NFL wins grievance regarding NFLPA report cards

Sometimes, the emperor doesn’t appreciate being informed that he’s riding down the street buck-naked on a horse.

The NFL has won its grievance against the NFL Players Association regarding the annual team report cards, via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. In a memo dated Friday, the league trumpeted the victory to the 32 teams. (The memo regarding last year’s “win” in the collusion grievance apparently remains stuck in the steno pool.)

Said the NFL in a statement: “We are pleased with the decision from the arbitrator, upholding the parties’ collective bargaining agreement and prohibiting the NFLPA from disparaging our clubs and individuals through ‘report cards’ allegedly based on data and methodologies that it has steadfastly refused to disclose. . . . We remain committed to working in partnership with the NFLPA and an independent survey company to develop and administer a scientifically valid survey to solicit accurate and reliable player feedback as the parties agreed in the CBA.”

The fact that some owners hated the report cards proves how effective they were. There’s no way to make owners accountable. They can’t be fired. At most, they can be forced to sell (at a huge return on their originial investment) for behavior unrelated to whether they are or aren’t competently operating the franchise.

Some teams took the criticism to heart and made changes. Others opted to criticize the project, attacking it as unreliable or inaccurate.

Ultimately, the league concocted a way to eliminate the process. That’s bad for players and, indirectly, bad for fans who root for teams that now have one less reason to get their acts together.

With the NFL poised to accelerate the push for 18 regular-season games, possibly as soon as the NFLPA installs its next executive director, the NFLPA should make the resurrection of the report cards a non-negotiable aspect of the next CBA. If, as it seems, a loud minority of bad owners pushed the grievance, there may be at least 24 owners who have no problem with a little accountability.