Bringing impactful change to the NFL’s diversity efforts will be one of the biggest challenges for new NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell when he officially takes over for DeMaurice Smith.

After 14 years at the helm, Smith isn’t being shy about his feelings toward the league’s powerbrokers on his way out.

Smith co-authored an article for a future issue of the Yale Law and Policy Review titled, “The Rooney Suggestion: How the ‘Rule’ Has Failed to Defeat Systemic and Institutional Barriers to Fair and Equitable Hiring Practices in the NFL and Recommendations for Meaningful Reform.”