NEW YORK — The days of publicly shaming NFL owners for rat-infested locker rooms and charge-for-dinner policies are officially over. The NFL notified all 32 clubs on Friday that it won a grievance against the NFL Players Association, with an arbitrator ruling that the union’s annual team report cards violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Per a league memo obtained by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the arbitrator determined the surveys contained “cherry-picked” data designed to disparage clubs rather than provide a scientific assessment. While the NFLPA plans to continue the polling process, the public release of letter grades—which became a viral offseason fixture—has been permanently halted.
The Ruling: “Union Speech,” Not Science
The league’s victory in arbitration centers on the methodology behind the grades. The memo states that during hearings, NFLPA witnesses and counsel admitted the surveys were “heavily curated” without direct player involvement in drafting the commentary. The arbitrator ultimately classified the report cards as “union speech” intended to advance bargaining interests under the guise of objective data.
For the NFL Management Council, this is a massive PR win. The league stated it will now work with the union to design a “scientifically valid” survey for future seasons—one that presumably won’t generate headlines about teams charging players for coffee.
Union Pushes Back
The NFLPA didn’t take the gag order quietly. In a rebuttal statement, the union emphasized that while the public airing of dirty laundry is finished, the program itself is not.
“The arbitrator found the report cards to be fair and balanced… The program is not going away. Players will still receive this critical information to make informed decisions about their careers.”
— NFLPA Official Statement
The union’s stance is clear: the grades will still exist, but they’ll circulate privately within locker rooms and agency circles rather than on social media feeds.
The “Woody Johnson Rule”
This crackdown didn’t happen in a vacuum. Reports surfaced in November that New York Jets owner Woody Johnson was a driving force behind the grievance. Johnson, whose ownership grade plummeted to an “F” in the 2024 survey, famously called the process “totally bogus” after players ranked the Jets 29th overall.
Johnson wasn’t the only one feeling the heat. The 2025 report cards, released earlier this year, were particularly brutal for several legacy franchises. The Pittsburgh Steelers, typically seen as a model organization, were hammered by their own roster.
Steelers 2025 Report Card Breakdown:
- Head Coach (Mike Tomlin): A (Ranked 7th)
- Ownership: D (Ranked 28th)
- Locker Room: D
- Treatment of Families: C-
- Strength Coaches: C-
Under the new ruling, these specific breakdowns—highlighting the gap between a beloved coach and an ownership group perceived as stingy—would never have seen the light of day.
What’s Next: The Leverage Shift
The public report cards were arguably the NFLPA’s most effective tool for forcing facility upgrades. The Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars, for instance, committed millions to new facilities explicitly to address poor grades. Without the threat of public embarrassment, it remains to be seen if owners will feel the same urgency to upgrade weight rooms or staffing levels based solely on private feedback.
