After the NFL season, the NFLPA has usually issued report cards on various aspects of NFL teams, allowing it to put public pressure on the NFL to continue improving conditions for players. However, after two seasons, the report cards will no longer be made public. The NFLPA announced that they will continue to do the report cards for the owners, but the public will not see them moving forward.
The NFLPA released a statement saying that the report cards will continue, but the public will not have access to the results. The arbitrator may have ruled in favor of the NFL in limiting access, but the practice was not completely banned and will continue. They made clear that they disagreed with the ruling but would continue with their plans.
“The ruling upholds our right to survey players and share the results with players and clubs,” the statement reads. “While we strongly disagree with the restriction on making those results public, that limitation does not stop the program or its impact. Players will continue to receive the results, and teams will continue to hear directly from their locker rooms.
“Importantly, the arbitrator rejected the NFL's characterization of the process, finding the Team Report Cards to be fair, balanced, and increasingly positive over time,” the statement said.
The NFL announced in a memo to teams on Friday that it had prevailed in its grievance against the NFL Players Association over the NFLPA's annual release of “Team Report Cards.” An arbitrator ruled in the NFL's favor, finding that the report cards, which grade NFL teams on categories such as locker-room quality, family treatment, and ownership, violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement.
It also included a prohibition on “publishing or publicly disclosing the results of future player Report Cards.” Still, more than 1,000 active NFL players participate in the report cards every year.
The grade results for each category were weighted differently. Every team was then ranked 1-32 based on its final, overall grade. It is also worth noting that a key reason the grades will no longer be public is that New York Jets owner Woody Johnson criticized last year's grades after the Jets' low rating.
