The 2023 candidacy of former SAG-AFTRA national executive director David White to serve as NFL Players Association executive director included a question regarding a report from 2015 that he had misled the SAG-AFTRA board.
The NFLPA says it has explored the issue as part of the hiring process that resulted in White becoming the interim executive director in 2025.
A spokesperson told Mark Maske of the _Washington Post_ that the union “[has reviewed this issue closely](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/08/07/shaken-by-controversy-nflpa-says-it-properly-vetted-its-new-leader/) and feels confident that it has been fully briefed on the facts and context.”
In 2015, Deadline.com reports that White “[recently misled the union’s board of directors](https://deadline.com/2015/06/sag-aftra-david-white-pedophile-documentary-child-actors-1201441267/) about the union’s attempt to whitewash _An Open Secret_, director Amy Berg’s explosive new documentary about the sexual abuse of child actors in Hollywood,” and that he “also misled the board about the union’s threat to sue her and the film’s producers.”
Deadline.com reported that SAG-AFTRA had threatened to sue Amy Berg unless she removed “all references” to the union from the film. The union had said in a statement that it didn’t threaten to sue Berg, and that it didn’t try to suppress information regarding it. Berg said otherwise, and she provided a copy of the letter threatening her with litigation to Deadline.com.
The NFLPA concluded that the “core issue was focused on the unauthorized use of SAG-AFTRA’s name and brand in the film,” and that SAG-AFTRA “requested that no inaccurate references to SAG-AFTRA be made that tied the union to any alleged misconduct out of context.”
Per the _Post_, White is also pressing pause on any work related to his consulting firm, 3CG Ventures. Likewise, he’ll be resigning from any board service. That’s a stark contrast to former NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell, who insisted on being involved in business other than his work for the NFLPA — including as a consultant with a private-equity firm that is in bed with the NFL.
Regarding a recent claim from Pablo Torre that Whire was “rumored to be in the running to lead” the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (which is management to SAG-AFTRA’s labor), the NFLPA spokesperson told the _Post_ that White was merely “approached by a recruiter regarding his interest in the role and he declined.”
The _Post_ adds another wrinkle to White’s SAG-AFTRA background: “In 2017, former SAG president Ed Asner and other actors accused White and other SAG-AFTRA leaders of misuse of expense accounts. But an investigation by the accounting firm Bond Beebe found the allegations to be without merit, and Asner later retracted his claims and issued a letter of apology.”
White finished second out of two candidates to become the NFLPA executive director in 2023. The NFLPA’s executive committee supposedly took a straw vote in which White was favored over Howell by a 10-1 vote. Assuming this claim is true (and we’re not willing to make that assumption), the executive committee inexplicably failed to share that assessment with the NFLPA board of player representatives, which voted for Howell over White.