{"id":17466,"date":"2025-07-24T02:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T02:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17466\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T02:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T02:23:09","slug":"eagles-star-lane-johnson-sounds-off-on-nflpa-controversy-its-a-s-show-its-been-that-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17466\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagles star Lane Johnson sounds off on NFLPA controversy: ‘It’s a s— show, it’s been that way’"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA — The NFL<\/a> Players Association is not in a good place right now, and that’s putting it nicely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Controversy surrounds the union that represents the players, starting with the resignations of president JC Tretter<\/a> and executive director Lloyd Howell<\/a>. The resignations came after investigations into Howell regarding past lawsuits, conflicts of interest and questionable expensing practices — and Tretter emerging as a candidate to replace him.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the union that represents the players has no leader. And the prior leadership is scarred in scandal and controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s a shit show, I guess,” said\u00a0Eagles<\/a> right tackle and All-Pro Lane Johnson<\/a>, who is entering his 13th season in the league. “It’s been that way. People have known that. I’ve known.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

NFLPA controversy: Why fans should care about leadership changes, what they could mean for NFL moving forward<\/p>\n

\n Cody Benjamin <\/p>\n

\"NFLPA<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The NFL<\/a> has a collective bargaining agreement with six more years attached to the deal signed in 2020, but the owners have a significant upper hand on the players at this juncture. The players don’t have an executive director after Howell resigned, nor a president.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With owners pushing for an 18-game schedule<\/a> — and many other changes — in the near future, they can present their case as the more stable group of the two in the constant balance of power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I mean, yeah, you can call it how it is. It’s a mess,” said Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata<\/a>, Philadelphia’s player rep. “But we have the right people in place right now — right now. The main focus is all about the players, right? We need more people right now to get that job done and refocus for the players to feel supported.”<\/p>\n

With no leadership in place, NFL<\/a> owners can rush to the bargaining table to get a new CBA draft in place for the 2031 season and beyond — one that’s significantly in their favor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, this all begins and ends with the players caring about the political side of the NFL. This is where Mailata comes in.<\/p>\n

“I think I gotta do a better job of education as a player rep,” Mailata said. “The guys may not know a couple things about benefits or what’s going on in the news until they hear about it on the news. I think I gotta do a better job of communicating, giving them a heads up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s not on them. Yes they should take an interest, but there’s a reason why I’m a player rep. I should be doing a better job of engaging with the guys.”<\/p>\n

Saquon Barkley<\/a> is one of the best players in the NFL. A first team All-Pro, 2,000-yard rusher, and reigning Offensive Player of the Year, Barkley admitted he didn’t know much about what’s going on regarding the NFLPA controversy. He’s paying attention now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Sadly enough I should be following that a lot more,” Barkley said. “I’ve just kinda been focused on a lot of other things right now. But that’s the beauty of training camp. That’s definitely the conversation that will be coming up at the lunch table.”<\/p>\n

The NFLPA is facing a clouded future, but its darkest days appear to be in the past. They just have to weather the storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson has been around a long time. He’s calling it like he sees it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Hopefully, it gets better,” Johnson said. “I think [players] will care more when they have their voices heard. Right now, I think we have the weakest union in sports.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA — The NFL Players Association is not in a good place right now, and that’s putting it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,18597,18595,18598,18596,593,11567,18594,6584,1260,13672,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-17466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-eagles","11":"tag-eagles-training-camp","12":"tag-jordan-mailata","13":"tag-lane-johnson","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nflpa","16":"tag-nflpa-controversy","17":"tag-patrick-mahomes","18":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","19":"tag-saquon-barkley","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}