The NFL filed a grievance over the NFL Players Association’s annual report cards in order to keep the NFLPA from publicizing criticisms of teams and owners. The NFL won a ruling preventing the NFLPA from doing so.
Still, the 26-page ruling from arbitrator Scott E. Buchheit, a copy of which PFT has obtained, makes it clear that the next wave of report cards may be disseminated to all players.
The opinion also includes a full list of the criticisms about which the NFL complained from the 2025 report cards.
Here’s the full content of relevant portions of Buchheit’s written decision.
“As to the individual comments contained within the Report Cards that lead to the letter grades, the NFLMC has richly detailed that they do contain numerous criticisms. These include, but are not limited to, the following examples from the 2025 Report Card that are contained in its brief:
“New York Jets: The Union said Players complained that ‘management responded to feedback [from prior Team Report Cards] by making conditions worse,’ including cutting the food budget and not retaining a long-time dietician after poor food grades the prior year. The Union also graded owner Woody Johnson an F — the lowest owner rating in the league, 5.58 out of 10 — which, according to Players, resulted from his perceived unwillingness to invest in facilities. . . . Players cited ‘perceived top leadership issues, with some describing issues as “top-down problems”'—reflecting ownership concerns.
“Cincinnati Bengals: The Union again criticized treatment of families, stating that Players called it a ‘major concern’ and saying there is ‘little to no effort’ to support families. ‘One player describes the treatment of families as “‘almost disrespectful,”’ resulting in a grade of F-minus.
“Buffalo Bills: The Union dropped the Club in the overall rankings from prior years because ‘issues . . . previously raised [by Players] . . . have not been addressed and thus have become greater concerns[.]’ The Union claimed Players were concerned that ‘current [training] staffing is inadequate to help them recover,’ and ‘travel continues to be the worst part of their experience’ because they ‘do not have a comfortable amount of space when traveling and the travel schedule itself is a source of significant dissatisfaction.’
“Arizona Cardinals: The Union ranked the Club last overall based on Player feedback, criticizing the treatment of families (lack of family events, limits on pregame sideline access, poor in-game family accommodations), and a so-called deficient locker room, training facilities, and weight room. The Union stated that Players also faulted owner Michael Bidwill, saying he ‘slightly contributes to a positive team culture’ and is only ‘somewhat committed to building a competitive team[.]’
“Philadelphia Eagles: The Union highlighted that Players ‘are frustrated that mealtimes overlap with the organization’s business staff, leading to crowding and limited seats,’ and ‘feel they should get first class seats on team flights instead of the coaching staff.’
“Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Union published that Players criticized the locker room, lodging ‘several complaints about cleanliness, including poor ventilation and a persistent bad smell.’
“Jacksonville Jaguars: The Union gave the Club an F for treatment of families; ‘Players believe that many changes need to be made,’ including more access to sideline passes, a family room during the game, and upgrades to the post-game family area.
“Kansas City Chiefs: The Union said Players ‘continue to express the need for renovation and upgrades to the locker room’ and criticized the home game hotel as the ‘lowest in the league,’ remarking that it is ‘outdated,’ the beds are ‘uncomfortable,’ and the floors are ‘dirty and sticky.’
“Carolina Panthers: The Union continued to cite Player criticisms of owner David Tepper for using ‘turf instead of grass, perhaps because it is cheaper to maintain,’ and complained about travel due to the ‘new coaching staff moving players from first class last season and placing them in smaller, coach seats.’
“New England Patriots: The Union gave the Club a failing travel grade and singled out the ‘team plane’ —'Players specifically responded that “our plane is the worst thing – size, space, [and] safety,”’ and ‘it is not conducive to preparedness for athletic performance,’ because, among other things, ‘it lacks Wi-Fi and still has ashtrays in the seats.’ One player also referred to the carpeting in the locker room as ‘dingy with pieces missing.’
“Indianapolis Colts: The Union stated that Players complained of travel arrangements, noting that they ‘don’t feel like they have enough personal space on flights. They want more access to first-class seating.’
Those are the full complaints from the 2025 report cards that were included in Buchheit’s decision. Eleven teams in all were mentioned, with three owners identified by name — Woody Johnson, Michael Bidwill, and David Tepper.
The complaints listed in the 26-page ruling come from not from the to-be-released report cards but from the report cards prepared and published in 2025. It’s inevitable, however, that one of the many NFLPA members who’ll receive the 2026 report card will disclose them, to someone. Once they’re leaked (to PFT or to another outlet), we’ll post them here in full.
UPDATE 11:46 p.m. ET: An earlier version of this article mistakenly characterized the complaints listed above as coming from the survey conducted in 2025, not from the report cards released in 2025. The 2025 surveys were not included in Buccheit’s opinion. They’ll eventually be released to the players but not published by the NFLPA. In past years, the report cards were released during the Scouting Combine.
Cardinals Clips
The Cardinals are hiring University of Miami defensive pass game coordinator, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.
Etheridge will serve as the Cardinals’ cornerbacks coach.
Etheridge, who doubled as the Hurricanes’ defensive backs coach, joined UM a year ago. He is the second assistant that new Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur has hired from UM, with running backs coach Matt Merritt having left for the same job with the Cardinals.
Etheridge, a safety and team captain on Auburn’s 2010 national championship team, joined the Canes after three years at Auburn and one year at Houston.
When former Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed his lawsuit against the NFL and multiple teams in February 2022, the claim of systemic and chronic racial discrimination made it a landmark attack against the league. Flores’s efforts have had, to date, a much more significant impact.
Through a series of rulings during a four-year war over the question of whether the claims of Flores, Steve Wilks, and Ray Horton will be resolved in open court or (as the league strongly prefers) arbitration controlled by the Commissioner, Flores and company have torn down the league’s longstanding method for forcing employee legal claims into a secret, rigged, kangaroo court.
The problem is simple. The league wants civil cases filed against it to be determined not by an independent party but by the league itself. Finally, independent judges with the power to do so are telling the NFL that it cannot do so.
“The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law,” attorneys Douglas H. Wigdor and David E. Gottlieb said Friday, after the latest decision scrapping the league’s practices. “It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed.”
And that’s really the next step. Instead of maintaining its current Hail Mary pass to the U.S. Supreme Court, the NFL should do the right thing and abandon the heavy-handed practice of insisting that lawsuits filed against the league be presided over by the Commissioner.
The Commissioner, who recently defended the practice by saying, essentially, “it was like that when I got here,” shouldn’t want to do it. It’s a hopeless and irreconcilable conflict of interest.
Few if any other companies attempt to stack the deck in such a laughable, third world, banana republic way. Most companies realize it’s more than sufficient to force employees into arbitration handled by one of the various companies (like the American Arbitration Association) that exist for that purpose.
It’s still a much better forum for corporate America than the traditional judge-and-jury process. Especially since the various companies that provide arbitration services tend to skew toward the interests of the businesses that are responsible for creating the system that funnels them so much business.
But that’s not good enough for the NFL. Its longstanding approach to arbitration is proof positive that it wants to completely control anything and everything it can.
Finally, the NFL is losing control over legal claims made by non-players. The consequences sweep far beyond Flores, Wilks, and Horton. Every other team and league employee who is compelled to agree to the arbitration term in their contracts now have a pathway to avoiding a fundamentally unfair and un-American approach to justice.
For that reason, maybe it will be useful for the league to keep pushing its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Assuming that at least five of the nine justices of the highest court in the country see this game for what it is, the end result will be a published opinion that becomes the law of the land as to the league, all of its teams, and every current and future employee who have no choice but to agree to a contract that forces them to allow the Commissioner to have final say over any and all grievances they ever may pursue.
Mike LaFleur has his coordinators.
The Cardinals officially announced Nathaniel Hackett, Nick Rallis and Michael Ghobrial as the coordinators of the team’s three units. Rallis is a holdover, having held the same role for three years on Jonathan Gannon’s staff.
The Cardinals ranked 29th in points allowed and 27th in yards allowed, but injuries significantly impacted that. Defensive lineman Walter Nolen III and L.J. Collier, linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. and cornerbacks Garrett Williams and Will Johnson are among the players who missed significant time.
“Nick is someone I have always great respect for, especially going against him in the division over the last three years,” LaFleur said in a statement. “During the interview process, I expressed that he was someone I held in high regard and would be very interested in talking to about the position. I’ve had the chance to meet with him and pick his brain over the last couple weeks and am even more impressed than I was before. I know the respect he has from coaches around the league and especially with the players on this team and that says a lot to me.”
Hackett, who coached the Broncos in 2022, worked this past season under Mike LaFleur’s brother, Matt, as a defensive assistant with the Packers. He and Mike LaFleur have not worked together in the NFL, but Hackett succeeded LaFleur as the Jets’ offensive coordinator in 2023.
This will be the fifth time Hackett has served as an offensive coordinator. He was in that position with the Bills (2013-14), Jaguars (2016-2018), Packers (2019-21) and Jets (2023-24).
“With Nathaniel, when you combine his experience with his high level of offensive production, it’s hard to think of anyone better suited for this position,” LaFleur said. “I’ve never worked with him but know he’s definitely one of the top offensive minds in the league and cannot wait to see what he can do with the playmakers we have on this offense”
Ghobrial worked with LaFleur with the Jets for two seasons in 2021-22, when Ghobrial was the assistant special teams coach. He was in that role through 2023, before spending the past two seasons with the Giants as their special teams coordinator.
“I have great familiarity and regard for him from our time with the Jets, and I know he’s only continued to grow stronger as a coach in the subsequent years with the Giants,” LaFleur said. “The enthusiasm he brings is infectious, which is critical for all coaches but especially on special teams. As a team, we will definitely benefit from his energy and experience.”
LaFleur now has to finish out the staff.
The Cardinals will keep offensive line coach Justin Frye, who just completed his first season in Arizona.
The Cardinals are hiring former NFL quarterback Matt Schaub as their quarterbacks coach, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.
New Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur was on staff with Atlanta in 2016 when Schaub was still playing with the Falcons.
Schaub entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Falcons in 2004, but he didn’t start a game his first three seasons as Michael Vick’s backup. The Falcons traded him to the Texans before the 2007 season.
He played seven seasons for the Texans, one with the Raiders and one with the Ravens before returning to the Falcons.
Schaub made two Pro Bowls, started 93 games, and threw for 25,467 with 136 touchdowns and 91 interceptions.
He served as a football analyst for the Falcons in 2023 before returning to his alma mater, Virginia, as a football analyst.
Now, Schaub will wait to see what the Cardinals do at the position. They are expected to move on from Kyler Murray.
The Seahawks have to fill their offensive coordinator job after Klint Kubiak’s departure to become the Raiders head coach earlier this week and their first external candidate has been identified.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that they will interview Cardinals pass game specialist Connor Senger for the top offensive job on Mike Macdonald’s coaching staff.
Senger recently interviewed for the same job in Chicago, but the Bears opted to go with Press Taylor to fill that position. He also met with the Eagles before they hired Sean Mannion.
Four current Seahawks assistants have also been identified as candidates to replace Kubiak. Quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko, passing game coordinator Jake Peetz, assistant offensive line coach/run game specialist Justin Outten, and tight ends coach Mack Brown make up that list.
The NFL’s secret, rigged, kangaroo court is on life support.
In the lawsuit filed four years ago by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, the presiding judge has reversed a prior order sending some of the claims to arbitration. Now, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has concluded that all claims will be litigated in open court.
The ruling means that the Flores claims against the NFL, the Dolphins, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans will be handled in court, not arbitration. It also applies to the claims made by Steve Wilks against the Cardinals, and by Ray Horton against the Titans.
Friday’s decision flows from last year’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which denied arbitration as to the remaining Flores claims based on the NFL’s insistence that Commissioner Roger Goodell control the process. That same “fatal flaw” (as Judge Valerie Caproni described it) impacts all efforts to compel arbitration.
The league will undoubtedly fight the result. Although Goodell defended the practice during last week’s Super Bowl press conference, it is fundamentally unfair for the person hired and paid by the teams to be resolving legal claims made against his employers. No one in that position can be fair and impartial.
The NFL hates external oversight. It wants to control its business, and it hopes to keep any dirty laundry tightly under wraps.
The league previously filed a petition for appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on the question of whether the arbitration requirement is legitimate. Whatever the final outcome, it’s long overdue that the highest court in the country examine and resolve whether it’s appropriate for any organization to require employees to submit their legal claims not to an independent party but to the boss.
The Cardinals have a new head coach, but they’ll have the same defensive coordinator in 2026.
New Arizona coach Mike LaFleur will retain Nick Rallis as defensive coordinator, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
LaFleur had interviewed other candidates but decided to keep some continuity on defense after conducting a search.
Rallis and LaFleur have never worked together before, but Rallis has spent the last three years as the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator, and LaFleur is giving him at least another year on the job.
The Cardinals have made a hire at special teams coordinator.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Arizona is bringing in Michael Ghobrial for the role.
Ghobrial, 38, spent the last two seasons as the Giants’ special teams coordinator.
Before that, Ghobrial spent three seasons as Jets assistant special teams coordinator. He worked alongside new Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur at that stop, as LaFleur served as Jets offensive coordinator from 2021-2022.
The Cardinals interviewed Seahawks assistant coach Karl Scott for their defensive coordinator job, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports.
Scott has served as Seattle’s defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator for the past four seasons.
The Seahawks ranked first in scoring defense in 2025 and were 10th in passing defense (193.9 yards per game) and fifth in interceptions (18).
Scott interviewed for the Commanders’ defensive coordinator job this offseason and for the same role with the Raiders in 2024. His only coordinating experience came at Southeastern Louisiana in 2014.
Scott began his NFL coaching career as a defensive backs coach with the Vikings in 2021 after 14 seasons in the college ranks.
The Cardinals have also interviewed Rams defensive passing game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant and Giants linebackers coach Charlie Bullen for the job.
The Cardinals’ defense was overseen by Nick Rallis for the past three seasons.
