The federal investigation into the MLBPA and its ties to the group licensing venture OneTeam Partners is also affecting the NFLPA, sources told Awful Announcing on Friday evening.
ESPN.com reported today that the FBI was asking questions about MLBPA connections to OneTeam.
Heather McPhee, an NFLPA lawyer, sent a memo to the union’s player representative today, stating that the feds had also contacted her, as well as individual players, sources said. McPhee declined to comment.
Awful Announcing first reported in December a whistleblower group within the MLBPA had filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board alleging MLBPA executive director Tony Clark had awarded himself equity options through OneTeam. Similarly, an outside counsel for the NFLPA undertook an investigation into alleged equity options issued to that union’s executive director, Lloyd Howell.
It’s not clear these options were ever granted, and internal investigations at the unions and OneTeam found no issues.
Formed in 2019 by the two unions and RedBird Capital Partners, OneTeam houses the group licensing activities of the labor groups, such as trading cards, video games, and other group endorsements. It has added several unions since 2019, including the Major League Soccer Players Association, the U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association (USWNTPA), Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), National Women’s Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA), U.S. Rugby Players Association, and the League Championship Series Players Association (LCSPA).
An NFLPA spokesman wrote, “We are aware of the investigation and fully prepared to cooperate if the NFLPA is contacted.” That would suggest the NFLPA has not been contacted. The sources disagreed.
“(McPhee) outlined that she was contacted and specifically the SEIP and the deeply flawed investigation that Lloyd shut down,” one of the sources said, referring to the NFLPA lawyer’s memo to player leaders. SEIP stands for Senior Executive Incentive Plan, which is the alleged source of the OneTeam options.
It’s unclear what the status of the NLRB charge is, but a source close to the filing said months ago that the whistleblower group was in talks with different divisions of the Labor Department. However, the focus appears to have intensified with the FBI now involved.
About Daniel Kaplan
Daniel Kaplan has been covering the business of sports for more than two decades. A proud founding reporter of SportsBusiness Journal, he spent the last four years at The Athletic.