INDIANAPOLIS — Some of the most tenured Kansas City Chiefs players felt they received an earnest promise, the type that leads to communication that filters down from high in the organization, including club owner Clark Hunt, to player after player.
The promise from Hunt was that he would continue to make necessary renovations to the team’s facilities. He did it when the Chiefs updated the Arrowhead Stadium locker room on the eve of the 2022 season. Though appreciative of that improvement, the players also reminded Hunt they use that locker room just eight or nine days during the regular season. The bigger need, the players felt, was the outdated locker room at their training facility, where they spend hours, sometimes six days a week.
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The players believed that locker room would be renovated after the 2022 season and before the start of last season. That promise, several Chiefs players expressed in the NFL Players Association’s annual team-by-team report cards, was not kept by Hunt.
Wednesday, the NFLPA released the findings of its second annual survey, which assesses players’ working conditions and environments. The back-to-back Super Bowl champion Chiefs ranked 31st overall among the league’s 32 teams.
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Players took the survey anonymously through a QR code on their smartphone or tablet. Club owner, a new category, was weighted the most heavily of the 12.
The Chiefs gave Hunt an F-plus, the lowest grade for an owner, based on his willingness to invest in the facilities.
“The answer (the players) got back was, ‘You guys won too far in the (2022) playoffs, and we didn’t have time to fix it,’” NFLPA president J.C. Tretter said Wednesday in a news conference at the NFL Scouting Combine. “They just won another Super Bowl. I know there’s some frustration of, ‘We keep winning Super Bowls and nothing is coming back to us. There’s no priority on making our lives better, but we kept making the organization more money.’
“That’s reflected in their results. That’s why his grade is so low.”
Tretter shared that the survey’s data was gathered from August to November of the 2023 season from 1,706 participating players, up from almost 1,300 participants in 2022.
In addition to ownership, team grade categories included training room, training staff, weight room, strength coaches, team travel and head coach. The highest grade from Chiefs players was given to coach Andy Reid, who received an A-plus, top among his peers. The Chiefs were either a D-plus or worse in owner, locker room, treatment of families, nutrition, training rooms, training staff and team travel.
“This is a workplace survey, so this has nothing to do with wins and losses,” Tretter said. “You’ll see by Kansas City being 31st, (it) doesn’t have anything to do with winning and losing. This is about treatment in the facilities.”
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Tretter said other teams that ranked low in last year’s survey attempted to improve the work environments for players. The Arizona Cardinals stopped charging players for meals, removed old flooring in the weight room, added a family room and provided day care for families at games. The Cincinnati Bengals upgraded their training room, added a new recovery room and are renovating their locker room this offseason.
“The vast majority of (returning) players said each of the categories got better at their clubs from Year 1 to Year 2,” Tretter said. “We’re seeing changes made.”
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