NFLPA Report Card

Hoya81

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The NFLPA asked 1300 players to rank their team in terms of nutrition, treatment of player's families, locker room and training facilities, strength and conditioning staff. Their hope is that low ranking teams will be moved to make improvements.

I was sort of surprised to see the Pats ranked 24th, especially that only 64% of players feel that Kraft is willing to spend the money to make upgrades. The training and weight rooms were called out for being old and understaffed. They also received some low marks on treatment of families, not offering a family room or day care at the stadium (maybe on game days?).
 

tims4wins

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Yeah, this was surprising and I can’t imagine that the Krafts will be happy with the results (which is a good thing if it spurs positive change).

Team travel was another one that jumped out given AirKraft 1.

I also watched a Do Your Job about the nutrition staff and came away impressed, so that one stuck out too.
 

lexrageorge

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There are probably some aspects of the survey results that require some additional context that is missing the report. I mean, the team got an A grade for Training Staff, but it was only good for 9th place??!! Players were happy with the strength coaches but yet were ranked 28th. The nutrition and food service got a B (good for 12th), but one of the issues seemed to be that only 68% of the players thought there was enough room in the cafeteria, which is not a nutrition issue at all.

It does seem like there are some issues with the facilities, which could be the case if they haven't been updated much since 2002. And that is one area where players are regularly exposed to the facilities of other teams, so there is likely a there there that should be addressed. No idea what to make of the travel grade; again, no real context was provided in the link.
 

Cellar-Door

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Washington is the hell hole we all expected.
Yeah, Bidwell in ARI is a joy too... only team in the league to charge guys for dinner, also only team in the league to charge guys if they want to eat while doing offseason workouts. Also included complaints that the weightroom is literally unsafe.

Overall it seems like you can split these into 3 categories:

1. The top handful of teams, who have brand new facilities, and all the bells and whistles.
2. The middle... have some but not all of the stuff, some older facilities, maybe lower staffing, missing some perks.
3. The bottom handful... trash fires.
 

Cellar-Door

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Yeah, this was surprising and I can’t imagine that the Krafts will be happy with the results (which is a good thing if it spurs positive change).

Team travel was another one that jumped out given AirKraft 1.

I also watched a Do Your Job about the nutrition staff and came away impressed, so that one stuck out too.
Patriots own their own plane, but it's pretty old, I would guess many teams who are chartering planes can get newer models with more space
 

Van Everyman

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I'm sorry but Jerry Jones getting A's on everything but the training room is the most predictable thing ever and makes me wonder how meaningful this kind of "report" is.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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The Chiefs training staff sounds really sketchy. Players fear retribution for speaking up for better care. Although it looks like the issue is all with the head trainer there.
 

Cellar-Door

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I'm sorry but Jerry Jones getting A's on everything but the training room is the most predictable thing ever and makes me wonder how meaningful this kind of "report" is.
I mean... he spends a shit ton of money on his players, which I would guess his players really like. There are many ways he sucks, but taking care of the players on his team isn't one of them
 

Van Everyman

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I mean... he spends a shit ton of money on his players, which I would guess his players really like. There are many ways he sucks, but taking care of the players on his team isn't one of them
No, I get that ... and I know ostensibly the issue here is "working conditions" (which, let's be honest, isn't really comparable to, say, delivering uniforms at Cintas). But how much of this is "I just built the Taj Mahal of stadiums" vs. "I treat my players great"? I mean, I guess the child care on-site thing is interesting (and maybe surprising that Kraft doesn't have it ... unless, of course, it's a space issue at Gillette ... tho I'd wonder why they don't just have it at Patriot Place).

But FWIW, the second I saw this, I went to the Cowboys because I just *knew* the grades would be sparkling.
 

BigJimEd

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Patriots are redoing their weight room this offseason as part of renovations.

Hopefully they'll address the family room and child care as well.
 

Shelterdog

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Patriots are redoing their weight room this offseason as part of renovations.

Hopefully they'll address the family room and child care as well.
Anyone heard the story about the dinner they took Rodney Harrison to when recruiting him. They took him to
the ground round!
Point being that the team's fringe benefits might not all be first class; whether that matters or not, I'm not sure but it certainly will help if and when the BB mystique fades
 

mauidano

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Ironically, I get to work with the NFLPA next week here on Maui! Their annual meeting is here.

I have no clue who any of these guys are without a scorecard.
 

Harry Hooper

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Patriots own their own plane, but it's pretty old, I would guess many teams who are chartering planes can get newer models with more space
Or, the players wanted Joe Judge on a separate plane of his own.
 

rodderick

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The result of this poll brought me back to Bill's comments about how amazing the Raiders' facilities were last year. Seemed like it had a purpose then, even more so now.
 

sodenj5

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Miami ranked second, and Ross inherited a pretty old stadium with the training facility located in Davie, FL.

Ross shelled out the money for the stadium upgrades, including the now famous home field canopy, and just last year they opened the new training facility located next to the stadium.

He has screwed up a bunch of stuff, but he almost always screws up trying to win.
 

Shelterdog

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Miami ranked second, and Ross inherited a pretty old stadium with the training facility located in Davie, FL.

Ross shelled out the money for the stadium upgrades, including the now famous home field canopy, and just last year they opened the new training facility located next to the stadium.

He has screwed up a bunch of stuff, but he almost always screws up trying to win.
Well except when he tries to pay the coach to lose. And when he cans a good coach because the guy is black.
 

sodenj5

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Well except when he tries to pay the coach to lose. And when he cans a good coach because the guy is black.
And hired a biracial coach to take his place? Suspiciously racist of Ross.

You can make the claim that Ross legitimately tried to pay Flores to lose games. So far Flo is the only one to substantiate that claim.

You can also say that maybe he was fired because he was “difficult to work with,” not because he was a bad coach. Miami basically said as much.

You’re going to need to cite some evidence that he was fired “because he was black.”
 

Shelterdog

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And hired a biracial coach to take his place? Suspiciously racist of Ross.

You can make the claim that Ross legitimately tried to pay Flores to lose games. So far Flo is the only one to substantiate that claim.

You can also say that maybe he was fired because he was “difficult to work with,” not because he was a bad coach. Miami basically said as much.

You’re going to need to cite some evidence that he was fired “because he was black.”
The NFL did find that Ross said he'd pay Flores to lose games, but determined that it was a joke. Which, fine, believe what you will. Flores claims he sent a contemporaneous memo to the team about it but that memo hasn't seen the light of day. And maybe we should take the Dolphins seriously when they say Flores was difficult to work with, because employers never use that as a pretext. I think on both topics we'll find out more at a racial discrimination trial coming soon.
 

BaseballJones

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It seems like providing world-class care for your athletes is one way that teams can kind of "circumvent" the salary cap a little, you know? Like, Kraft can only spend so much money on salaries. But if he can provide world-class chefs for his team, world-class doctors, world-class trainers and strength and conditioning people, world-class transportation, world-class amenities in the facility, pay for team activities, provide all kinds of team benefits, etc., you can provide all kinds of additional value outside the scope of the salary cap that players can enjoy and that might draw them to your team. Like if you're offering all this, and another team isn't, and you both are offering player X similar contracts, he may choose your team based on all these other things.

And it's not like owners like Kraft don't have the money for this stuff. And many of them are more than willing to spend. So it seems like kind of a no-brainer.
 

luckiestman

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And hired a biracial coach to take his place? Suspiciously racist of Ross.

You can make the claim that Ross legitimately tried to pay Flores to lose games. So far Flo is the only one to substantiate that claim.

You can also say that maybe he was fired because he was “difficult to work with,” not because he was a bad coach. Miami basically said as much.

You’re going to need to cite some evidence that he was fired “because he was black.”
Hey, maybe someday Robert Kraft will hire a black head coach instead of spending all his time hanging out with.....


.






.





his family.
 

trekfan55

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It seems like providing world-class care for your athletes is one way that teams can kind of "circumvent" the salary cap a little, you know? Like, Kraft can only spend so much money on salaries. But if he can provide world-class chefs for his team, world-class doctors, world-class trainers and strength and conditioning people, world-class transportation, world-class amenities in the facility, pay for team activities, provide all kinds of team benefits, etc., you can provide all kinds of additional value outside the scope of the salary cap that players can enjoy and that might draw them to your team. Like if you're offering all this, and another team isn't, and you both are offering player X similar contracts, he may choose your team based on all these other things.

And it's not like owners like Kraft don't have the money for this stuff. And many of them are more than willing to spend. So it seems like kind of a no-brainer.
The 80s 49ers had this under Ed DeBartolo.

He spent lavishly on gifts, on facilities and on road trips.

Now back then there was no cap so he also paid Steve Young starting QB money to hold a clipboard but this has proven to be a winning strategy. And with a cap, the one way where a team can flex its financial muscle to attract players without restrictions.
 

Shelterdog

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It seems like providing world-class care for your athletes is one way that teams can kind of "circumvent" the salary cap a little, you know? Like, Kraft can only spend so much money on salaries. But if he can provide world-class chefs for his team, world-class doctors, world-class trainers and strength and conditioning people, world-class transportation, world-class amenities in the facility, pay for team activities, provide all kinds of team benefits, etc., you can provide all kinds of additional value outside the scope of the salary cap that players can enjoy and that might draw them to your team. Like if you're offering all this, and another team isn't, and you both are offering player X similar contracts, he may choose your team based on all these other things.

And it's not like owners like Kraft don't have the money for this stuff. And many of them are more than willing to spend. So it seems like kind of a no-brainer.
I think there's a range of wealth among the owners--and a lot of them are a lot richer than Kraft. I don't know how much more he's willing to pony up to circumvent the cap through having first class day care or travel or whatever, particularly if it leads to financial losses for the Pats.
 

BaseballJones

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I think there's a range of wealth among the owners--and a lot of them are a lot richer than Kraft. I don't know how much more he's willing to pony up to circumvent the cap through having first class day care or travel or whatever, particularly if it leads to financial losses for the Pats.
I don't know either. But he's spending a fortune improving the look of the stadium, so clearly he's willing to spend lots and lots of money to improve the organization. He wants to WIN. One way he can win is by attracting better players, and spending in these areas is one way to attract better players.

But you're right - I have no idea what he's willing to spend his money on.
 

Shelterdog

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I don't know either. But he's spending a fortune improving the look of the stadium, so clearly he's willing to spend lots and lots of money to improve the organization. He wants to WIN. One way he can win is by attracting better players, and spending in these areas is one way to attract better players.

But you're right - I have no idea what he's willing to spend his money on.
I do think if you want to win you need to have the most effective (not the most luxurious necessarily) nutrition and athletic training situations; I'd be disappointed if they weren't providing everything they could to their players on those fronts on a pure performance standpoint.
 

Cellar-Door

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Kraft has never really shown any indication he's willing to be a big spender in the last couple decades (since Gillette basically), he doesn't spend like other NFL owners, he was one of the strongest voices against spedning in MLS when the owners with money came in (and he still spends little on the Revs while playing them in arguably the worst venue in the league) and he quickly noped out of his foray into a possible Premiere league team over cost concerns (and that was before the huge cost explosion). He hasn't really shown any interest in the type of "pay cash now to save cap" deals other owners have either (now that may be Bill).

Overall though, while Kraft isn't the cheapest owner in the league, he's definitely not anywhere near being an aggressive spender.
 

Van Everyman

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Kraft also has personal relationships with the players that he builds through his trips to Israel. That kind of thing isn’t really captured under “working conditions“ understandably, but I think it matters in terms of coming to play for the Pats, particularly for some young black men who I think weren’t expecting to develop a spiritual bond with an old Jewish billionaire. Chung and the McCourty‘s have discussed this and the impact it has on team culture. All of which is to say that this is a complex thing.

I’m coming around a little bit on the value of this survey. But I still think Jerry’s “I will build you the biggest and most luxurious locker rooms and feed you the finest foods on the biggest team plane with longhorns on the wings“ approach shows that there is at least some aspect of superficiality to this.
 

BusRaker

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Since when did F- become a real grade?

So on average 40 players per team responded. It must have went to non-vested members as well so not a lot would have actually played on multiple teams (they of course see the other team's shit when playing road games).

I wonder if players will actually will use this when choosing teams as free agents. That would benefit teams that are using non-capped expenses versus the cheapies
 

AlNipper49

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It seems like providing world-class care for your athletes is one way that teams can kind of "circumvent" the salary cap a little, you know? Like, Kraft can only spend so much money on salaries. But if he can provide world-class chefs for his team, world-class doctors, world-class trainers and strength and conditioning people, world-class transportation, world-class amenities in the facility, pay for team activities, provide all kinds of team benefits, etc., you can provide all kinds of additional value outside the scope of the salary cap that players can enjoy and that might draw them to your team. Like if you're offering all this, and another team isn't, and you both are offering player X similar contracts, he may choose your team based on all these other things.

And it's not like owners like Kraft don't have the money for this stuff. And many of them are more than willing to spend. So it seems like kind of a no-brainer.
Learning from college sports!
 
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RedOctober3829

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It also is interesting because players come in from colleges who have ridiculous training facilities and likely better ones than most pro teams. So that probably has to skew things on a lot of teams. They see what they had in college and what they have now and it may not measure up. Big time college athletics is one big arms race when it comes to training facilities and locker rooms. One school has to top the other. Some schools are re-doing their facilities every 10 years or so because once they build it it becomes obsolete very soon in the eyes of an 18 year old who has seen facility X that is brand new.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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It seems like providing world-class care for your athletes is one way that teams can kind of "circumvent" the salary cap a little, you know? Like, Kraft can only spend so much money on salaries. But if he can provide world-class chefs for his team, world-class doctors, world-class trainers and strength and conditioning people, world-class transportation, world-class amenities in the facility, pay for team activities, provide all kinds of team benefits, etc., you can provide all kinds of additional value outside the scope of the salary cap that players can enjoy and that might draw them to your team. Like if you're offering all this, and another team isn't, and you both are offering player X similar contracts, he may choose your team based on all these other things.

And it's not like owners like Kraft don't have the money for this stuff. And many of them are more than willing to spend. So it seems like kind of a no-brainer.
Anyone know how much money Brady made on that house next door to the Krafts? And who actually bought it from him?
 

Van Everyman

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Phil Perry does a nice job. That's a good piece.

Clearly, EA needs to start folding these things into Madden so when you direct your guys to do off-week weight training in Franchise Mode for the Patriots, you get fewer points ... while the Vikings can beat anyone.