Sometime in July, DeMaurice Smith will walk out of NFL Players Association headquarters for the last time, his 14-year tenure as executive director of the union officially over.

Earlier this week, the NFLPA announced that it had elected Lloyd Howell, a longtime executive at Booz Allen Hamilton, to succeed Smith, who had told player leaders in 2021 that his new contract term would be his last.

Smith was just the third-ever executive director of the NFLPA, a job he was unanimously voted into in 2009 after the death of Gene Upshaw, who had led the group for 25 years. A career litigator with experience in the U.S. Attorney's office before going into private practice, Smith was well-connected in Washington, but not in football.