NFL owners have little if any true accountability, to anyone. In 2022, the NFL Players Association came up with a way to hold the feet of dysfunctional teams to the fire. And the owners of the dysfunctional teams didn’t like it.

So they attacked it, with a grievance.

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On Friday, the NFL sent a memo to all teams, crowing about a ruling that blocks the NFLPA from “creating and publicizing” the annual report cards. The NFLPA vowed to continue compiling the grades, even if the union can no longer release the full results.

The only way to fully understand what the players are, and aren’t, allowed to do is to review and analyze the 26-page ruling. PFT has obtained a copy of the document. I’ve read the entire thing, twice.

The grievance focused on two provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement: Article 51 and Article 39. Under Article 51, the NFL argued the NFLPA report cards violate the requirement to “use reasonable efforts to curtail public comments by . . . players which express criticism of any club, its coach, or its operation and policy, or which tend to cast discredit upon a Club . . . or any other person involved in the operation of a Club . . .” Under Article 39, the NFL argued that the parties must “[c]onduct a confidential player survey at least once every three years to solicit the players’ input and opinion regarding the adequacy of medical care provided by their respective medical and training staffs and commission independent analyses of the results of such surveys,” and that the annual NFLPA report cards conflict with and undermine that effort.

The NFL won, but only under Article 51. It lost under Article 39.

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As to Article 39, arbitrator Scott E. Buchheit wrote this: “I reject any assertion by the NFLMC, or its expert witness, Jackie Chorn, that the two surveys could never co-exist, no matter what modifications might be made in the Report Card survey questions, or agreement made on the timing or sequencing of the two surveys. The evidence before me indicates, if not outright establishes, that it would be possible for agreements on these matters to be made that would not result in significant compromise to the results of either survey. . . . Accordingly, I will not sustain the Article 39 portion of the grievance.”

One key point regarding the Article 39 argument was that the joint survey hasn’t happened since 2015 — and that the NFL has refused to cooperate on doing one. If the NFL won’t engage the NFLPA on the Article 39 joint survey, the NFLPA doing its own annual survey can’t possibly conflict with Article 39.

As to Article 51, Buchheit disagreed with the NFL’s position that the report cards “are overtly biased and designed only to invoke criticisms.” As Buccheit explained, “Many of the questions are neutral in their phrasing and provide an opportunity to grade conditions as very high, as well as very low, based on use of a sliding ‘best to worse’ scale. In addition, while the NFLMC is correct that there are open ended questions that seek input on what can be improved, those questions are normally optional and there is also the opportunity elsewhere to make positive comments.”

Buccheit nevertheless found that, while it’s permissible to conduct the surveys and create the report cards, Article 51 prevents the NFLPA from publicizing the results.

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Here’s the specific language from Buchheit’s decision: “I direct that the NFLPA refrain from placing the 2026 Report Cards on the public portion of its website. It must also refrain from making public disclosure of these Report Cards, or any public comments that would reasonably be seen as ‘express(ing) criticism of any club, its coach, or its operation and policy, or which tend to cast discredit upon a Club …. or any other person involved in the operation of a Club’ based upon the results of the 2026 Report Cards.”

Still, the creation of the report cards and their dissemination to the players continue to be fair game.

“I conclude by emphasizing what the NFLPA has preserved by prevailing on the Article 39 claim,” Buccheit wrote. “The NFLPA can still release the 2026 Report Card to its members, complete with letter grades and criticisms such as those contained in the 2025 Report Cards, and it can still post the 2026 Report Cards on the private, members only portion of its website.”

In a footnote, Buccheit pointed out that “[t]he NFLPA must, of course, make clear to its members and anyone else who will have internal access to the 2026 Report Cards that those Cards, and the criticisms contained in them, are not [to] be made public.”

Good luck with all that. The negative comments about multiple clubs and owners from the latest report cards will indeed be disseminated publicly.

Sooner or later.

Actually, sooner.