How NFL groups are reacting to survey on household remedy

AFTER HOME GAMES for the primary 5 seasons of Jessie Bates III‘s profession, the previous Cincinnati Bengals security needed to depart the stadium to seek out his household.

Now in Atlanta, Bates meets his household in a set within the Mercedes-Benz Dome after residence video games, the place there’s meals and a spot “our households can have the ability to join on a distinct degree.”

“I feel that is what separates us in comparison with loads of different organizations,” Bates stated.

It is the sort of refined distinction that may matter quite a bit to NFL gamers.

In February, when the NFL Gamers Affiliation launched their annual report playing cards, the Bengals obtained the bottom rating — an F-minus — within the “remedy of households” class. The Falcons obtained an A, the second-highest grade.

The report playing cards are based mostly on a survey of 1,695 gamers throughout the league, administered from August 26 to November 20, 2024 and consists of grades on all the things from head coach to staff journey and the locker room. Based on the NFLPA, solutions have been collected anonymously.

ESPN spoke with gamers about how they outline “remedy of households” and the suggestions that serves as the premise for the NFLPA’s grades.

A number of present Bengals gamers, who have been granted anonymity to talk freely on the topic, referenced the dearth of gameday facilities obtainable to them and the way tough that may make it on their households.

One participant famous that one other AFC staff had an indoor cookout-style assembly space within the stadium postgame. Up till final yr, when the Bengals added a postgame space contained in the stadium for households to satisfy, they’d an out of doors space beneath a big white tent roughly 20 yards away from the gamers’ car parking zone.

One participant described the tent as a “s–t present,” particularly when it was chilly.

One other veteran identified that one of many main points for his staff on gameday is the dearth of a devoted space for households when it comes to loos and concessions. Many occasions, households are continually ready in lengthy traces for each of these issues, which for gamers with younger kids — and a recreation performed by younger males means a big variety of NFL gamers who’re fathers have younger kids — brings stress and safety considerations.

“Simply various things the place they’ll make it extra handy for our households, particularly when the husband’s not there,” the veteran stated to ESPN. “We’re anxious about them. I feel it will be simpler for us if we had sure issues for households, we do not have to fret about it.”

And whereas the significance of the surveys varies from staff to staff, some groups, just like the Minnesota Vikings, consider the NFLPA survey — and notably the assessments of how the staff treats households — has been key to the back-to-back monster free agent lessons they signed in 2024 and 2025.

Falcons offensive lineman Chris Lindstrom, who’s an NFLPA participant rep, stated earlier than the report playing cards have been completed — the primary was revealed in 2023 — when gamers have been going by way of the free company course of, they needed to attempt to name round to different gamers they knew to get a really feel for the professionals and cons of every franchise.

“The survey has had a significant affect,” 2025 Vikings free agent signing Ryan Kelly stated. “Since you’re a man in search of a brand new residence, you have received youngsters, you will have a household. It is like, ‘what is the remedy like?’ Should you deal with my household properly, I’ll be happier as an individual, I’ll be happier as a participant, I’ll be in a greater temper, and we’ll in all probability have extra success.”

Kelly spent his first 9 seasons with the Colts, a staff that was middle-of-the-pack with a B-minus rating for remedy of households in the newest survey.

And though it’s early in his Vikings profession, it did not take Kelly lengthy to really feel just like the survey outcomes he had seen have been correct.

“Being solely there for a little bit over 24 hours [to sign his FA contract], we felt that as my complete household was there,” Kelly stated. “It did not matter if it was my mother or my dad or my youngsters or a nanny, all people felt the love and that goes to point out you it is a particular place.”

IN THE MIDDLE of a busy season, Vikings working again Aaron Jones appreciates that the staff’s assist employees can and can deal with sure wants for a participant’s household.

On Tuesday or Wednesday of every week, Vikings assist employees will ask gamers if they’ve household touring to the sport. In the event that they do, employees will ask what number of tickets they want and whether or not the household requires resort lodging. Gamers can select to pay immediately or have the price deducted from their paychecks.

“It simply makes it that a lot simpler,” Jones stated. “Your loved ones’s not, ‘Hey, I am looking for a spot to remain. The place are you guys staying? What is the closest resort?’ It simply takes all of that away.”

The Vikings assist employees will deal with all the things to make “positive your loved ones’s taken care of,” Jones stated, “from directing the households into the sport to serving to them get seated to sideline passes.”

“It’s no stress, simply because I do know they’re in good palms,” Jones stated.

The alternative is true for the Jacksonville Jaguars, in line with a veteran Jaguars participant who requested for anonymity. Jacksonville scored an F for remedy of households on the report card, which was the second-lowest grade.

“I do know we’re purported to be those to inform our household sure issues, however when there’s 30 different issues that us as gamers have to fret about after which we inform our household [information] on the final minute, issues can get miscommunicated within the info,” the participant stated. “When we’ve to [be the person] to present them the tickets or [be the person] to present all of them these items, [stuff] occurs, what I imply?

The participant continued: “I need to guarantee that my household is OK so I haven’t got to fret about them. [Sometimes] these safety guards ain’t letting my rattling spouse in. I’ve received to fret about that or we have got to name [a team rep] to deal with this. It should not [happen]. Household ought to be already taken care of. They need to be an extension of a participant in sure areas.”

ON GAME DAY, Jones is aware of his youngsters — he has a one-and-a-half-year-old and a five-year-old — might be having enjoyable. The working again stated whereas his oldest may be very into the sport, the Vikings do such a great job at their daycare throughout halftime — with all the things from face portray to a petting zoo and different actions to maintain the youngsters engaged — that “he does not need to come again [for the second half].”

The Bengals would not have little one care obtainable throughout video games, certainly one of three groups that doesn’t present that possibility, in line with the NFLPA survey.

“It is laborious for teenagers to get by way of a full recreation,” a Bengals participant informed ESPN. “Clearly, your loved ones desires to come back assist. My [kids] are sufficiently old to the place they assume it is cool however it’s additionally like quite a bit. I feel that [child care] may very well be superior.”

Based on a number of gamers, plans are in place for Cincinnati to implement little one take care of 2025 residence video games, which may enhance their rating. However one participant famous that it took three consecutive years of failing grades on the NFLPA survey for the Bengals to probably add the service.

What’s extra perplexing is that the Bengals are some of the distinguished family-run organizations in skilled sports activities, with three generations of the Brown household working the franchise based by Paul Brown, the daddy of present staff president Mike Brown.

Regardless of this, one participant indicated to ESPN that the staff does a poor job of integrating households into not simply the gameday expertise however different occasions all through the common season.

“Is not it nice that your daughters and your granddaughters are at work with you?” one participant informed ESPN. “After which we’ve to go within the car parking zone to see our household within the rain? Yeah, it sucks.”

Brown’s daughter and Bengals government vp Katie Blackburn addressed the survey on the NFL’s league assembly within the spring saying, “We’re at all times pleased to speak to gamers about points they could have. I focus extra on suggestions from our gamers, [coach] Zac [Taylor]. F-minus is a little bit harsh. It does not actually offend me. If there’s one thing they need us to take a look at, we will take that message and construct on it and have a look and see if there are issues that we would have the ability to do to make individuals really feel higher. We’re actually open to that.”

The Dallas Cowboys present little one care on recreation days, however the enjoyable begins earlier than that. The day earlier than a Sunday recreation at AT&T Stadium, the Cowboys host gamers’ households for lunch, bringing in issues like ice cream vehicles and low vehicles. The Cowboys name it FIT, or household ice cream time, which permits “time for our vital others to be up right here round one another,” Cowboys proper sort out Terence Steele stated.

“Meaning quite a bit,” Steele stated.

Falcons staff president Greg Beadles stated Atlanta has month-to-month household dinners on the facility and hosted a Halloween trick-or-treat final yr for gamers’ youngsters.

Whereas the Jaguars obtained a poor grade based mostly on the 2024 surveys — Jaguars gamers voiced within the report playing cards that they need a household room obtainable throughout video games “so their households can escape the warmth and permit moms to alter/nurse infants” — new head coach Liam Coen, who has two younger sons, made household involvement a precedence through the spring.

“He is completed a hell of a job on doing much more household stuff, particularly this early on,” the participant stated. “I do know he speaks about how he was raised within the locker room within the amenities, and I would like my youngsters to do the identical factor. And so now even throughout OTAs, each Thursday he is doing household day. Our households can come and watch our observe and we will hang around with our household for lunch and stuff, too. So he is having much more family-orientated issues, which is superior.”

AFTER HOME GAMES, Cowboys particular groups ace C.J. Goodwin, the second-longest tenured Cowboy, is aware of the place his household might be: the Landry Room. Named after the Cowboys Corridor of Fame coach, it is a non-public membership space inside AT&T Stadium. Every participant will get two free tickets to the world, which incorporates meals, drinks and “something you need.”

Cowboys gamers rated the post-game household space 9.05 out of 10, rating them second out of 32 groups.

A veteran Jaguars participant, who requested for anonymity, stated he would love a devoted, safe inside space for households to satisfy up after the sport. Final yr, for instance, the area was a tent outdoors the gamers’ entrance to the EverBank Stadium locker room.

The Cleveland Browns would not have a post-game spot to assemble contained in the stadium after residence video games. The Browns obtained a D-plus in remedy of households, the fifth-worst grade in that class.

The report playing cards famous that the Browns gamers surveyed “consider that the coaches’ households are handled higher than gamers’ households,” as “the coaches’ households have a post-game meet up contained in the stadium, whereas the gamers’ households meet in a tent within the car parking zone.” Based on the staff, the tent is heated and the group spends round $200,000 on the area.

Browns left guard Joel Bitonio, the longest tenured member of the Browns, stated he does assume “there was enhancements so far as households go.”

“I feel it is nearly like a logistical factor in our stadium,” Bitonio stated in regards to the downtown lakefront stadium that opened in 1999. “There’s groups just like the Raiders, the Vikings, the Cowboys, they are going to have devoted areas the place after the sport, you may meet up with your loved ones, your mates. They’ve meals for them contained in the stadium, the place we’re sort of throughout the road within the car parking zone.

“It will get chilly in Cleveland and there is a little tent there the place you may meet up with them for 5 minutes. Nevertheless it’s sort of a thrown-together section. I feel the gamers simply needed one thing [with] a little bit more room and a little bit extra time.”

The Browns say that they’ve been eliciting suggestions from gamers on concepts for a household room as they transfer ahead with their plans to construct a $2.4 billion domed stadium in Brookpark, a Cleveland suburb.

SPEAKING WHILE WATCHING his staff observe in Maui final week, Los Angeles Rams staff president Kevin Demoff stated holding minicamp in Hawaii — and alluring gamers to convey alongside their households or vital others — was not a response to the staff’s poor NFLPA report card.

The Rams, who ranked thirtieth of thirty second groups within the remedy of households class final season, had already deliberate this journey when the report playing cards got here out, Demoff stated.

“There’s nothing we ever try this’s based mostly on the NFLPA surveys,” Demoff stated. “We at all times do what we predict is greatest for our group, our gamers and their households. I feel should you needed to make this an important journey for them, they’d to have the ability to convey their households and have that chance open to them.

“I’ve liked getting to look at our soccer operations employees household work together with participant households in ways in which by no means actually occurred. The genuine collisions that occurred within the resort foyer and other people going out to dinner or enjoying golf and doing these issues, watching the households plant bushes yesterday collectively in Wailea. These are all particular moments that convey the whole group collectively. Doing it since you would possibly do higher in a survey could be a backwards outcome, I feel, from what we’re all making an attempt to realize.”

However some groups are undoubtedly guided by the surveys. A Jaguars official stated they listened to participant considerations over the dearth of entry sideline passes to allow them to see their households pregame, they usually have options in place for 2025. Pre-game sideline passes are actually obtainable, and gamers and their households will collect postgame within the cafeteria of the staff’s soccer facility adjoining to EverBank Stadium.

“We worth all our gamers and their households,” the official stated.

Like others inside the league, the veteran Jaguars participant additionally talked in regards to the significance of having the ability to depend on somebody on employees to assist with communication [such as ticket information], organizing household occasions, and ensuring issues run easily on recreation days for the households. That will take a load off the gamers’ minds and remove some distractions, he stated.

The veteran participant acknowledged among the points he talked about are associated to the present stadium, which is scheduled to endure a $1.4 billion renovation over the subsequent three seasons. The staff must play its residence video games elsewhere in 2027 — doubtless Orlando — and that can current a problem on recreation days for households, however Jaguars officers say areas for gamers/households on recreation days might be among the many main upgrades from the present stadium when it reopens in 2028.

Bitonio stated he thinks the report playing cards have “completed a great job in Cleveland,” pointing to the brand new weight room the Haslam household put in.

Whereas Demoff stated he appreciates the suggestions from gamers by way of the survey, he known as the report playing cards “a little bit little bit of a double-edged sword.” Together with serving because the Rams’ staff president, Demoff oversees the operations of all Kroenke Sports activities and Leisure groups, together with the Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL) and Colorado Rapids (MLS). Demoff stated no different league’s gamers affiliation at present produces comparable report playing cards.

“I want we knew the questions and the information, as a result of we solely see the grades,” Demoff stated. “We do not get an opportunity to see the questions that have been requested. So we’ve to go replicate these questions — good or dangerous — to our gamers and discover out, ‘Hey, what was the difficulty on this specific merchandise?’

The NFLPA doesn’t share what number of gamers voted for every staff.

“I do assume it will be useful if there was a extra clear sharing of the questions and of the information in order that we did not should go and guess as to ‘this is what the difficulty might need been,'” Demoff stated. “Not all the things I feel is as sensational because it’s made out. However I feel if there’s actually a objective to make it a real partnership, we’ll have the ability to share the information extra.”

Based on an NFLPA spokesperson, the NFL has instructed the gamers affiliation to not talk about the report playing cards immediately with particular person groups.

“We acknowledge that context and background are important to understanding the outcomes of this venture that serves to enhance working environments for our participant members,” an NFLPA spokesperson stated. “We’re keen to have interaction in significant conversations with any membership concerned about discussing their suggestions. Nonetheless, the league has instructed us to chorus from initiating any direct conversations with particular person golf equipment on this matter.

“If a membership want to converse with us immediately, we encourage them to contact the league workplace to request permission. We might welcome the chance to have these conversations.”

Todd Archer, Ben Child, Michael DiRocco, Daniel Oyefusi, Marc Raimondi and Kevin Seifert contributed to this story.