Wealthy and powerful people don’t like being held accountable.

When your net worth reaches 10 figures, being told that your workplace environment stinks can be irritating. But if you’re an NFL owner, that’s more than an annoyance. It’s embarrassing. It’s like showing up at an exclusive golf club in a jalopy. You’ll quickly become the target of mockery.

Public shaming works, especially when it’s inflicted on people with big egos. We know this because these owners desperately don’t want you to know how cheap and/or negligent they can be.

To most people’s dismay, the NFL won a grievance to ensure the NFLPA report cards are no longer made public.

Those report cards provided valuable insights.

We learned which team had the worst cafeteria (the Cincinnati Bengals), which team had the worst locker room (the Arizona Cardinals), and which team had the worst ownership (the New York Jets). This was great content that the NFL media was happy to run because it offered an unvarnished view of a league that loves to keep its secrets. But now, due to what seems like a technicality, we won’t have access to this information.

Boo!

Players and coaches face the music all season long but Woody ‘n the gang can’t handle the most basic form of accountability.

Maybe he’d be down with the cause if players used 1-to-99 Madden-style ratings? https://t.co/trU5PQKi91


— Tyler Dunne (@TyDunne) February 13, 2026

The face of the original complaint is the guy driving the jalopy of NFL franchises. The New York Jets’ Woody Johnson received the only “F” grade among owners last season, and his team ranked No. 29 out of 32. 

According to the New York Post, Johnson called the grades “totally bogus” last March.

“How they collected the information, who they collected it from – it’s supposed to be a process where we have representatives, and they have representatives, so we know it’s an honest survey,” Johnson said. “And that was violated, in my opinion.

“There are a lot of owners that looked at this survey and said this is not fair, not balanced, it’s not every player, it’s not even representative of the players.”

For the 2024 and 2025 report cards, the NFLPA reported that 77% of players participated.

As expected, most in the NFL media were annoyed by the league’s attempt to avoid accountability. It’s also noteworthy that former Pro Bowler and broadcaster J.J. Watt took the NFL to task.

NFL won’t let actual players grade the workplace they attend every single day, but they’ll allow a 3rd party “grading” service to display their “rankings” of players on national television every Sunday night… https://t.co/JBQXOgFZIN


— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) February 13, 2026

Johnson and other owners might hate the NFLPA report cards, much as many employees hate end-of-year evaluations. However, both can lead to substantial improvements and highlight blind spots that may have been overlooked. Great leadership recognizes that this can be a productive, albeit uncomfortable, process. Owners have made changes after receiving poor grades, including Broncos owner and CEO Greg Penner.

Pro Football Talk noted that after receiving an “F” for their locker room last year, the Broncos are building a new facility with an improved locker room.

“I think everybody always wants to get A’s on their test,” Penner said. “I think you get some good inputs from that, and we try to be responsive to that. I look forward to seeing what’s in there. The last couple surveys, players have said our locker room is not great, it’s too small. We might have gotten an F on that, and that’s why we’re building a new facility. Not the only reason, but one of them.”

Since the NFL killed the surveys, if nfl player wants to vent about rats in the locker room, sewage in the showers, lack of childcare or bad meals, my DMs are open.


— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) February 13, 2026

That’s the correct attitude. While the owners might have won a battle, they won’t stop the leak of relevant information. There is no ruling that could stop reporters from issuing their own player grades based on their own research and reporting. Plus, the NFLPA released a statement saying players will still have access to the surveys, so leaking is a foregone conclusion. 

Generally, the more institutions try to hide details, the more dogged reporters become. Yes, their information won’t carry the official endorsement of the NFLPA, but players will be incentivized more than ever to cooperate because it serves their interests.

The NFL is the most competitive league in the sport, with players risking grave injury every week on non-guaranteed contracts. At the very least, they deserve the best possible workplace conditions. If the owners fall short on providing an adequate environment, the media will find out, with or without official report cards.