Faced with the rare accountability that comes from the NFL Players Association's annual report cards, some owners dismiss the feedback. Others take it to heart.
This week, Jets owner Woody Johnson attacked the "F" he received in the latest NFLPA survey as "totally bogus." As noted by Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, Woody's tantrum flows from a suggestion that the NFLPA is violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
“It’s supposed to be a process that is we have representatives, and they have representatives, so we know that it’s an honest survey,” Johnson said.
Fischer explains that Johnson is apparently referring to the provision in the CBA that creates an “Accountability and Care Committee” that will conduct joint surveys regarding medical care. The term expressly states that the committee will "[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."
The CBA also creates a Joint Pain Management Committee, which is required to "[c]onduct surveys of clubs and players regarding pain, fatigue, recovery and related services."
The CBA says nothing about surveys of the type that the NFLPA has been conducting, which smartly have avoided applying a grade to medical care. Which means that the CBA doesn't prohibit the NFLPA report cards.
Woody's whining speaks to a deeper issue — especially since he's deliberately misreading the CBA. (If he's not, he should ask the league to challenge the practice.) Woody's complaint speaks to the fact that the emperor doesn't like being told he's riding butt (or buck, if you prefer) naked on a Shetland pony.
Owners of the non-dysfunctional franchises tend to react differently to bad grades on their NFLPA report card. Patriots owner Robert Kraft, for example, called his team's NFLPA report card results an "eye-opener." Which means that, instead of circling the wagons and brushing off criticism as inaccurate or corrupt, Kraft will try to ensure that his team earns better marks in the future.
Of course, if enough owners don't like being told by their players that they're not doing a good job, the owners can bargain for an agreement that the players will stop doing it. And if the owners want it badly enough, they can make an appropriate concession when the next CBA is being negotiated.
However it plays out, the annual report cards have become one of the most ingenious things the union has ever developed. As evidenced by the fact that the grades have gotten squarely under the skin of some of the people to whom they are directed.
