Documents: NFL filed grievance against NFLPA to stop report cards

The NFL filed a grievance against the NFL Players Association, asking the union to stop its annual team report cards and saying the exercise violates the collective bargaining agreement by airing public criticism of teams, according to documents obtained by ESPN.

The league claims the report cards, which poll players on various aspects of working conditions, violate a CBA clause that says 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,” according to an August letter from the league’s management council to NFLPA general counsel Tom DePaso that was obtained by ESPN.

After months of discussions with the league after the letter, the NFLPA alerted its players of the grievance last week and said it’s “moving ahead with this year’s survey,” according to a union email obtained by ESPN.

“We have responded to the grievance with our intention to fight against this action and continue what’s clearly become an effective tool for comparing workplace standards across the league and equipping you to make informed career decisions,” the NFLPA wrote in its email to players.

Both a union spokesperson and an NFL spokesperson declined to comment.

The union’s annual team report cards issue grades — from A to F — to franchises on everything from treatment of families to training staff.

In the letter, the NFL’s management council, which handles labor issues for the league, argues the NFL and union already agree to conduct a joint survey of players “regarding the adequacy of player care and other relevant topics” every three years, per the CBA. The letter states that the company overseeing that survey has said the union’s report card exercise “adversely affected the reliability of the CBA-mandated survey.”

A source with direct knowledge of the league’s process said that that survey was last conducted in 2015 and that officials from the league and union would meet confidentially with teams about specific areas of improvement, with tangible results.

The letter states that the NFL twice has asked the union to suspend its report card survey — once in 2024 and a second time in June of this year — and that the NFLPA declined. Sources with direct knowledge of the grievance told ESPN that the league is trying to have the issue heard by an arbitrator in December, with a hope of a decision by February 2026.

The union’s email to players cited data that teams had improved working conditions based on the survey. It stated that nine teams improved their family services score — which includes childcare services and stadium family rooms — by two or more grades. It also stated that 12 teams improved two or more grades in travel scores.

Team owners and executives told ESPN that the topic of the report cards arose at a recent owners meeting, during a discussion over what management would like to change in future CBAs. Ownership sources told ESPN that they value the report cards but feel that, because the union issues only general grades and not specific feedback, they serve as an instrument to mock teams without telling them which areas need improvement.

“It could make you better,” a team executive told ESPN, “but they don’t share how. They just take snippets to embarrass people without sharing the data.”

In 2025, 1,695 players leaguewide responded to the surveys. The Minnesota Vikings and Miami Dolphins earned the highest marks for workplace environment, with Zygi Wilf of the Vikings, Stephen Ross of the Dolphins and Arthur Blank of the Atlanta Falcons receiving A-plus grades.

At the NFL league meeting in March, New York Jets chairman Woody Johnson — who along with Art Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots, Michael Bidwill of the Arizona Cardinals and David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers received ownership grades of D or worse — called the survey “totally bogus” and hinted that it violated the CBA.

Johnson said he took issue with “how they collected the information [and] who they collected it from. [It] was supposed to be according to the agreement we have with the league. It’s supposed to be a process [where] we have representatives and they have representatives, so we know that it’s an honest survey.

“And that was violated, in my opinion. I’m going to leave it at that, but I think there are a lot of owners that looked at that survey and said this is not fair, it’s not balanced, it’s not every player, it’s not even representative of the players.”

One owner told ESPN that “the only owners who don’t care for [the report cards] are the ones who get the subpar grades.”