NFL wins grievance against the players' union, banning 'team report cards'
An arbitrator has determined the NFL Players Association violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL by distributing annual “team report cards” and ordered the union to stop making public any future reports
An arbitrator determined the NFL Players Association violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL by distributing annual “team report cards” and ordered the union to stop making public any future reports. The NFL informed teams of the decision on Friday.
“We are pleased with the decision from the arbitrator, upholding the parties’ collective bargaining agreement and prohibiting the NFLPA from disparaging our clubs and individuals through ‘report cards’ allegedly based on data and methodologies that it has steadfastly refused to disclose,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement. “We remain committed to working in partnership with the NFLPA and an independent survey company to develop and administer a scientifically valid survey to solicit accurate and reliable player feedback as the parties agreed in the CBA.”
In a memo sent to the 32 teams, NFL attorneys said the NFLPA’s witness and counsel at a hearing characterized the report cards as “union speech” and admitted that: the union “cherry-picked” topics and player responses to include or not in the report cards; players had no role in drafting the commentary; the union selected which anonymous player quotes to include or exclude and the union determined the weight to give each topic and the resulting impact on the alphabetical grades.
“The arbitrator did not find that the union’s independent survey necessarily conflicts with its obligation to conduct a joint specific survey of players’ opinions regarding the adequacy of medical care under the CBA,” the league said in its memo to teams. “Therefore, the Management Council will continue to work with the NFLPA to design and conduct such a survey in the coming seasons.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.