NFL player report cards regarding team facilities and staff will no longer be made public after the league won a labor grievance over the NFL Players Association.
In a memo sent to club personnel Friday, the league said it prevailed in a grievance that found the union’s public release of annual report cards violated their collective bargaining agreement. In particular, NFL owners took aim at what they saw in the report cards as an improperly selective and misleading release of data.
“In essence, the record established that the report cards were designed by the union to advance its interests under the guise of a scientific exercise,” the NFL wrote in its memo. “These facts highlight the numerous and significant limitations in the methodology and accuracy of the team report card results that have been reported over the past three years.”
The report cards, developed from player surveys, have been a subject of widespread interest, both within the football community and the broader fan base. The annual report cards issue letter grades, ranging from A+ to F-, to each team on a wide range of franchise operations such as training facilities, the quality of coaches and support staff, travel conditions, and how player families are treated.
Grades Don’t Reflect Performance
In the NFLPA’s 2025 report cards, teams such as the Dolphins, Vikings, and Falcons led the rankings, while the Cardinals, Patriots, and Browns were at the bottom. Notably, New England still reached Super Bowl LX despite that poor ranking, while league champion Seattle ranked 15th among the 32 teams.
The report cards served as a rare way to hold team ownership directly accountable, and while some franchises took the findings to heart and improved their player facilities in recent seasons, many others branded them as an instrument to mock ownership. Jets owner Woody Johnson, whose stewardship of the club has been widely criticized (his club ranked 29th last year), called the report cards “totally bogus.”
Those rankings, however, can also help influence the outcome of free agency and the recruitment by teams of coaches and other staff.
The NFL has actively sought to curtail the public release of the findings for more than two years, calling them an improperly selective exercise. After going before an arbitrator, that argument has prevailed. ESPN originally reported the result of the grievance.
The NFLPA said in a statement it would continue with the report cards, though without the public-facing component.
“The ruling upholds our right to survey players and share the results with players and clubs,” the union said. “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.”
Despite the league’s win, the NFL also said “the arbitrator did not find that the union’s independent survey necessarily conflicts with its obligation to conduct a joint scientific survey of players’ opinions regarding the adequacy of medical care under the CBA. Therefore, the management council will continue to work with the NFLPA to design and conduct such a survey in the coming seasons.”
This particular issue is unfolding as the NFL and NFLPA remain at odds over the potential for an 18-game regular season.
