone on record before it was safe, before it was legally advisable, even, saying what,

as per their job description, they saw. It all came about because I questioned leadership

on how some things were evolving that seemed to be sinister. And a lot of individuals in positions

of power took issue with that, and they silenced me by terminating me.

It's astonishing for me to have done some amount of reporting to get to know the power dynamics

at the union and then to wake up almost a year later and see that in some ways, just by various

resignations, which we'll describe. Some things are exactly the same, if not worse. And so the

elections that are happening out in San Diego, this is the election of the next permanent executive

director, a job that's only been held by a handful of people throughout the history of sports.

It's a job that I just got to remind people, opened up after weeks and weeks of our

reporting around collusion cover-ups and conflict of interest allegations. And also this particular

all-staff email, Mr. Jones. I wonder if you could read this, as I said here in front of you.

The email states, Inwood of J.C. Treader, he is the progenitor of this whole

tarjory episode of Posers, 30 pieces of silver, player-leadership man-k in average,

what a film. God bless the NFL PA so it may return to a tallowed annals.

And for the non-English majors among us, how would you translate that maybe in the way that

you learned growing up? The way that I would translate it is that my mother used to tell us all at

a time, don't be touching nobody else's stuff. And J.C. Treader and Jaylen Rees may have been...

The president of the NFL play a great thing. The president of the NFL play a president.

And a host of others thought that they were going to take advantage of the plays we serve.

And as we used to say on the street, create an okidoke where others will fall for something that

wasn't real. And so what of him who created all of this, who bought in Lloyd Howe? Because the whole

way that this came about, of course, was done in secret. That's correct.

J.C. Treader had engineered via a constitutional amendment very quietly that actually the player

voters on the board of representatives who choose the executive director, they don't need to know

even who the finalists are until the day they show up to vote. There used to be a rule via the

constitution that you need 30 days because, of course, vetting would be useful if you're a voter.

Knowing who the candidates are would be useful if you're a voter. In 2023, just for people who don't

remember, the two finalists were Lloyd Howe, the former CFO of Booz Allen, who had never had a job

in the world of unions or sports. And the second finalist was David White.

That's correct. Who was the former head of SAG After, which was the actor's guild out in Hollywood,

who has his own dossier that I want to get to. But these are two, quote, unquote, pro business

executives. And the first thing I remember about J.C. Treader and his reaction to the board of

representatives electing Lloyd Howe was that he was thrilled. And this was even though the board,

of course, had done zero vetting prior as per J.C. Treader's constitutional amendment.

And I daresay that my source on this is pretty good because it happens to be J.C. Treader himself.

I know some people say the board needs to vet and qualify. That's not the board's job.

The board's job is to interview and pick the best our job was to vet and qualify as an executive

committee because we were never going to have 570 hours to give to the board for them to have

time to vet and qualify. That's why we put all the time in and all the work. And in the end,

the board picked an awesome and awesome new ED. And I think the vibes of that room when

the announcement came down were unmatched. It really felt like you want to you want a football

game. It felt like you were back in the locker room, the celebration. It was just it was really

awesome. Okay. And then I heard about the story of Richard Sherman, who was a former union

official, of course, Hall of Fame corner back. And after three rounds of doing interviews,

what I was told was that Richard Sherman realized that Lloyd Howell was being pushed through

this process, step by step, by J.C. Treader. And according to a source familiar with Richard

Sherman's thinking, quote, Lloyd Howell was treated like a project boyfriend. We can fix him.

And quote, meaning that there was some palpable desire to make sure that Lloyd Howell got

into the into the room where he would actually be a finalist. And when you look back now at the

avalanche of things that apparently did not dissuade J.C. Treader and the executive committee

from making Lloyd Howell a finalist for this job. And ultimately, quote, an awesome, awesome new

ED, as you just said in that in that clip. I mean, where do you start? Do you start with the fact

that he had recently resigned as the CFO of Booz Allen, where a whistleblower inside that company

identified Howell as a key character in what one federal prosecutor would call, quote,

one of the largest procurement fraud settlements in history, 377 million dollars for

overbilling the US government hundreds of millions of dollars. Do you mention the fact that Lloyd Howell

had also settled a sexual discrimination and retaliation suit in 2015 that was filed by a subordinate

at Booz Allen? I mean, when people in the building learned of this, Craig, just those two

data points alone, what was the reaction? I mean, what level of shock was there that this man also

had this baggage? Myself and many, many of the good people there were, well, how did this happen?

If they had such a line by line formula that was going to bring to the union, the very best

and the choices, how did we end up with this guy? And when he got there, it became even more

apparent, how did we end up with this guy? Because he and everybody consorting with him

with distance, they were aloof. You can tell that they were duplicitous and that they really

didn't have the union's best interest at hand at all. It became difficult for a lot of us,

because we knew that this just is going to taint the organization. And it was infuriating because

Mr. Torrey, I've seen players destitute. I've seen players psychologically compromise.

And the players that I worried the most about were the ones who were embittered,

because they felt that the game had just left them behind. These characters who were aspiring

to be back in a place of power in the union is because they see that we can take advantage of

those who need us the most. Look, part of the problem with Lloyd Howell was also just the

the flagrant conflict of interest in his business background. You know, one thing that was revealed

was that he was also working this part-time consulting job for the Carlyle Group. And the Carlyle

Group is a private equity firm that happened to be on the NFL's approved list of firms that could buy

stakes in NFL franchises. And this kind of conflict of interest, you're running the union, your

archnemesis, your adversary that you're trying to counterbalance is the league. And the league has

this list of approved buyers, basically, approved firms that they could be in business with.

It made it insane to contemplate how did Lloyd Howell also have this side job working with

management while he's representing labor. I have an offer exactly to the Carlyle Group. I do

understand enough to be dangerous when it comes to private equity. It is intriguing, but it's

intriguing that today's professional football player has more of an equity mindset. They want to

put their money to work, right? And so in order to do that, here is a platform. Why can't they

participate? And it could be for conflict of interest reasons. It could be all sorts of reasons,

but in my experience, you can work through that, right? You can set up the right safeguards.

And then you get to this quote that he gave to the athletic. This was July of 2024.

And he says this about the NFL's desires to expand to an 18 game season, which is a massive pivot

point in any CBA collective bargaining negotiation, as is the one that's coming up. And Lloyd says,

quote, it sounds attractive. Who doesn't want to see more football myself included? And quote,

about the very thing that he's supposed to fight to the nail to prevent. And just that, the idea of

like, it's not merely the pottery. It's also the tactical. What's going on here? Who's he

working for? There was an arrogance that he and his cabal carried. I keep missing in Tim Christine.

Tim Christine would do these wonderful backgrounds for the organization. And they never bought

Lloyd Howe to him. They kept him away from the security department. And when Lloyd Howe was

finally on the executive director, he would literally stay away from the security department. He

would come and park his car in the garage. He would walk back outside of the garage, go down

the street to Starbucks, come back in the garage, get on the other being go straight up to his floor

because he didn't want to come into the lobby and interface with security. They were all like

that. Everybody that was involved with Lloyd Howe, JC Trata, creating the semi-asma of

mess. They would keep their distance away from everybody. And Mr. Christine used to say to me

all the time, I wonder why they stay away from me so much. And I said, it's because they've got

secrets and they know that you know how to best find them. And they protected themselves with

distance and indifference. I need to clarify that when you're describing the literal path that

Lloyd Howe used to take up to his office, you are the person who was professionally there to make

sure you're aware of where everyone is. You're watching this on cameras. And when you mention a

background check and the notion of due diligence on who are these people that we're letting in,

not just to our building, but into the inner sanctum, such that they have control over what is

at last check, a war chest touching a billion dollars. This question is central to the story.

What did you know and when did you know it? If you're JC Trata, if you're Lloyd Howe, if you're

the people who empowered them, when Lloyd resigns and then JC follows soon thereafter, it is worth

pointing out that till the end, JC Trata was defending himself. You know, he was trying to actually

separate himself from Lloyd Howe that you would tell anybody who would listen, it seems. He didn't

really want Lloyd Howe. He wanted David White. And from the outside, something else that we discovered

on this show was that there was, for the record here, another secret arbitration ruling, the first

one was the collusion suit. This one was from February, 2025. The month after the collusion suit

ruling was passed down by that arbiter. And this suit was caused directly by JC Trata, who had

gone on a podcast to encourage players running backs in particular to fake injuries and gain leverage

over their teams. Issues now, I don't think anybody would ever say they were fake injuries, but we've

seen players who didn't want to be where they currently are, have injuries that made them

unable to practice in play. But you're not able to get fined and you're not able to be punished

for not reporting. So there are issues like that. I don't think I'm allowed to ever recommend that,

but at least publicly. But I think each player needs to find a way to build up leverage to try

to get a fair deal. And that's the NFL telling me one this ruling, but even more telling me, never

announced that they want it. And again, this is the same timeline where the NFL and the NFL PA

under the leadership of Lloyd Howell and JC Trata agreed to bury what was referred to as the

holy grail of arbitration rulings in January of 25, the collusion suit. And yet there is JC

Trata on the damn Patrick show in July, now of that year of 2025, after resigning to argue for

his own innocence and even ignorance. The idea that I buried the collusion grievance,

I've never seen the collusion grievance, the collusion, I don't have access to the collusion

grievance. I wasn't in any discussions about the collusion grievance, just not part of my job.

I know we lost the collusion grievance in January that I knew that. I didn't know if any agreements

are what was happening with that because it's not part of my department. Once it leaked a few weeks ago,

I started learning more. I was on the board call in the EC call when it was explained what had happened

over the last six months to the players. So I know more now, but at that point, I knew nothing.

I did wasn't involved in the discussions. Is there any chance in your view that JC Trata

and Lloyd Howell were not in lockstep about the collusion suit? Well, my instinct is that they were

in lockstep. There would have been no Lloyd Howell if there was no JC Trata. There would be no JC

Trata, if there was no Lloyd Howell. And they all made a deal with the devil in themselves

and perpetuated each other's desires. Whatever you want, I can make happen for you. Whatever you

want, I can make happen for you. What JC Trata wanted, according to four sources that I've spoken to,

now dating back to last year, was ultimately to become the executive director himself of the NFLPA.

That level of ambition, which I thought was beyond dispute, but according to JC Trata and his

exit interview with CBS Sports, was definitely not what he wanted. He did say, quote, I have no interest

in being executive director. I have no interest in being considered. I let the executive committee

know that. I'm also going to leave the NFLPA in the coming days because they don't have anything left

to give the organization. I want to get my story out there and I don't want it to look like this

was sour grapes or I didn't get the job and I wanted the job. All I want to do is tell my story

and then go be with my family and quote, how palpable was the ambition in your view of JC Trata to be

ultimately, again, one of those precious few people to have held that job?

I think that it was apparent by the way that Lloyd Howe always perpetuated JC Trata.

There was this constant dialogue that was going on that he's my guy. We work in unison with each other.

We feed off of each other. Then when we go into negotiations, when we go into

different elements of the business of football where people have to be on the same thought process,

we got it. Well, Lloyd Howe also, I was told, still maintaining a residence in Miami,

that JC Trata, and you tell me if I'm wrong because you're the guy who saw the cameras,

JC Trata was very present in the building and Lloyd Howe was not there nearly as much.

That's correct.

And so the reason I ask is because if JC Trata is the guy who is the former NFL player with the

resume of being I was the player president, I was the former Cleveland Browns lineman,

and Lloyd Howe is the guy from the world of business who has no connection to anything.

JC Trata, if nothing else, is the guy that I was told Lloyd Howe leaned on

to assess how do we strategize around matters of football?

That is correct. JC Trata, for the rest of us, he was the window dresser because the players

are comfortable when they see other players in positions of leadership. And that's how Lloyd Howe

would push JC out there while he would go wherever he would go in the course of a week or two.

The Lloyd Howe cabal of JC Trata, Anamaka Gupta, Matt Curtin, Lloyd Howe,

they were always in lockstep with each other.

Anamaka Gupta, the chief of staff to the executive director who still remains at the union.

Matt Curtin, the president of Player's Enk, which is again the business wing of the union,

he has that job and it seems achieved ever more power at the union as well as we sit here today.

They operated with this with this opaqueness about them where you could see them,

but you couldn't see them. And they were always together when they were in the building.

They pretty much had the same habits. They would speak but not speak.

What does speak for not speak me?

We used to watch everybody come in on the bottom level on the cameras. And when people

were coming to the bottom level waiting for the elevators, you would see people interacting with

each other. JC Trata would have his head down. Lloyd would be looking somewhere else. Anamaka

had certain times of the day that she came in when nobody else was coming into the building.

And they all kept this distance about them all. But whenever we would do patrols on each floor,

we would patrol the eighth floor on the executive floor. We would see these individuals together

with each other, but not on a lot of occasions with other people. They minded their business

because their business didn't want anybody else to be in. They had decided amongst themselves

that we've got everything so well in place the way we wanted that we can just have that

gangster swagger and just kind of go about our daily day doing what we want to do.

And this is where I should just observe that Matt Curtin, the aforementioned president of

NFL Players Inc., has become an increasingly significant character in the backstage mess

of the NFL PA. Because in JC Trata's embittered CBSX in an interview last summer, it's worth noting.

Tretter had named Curtin to his short list of, quote, tremendously good people,

whom players could still, quote, put their faith in. But Matt Curtin arrived at the union in March

of 2024 because he was handpicked by Lloyd Howell. On account of relationship they'd built

over decades working in finance. And upon arrival, in fact, Howell had given Curtin the seat right next

to him on the board of one team partners. Before Profit Licensing Company, co-founded by the

NFL PA, which has since put the union under FBI investigation. That mess leading to the recent

termination of another employee who dared to allege the corruption of union leadership. Longtime

Associate General Counsel Heather McVee got to that in a bit. But less than two weeks ago,

envisioned all that stuff. A letter was sent to NFL PA lawyers by anonymous NFL PA staffers,

which said in part, quote, JC Tretter is widely anticipated to be selected as the next executive

director of the NFL PA. And that, also, quote, multiple written and verbal complaints have been

filed with NFL PA human resources against Matt Curtin. End quote. The letter goes on to express

these anonymous employees fear of possible retaliation and calls for an independent external

investigation so those complaints can be resolved. Now, for the record, a union spokesperson told

PTFO about this letter, quote, we have received an anonymous email that claims to represent

current and former staffers includes several unspecified allegations. We are evaluating them and

will take appropriate steps as warranted. We have no further comment at this time. End quote,

which brings us back to Craig Jones.

There was always this notion about them that they had people in place that was going to run

interference for them. You don't have to worry about it. And if somebody like Mr. Jones or

Heather McFee or anybody else raises the ruckus, we will silence them in the way that we know how.

And I just wouldn't capitulate to the community. And there were so many wonderful employees also

who said, no, we're not going to wrap ourselves up in the stench of all of this mess that they

were creating. And our way to mitigate the madness is staying true to the game,

staying true to the players, keep producing the kind of good work that we've been doing.

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You mentioned Heather McFee. Heather McFee is the now former longtime attorney for the NFL

PA who repeatedly urged the union to investigate alleged self-dealing by NFL PA executives,

including Lloyd Howell, as part of one team partners, which is the NFL's associated NIL business.

A very strong business which also remains for those reasons that Heather was alleging

under federal investigation. And Heather McFee has sensued the NFL PA in federal court alleging,

quote, an unlawful and shameful conspiracy to intimidate and obstruct her as a DOJ witness,

a federal witness, from cooperating with that federal investigation into union business.

And so what's happening, by the way, as the pre-existing staff is now meeting the new regime,

the new bosses, there are buyouts being offered. For those who dare to stick around union employees

with more than seven years of service, are offered buyouts to leave. And that's about half of

the 120-person staff I was told. That's correct. There's a house cleaning that's being attempted.

Simultaneous to a new approach to being, quote, unquote, a pro-business union. And how conspicuous

was that attempt as you were talking to your colleagues and seeing the building react to such offers?

Well, it was obvious because at the Super Bowl, I was in New Orleans where Lloyd was

executive director. And he was talking about how there needed to be some upgrades and staff

because with this brave new world of data analytics and all of these new concepts that they

were bringing into the game of football, there needed to be staffing changes with people who had

the expertise to bring in these new analytical models. We need to freshen the place up, get new

ways of thinking in here, different approaches to better serve the players. Here are these buyouts

that we want people to consider. Let us know what you think. And there were a lot of people who

were appalled as rightfully as they should have been, who just simply said, you know, well, I'm not

putting up with this madness. It's clear that there's something sinister about all this.

I'm moving on. There were some people who wanted to stay because they'd love the organization.

I sent Lloyd Howe and all staff telling him that I wasn't going to accept it, that the place

was benevolent to me and that all of this seems shady. And I said at the end of that email,

tell JC Treta to spend his 30 pieces of silver wisely. Well, the powers that be never said

anything. They never said anything at all. The buyouts and things came. People left. I collected

everybody's keys. It was sad. I cried for some people because they were dear to me.

They had a plan that they had executed and they wanted it to be done in the best possible way

so they can succeed at their power grab and their avarice. I'm thinking of you being the guy who

collects the keys, which is a hell of a part of the job, is that you're also saying goodbye to

the people who didn't want to. For obvious reasons, in retrospect, didn't want to bother trying to save

a regime or work with a regime, however they saw it. That was doing this to how you guys had been

operating. But the question of strategy, what is the strategy here? How is the union working?

It does remind me that there were buyouts being offered and taken. And then there was a new title

that was created. And that was Chief Strategy Officer.

Checkmate, sir. You couldn't have put that any clearer. They had all of these buyouts. They had

all of this. Well, we don't need this and we don't need that and we need to upgrade. And then

they created a whole new title for someone who what was he doing was the question that everybody

asked themselves. JC Treter, the first ever Chief Strategy Officer of the NFL PA in its history,

appointed by Lloyd Howell, the man who his process, JC Treter's process, had installed

the other secretive suspicious regime.

But once Lloyd Howell and JC Treter both resigned last summer in the wake of all that reporting

about this regime and their secretive and suspicious electoral process,

the NFL PA needed to appoint an interim executive director. And the kind that they turned to,

of course, was the other finalist, JC Treter apparently wanted in that process from 2023.

David White, who was not employed at the time and had a previous scandal of his own while in

charge of SAG after a union which white ran as a pro business management friendly leader,

if any of that sounds familiar. And in 2014, White had threatened to sue Amy Berg. The Academy

Award nominated director of a documentary called an Open Secret. And White threatened to sue her

if she did not whitewash, remove entirely all references to SAG after his role in a massive

Hollywood pedophilia scandal. Which, you know, sounds pretty bad on several immediate levels.

But the NFL PA's vetting of this alleged cover up, according to a union spokesperson who spoke

to the Washington Post last summer, was, again, unambiguous. The NFL PA has reviewed this issue

closely and feels confident that it has been fully briefed on the facts and context the spokesperson

told the post. And so I asked both Berg, the documentary's director, as well as the co-founder of a

nonprofit dedicated to child actors Anne Henry, who is a crucial source in an Open Secret and obvious

question. Did anyone ever contact you from the NFL PA or a search firm working for the NFL PA

without David White? No, they never did. Has anyone from the NFL PA, anybody from a search firm

hired by the NFL PA, anybody from the world of sports, have they reached out to you?

No one. No one has contacted me about this at all. Nothing.

Which does feel like something. Something, in fact, that raises questions about the role of the

NFL PA's player president, the head of this executive committee that's been running the union.

Jalen Reeves-Maben, over this whole last year of mess.

And then a statement to Pablo Torei finds out. Jalen Reeves-Maben wrote in part the following.

Quote- The suggestion that this election is simply a continuation of the prior leadership

is wrong. He brought in an independent executive search firm, followed best practice guidance,

rounds on council, involved our general council at every step, and conducted one of the most

rigorous searches in the union's history. Every candidate was fully vetted with background checks

completed and any prior issues reviewed. This is the players union and under our constitution,

the executive director is elected by player leadership. Staff members, former staff, and outside

voices do not decide that outcome. The players do. End quote.

And so here, this week, after one of the most rigorous searches in the union's history,

are the three known finalists for the globally significant job of NFL PA executive director.

There's a man named Tim Pernetti, Commissioner of the American Conference, and former Rutgers

athletic director. He's been described to me as the clear underdog. There's the clear favorite

JC Treter, who also happens to be, apparently, the one and only player of all of those who applied

who was deemed worthy of finalist status, despite how much Jalen Reeves-Maben was just talking about

how this is a player's union. And this, even though JC Treter is the guy who brought Lloyd Howell

to the union, such that they both had to resign last summer, giving way to David White.

And the third finalist you may now be unsurprised to learn is, of course, David White,

who warrants a bit more description.

Unic Esk. That's how I describe him. He is another toy in the game of JC Treter and the powers

that be who want to continue to undermine the organization. I asked David White in August

of 25 at the all staff meeting when he was being introduced to us.

How do you feel about being the runner up in the beauty contest and you were the better looking one?

How did that happen? And I asked Jalen Reeves-Maben, how did this happen? His response to the staff

was, we're not perfect. We weren't perfect by selecting Lloyd Howell over David White.

So I went, well, okay, perfection is for heaven. It's not for here. But is it something you would

do better? And I asked Mr. White, I said, what do you think about it? And he said, the process

is sound. They made their selections based on the procedures and policies that they wanted to

follow them on. I'm just fortunate to be here now as your interim. And that was August of 2025.

And an esteemed player sent me an email and said, thank you so much for asking that question

because there's a lot of us who wanted to know that as well. So that's how I started

the HR department said I was being too hard on Mr. Maben and my queries and questions were antagonistic

and to stand down from doing all of that. I love the very basic fact that you've been on the record

about this for a very long time, that if anybody wants to say this is Sarah Graves because the guy got

fired, I think it could not be more clear that at every possible turn to the frustration of those

in charge, you were asking the questions that lots of people again were just afraid to ask.

Exactly. And he was okay with, we're not perfect. And I was hoping from Mr. White that he would

kind of defend himself in that process, but he didn't. He just said everything was sound.

It was the way that it was supposed to be. The best man won. I'm just happy to be here now as the

the interim. And so Unic was the vocabulary word that came to Craig Jones's mind. Yes,

because he has no, no stones of leadership. He's not inspiring. He didn't come in and try to

take the reins. He tried to maintain the status quo. And let's keep things quiet. Come to me.

We don't need to have a whole lot of discussions about a lot of things. The process is going to be

what it's going to be. I'm only going to be the interim, but support the process that's going to

eventually find a new executive director. Well, in November, Jaylin and Tom DePasso sent

it all staff. Tom DePasso, the general counsel of the union, said that he was happening. We're

starting the selection process again. We're going to do this. We're going to do that. Don't worry

yourself with the process. The confidentiality keeps candidates a sequester from the public knowing

because some of them have other jobs and they may not know what everybody knows they're the jobs.

And I sent Jaylin, Reese Maven, an email saying, okay, I'm to understand that would failed

a few years ago in the selection with Lloyd Howe, you're going to use the same process to choose

someone new. How do you expect for that to go over? And he just emailed me back and said,

thanks for your input, Craig. Then a couple of days later, the HR department sends me an email and

said that my email to Mr. Maven was again antagonistic. You're a real villain. Yes. Correct. Clearly,

all these emails, how dare you? Yes. When you mentioned Jaylin, Reese Maven, we also had previously

reported this that when Jaylin, Reese Maven was elected as the president of the NFL PA,

it also came under what's called interesting electoral circumstances because this was in 2024.

And Jaylin, Reese Maven was one of the finalists. The other in his election for a player president

was a player by the name of Calvin Beachham. Calvin Beachham, among other things, kept on flagging

one team. The thing that Heather McFee was also flagging. As a potential problem, he's on the record

saying that I am told. And I'm also told that in those small group meetings where Jaylin, Reese Maven

would go campaign in front of the board of representatives, which have been split into different

groups that Jaylin, Reese Maven would get a chance to campaign and Calvin Beachham would get a

chance to campaign. And then according to one union source who was in the room, JC Treter entered

and campaigned on behalf of Jaylin, Reese Maven negatively campaigning to put it generously

against Calvin Beachham. And so for those who don't know the executive committee of the NFL PA,

the leader of course is the player president. And so when you ask the question, when you yell the

question into a void, how is this happening? The president of the union is in Jaylin, Reese Maven,

a player who has been very notably aligned with the man who had to resign in disgrace. And now

is back because that guy, JC Treter, had installed previously Jaylin, Reese Maven. That smells pretty

bad. And everybody of decency and that again, that wonderful love they have for the players we

serve, they all know that that it smells bad. And the reason that they've managed to continue to

push it through is because of the positions and power that they're in, the people that they have

in the organization working inside for them. And I do have to say that, and I hope it changes,

there is a degree, a small degree, a player apathy and the union, the business.

Well, that's what I was going to ask about is the check on union leadership as much as Craig Jones

can send emails as much as Heather McFee can document her objections on a legal basis and then also

be terminated. The power still does remain in an electoral body of players.

And I do wonder, do they see this as clearly as the people inside the NFLPA headquarters in

Washington DC have seen it? It's been my experience with athletes that when

their talents and their God giving gifts and all of the things that they have going for themselves

whenever they enter whatever arena that they're in. When those talents and things are at the height

of their beauty and they're being paid and they can look at their bank account and they've got

nice clothes and they're providing for the family and loved ones. The last thing they're thinking

about is tomorrow because we're always told that the best moment is the moment you're in.

And I think sometimes that there are people who sit back in business and go,

let's let that myopia that athletes have because they're just seeing themselves in the moment

work for them but let's let the aftermath of the moment work for us. So people come in who are

scurrilous, who are scheming, a lot of good decent players are flimplammed and they don't even know it

till it's too late to know it. When there's sometimes going, that's business. I don't think about

no business right now. I got other things I need to do is my car clean. You know, there are some

people who are just sitting back three o'clock in the morning going, how can I get this player

stuff without him knowing it. So when I saw the finalists for this weekend,

I went, they're keeping it going. They are maintaining the okidok to continue to try to fulfill

their greed and avarice. It's something that I can't get over. It's just rare. You know, in the story

of sports and the story of certainly like labor reporting which is a limited field, you rarely hear

from the security guard. You rarely hear from the head of security. My patron saint of security was

Frank Willes, the gentleman who discovered the war to break in. He was asked many years ago,

how did you happen to come across something that turned out to be so, so big of a story

in all of American politics. His response was, I was just doing my job. I was on patrol and I saw

some tape. I took it off, came back after lunch and saw the tape there again. I called the police

and then they discovered this. So for me, that's all it's been just me doing what I was duty-bound to

do to protect and serve and to have presence and observation in all set of circumstances that

if something didn't seem quite right to speak to my director Tim Christine about it or raise my

hand in all staff meetings or send out all staff emails saying consider this and that's pretty much

what I did. I had to do it. The thing that you've also been doing in your 70s is not merely surviving

prostate cancer and it's not merely burying your nephew who is somebody that I can't help

with think about because we were trying to figure out when could you come visit New York and you

had to arrange funeral services. And so my condolences. Thank you sir. But the other thing you're

doing of course is tending to your mom. The one who taught you. That's correct. To stay off of other

people's stuff. Yes. And so as you think of your mom and again your mom battling dementia.

Demand to yes. And trying to hold on to key memories you have for all time a record of how you

saw this story. And so I was wondering if you could just read the end of your goodbye email that

you sent to the all staff and FLPA listserv because I can't think of a better way to end this.

To my former co-workers who I hold so dear, you know who you are. I gin you,

flexing your honor on how you continue unselfishly to serve players with unwavering,

and professional plomb as executive ineptitude swirls still around you.

Don't despair. Muhammad Ali once told me the deep of the pressure, the greater the poise.

You will always be cherished. I love you.

I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. They were so wonderful and to see them disparaged and treated and

kicked aside and cheated on and that group of employees that I worked with they were just

wonderful. And I will always love them and always think about them and tell them to keep up the good work.

Don't, don't, if you got to take a stand in eight, do so. But after you clear your head,

get back in the game and take care of the players that we serve. Watch out for them.

The way you so wonderfully have done and continue to believe that your work is not in vain.

Mr. Craig Jones, thank you for speaking truth to power.

Mr. Pablo Torrey, this has been an honor of my lifetime because it lets me know that I'm not alone.

Thank you, sir.

This has been Pablo Torrey finds out a metal-lark media production.

And I'll talk to you next time.

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