Brooke Pryor
Multiple Authors
The NFL won its grievance against the NFL Players Association, effectively banning the union from conducting and publishing future player report cards, according to a memo distributed to all 32 NFL teams and obtained by ESPN on Friday morning.
An arbitrator found that the report cards violated the collective bargaining agreement by “disparaging NFL clubs and individuals.”
According to the memo, the arbitrator found through hearings with the NFLPA’s witness and counsel that the report cards were “designed by the union to advance its interests under the guise of a scientific exercise.” The NFLPA refused to produce data related to previous surveys, and the union’s witness and counsel admitted the union “cherry-picked” topics and responses to include in the report cards.
The memo also stated that players had no role in the commentary included with the report cards and that it was written by union staffers, and the union chose which anonymous player quotes to use or exclude. The arbitrator also found that the union applied the weight to each topic and directly impacted the final alphabetical grades for each organization.
The NFLPA has conducted and distributed the results of anonymous player surveys since 2023 — and already collected surveys throughout the 2025 season for the latest installment of the report cards to be published in spring 2026 — but the league filed its grievance to stop the practice in the fall saying it violated the agreement clause that states NFL owners and the union must “use reasonable efforts to curtail public comments by club personnel or players which express criticism of any club, its coach, or its operation and policy.”
Instead, the memo states, teams should continue to solicit feedback from their players directly, and the NFL’s Management Council will work with the NFLPA to design and conduct a survey that collects players’ opinions regarding the “adequacy of medical care under the CBA.”
Prior to Friday’s ruling, players across the league expressed their support for the report cards.
“I think it’s a great assessment of how players really feel,” Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum said in November. “It’s objective, especially for the people that are actually in the buildings every single day. No disrespect to the National Football League, but a lot of those folks sit in offices at 345 Park [league headquarters in New York City], and you have folks that are doing these reports that are living, breathing, eating, sleeping, working, the whole nine, that are in these buildings every single day.”
“It’s a great way to be transparent and a great way to keep everybody accountable.” Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, one of the NFLPA’s 10 vice presidents, added: “I think to stop it, it just kind of feels like you’re hiding something.”
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