NFL owners can breathe a sigh of relief after the NFL Players Association was banned from publishing player report cards that routinely bashed Jets' Woody Johnson
16:57 ET, 13 Feb 2026Updated 16:58 ET, 13 Feb 2026
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The NFLPA will no longer be allowed to publicize player report cards(Image: Getty Images)
New York Jets team owner Woody Johnson has gotten the last laugh after the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) was essentially barred from publishing player-survey report cards on teams.
Over the years, the “team report cards” have provided players across the league with an opportunity to voice their opinions on anything from treatment of families and food/dining options to locker rooms and training facilities. These rankings will no longer be made available to the public, however, once the NFL announced on Friday that it won its grievance case against the NFLPA.
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According to NFL Insider Ari Meirov, Johnson was the main figure attempting to stop the report cards from being publicized. Following the 2024 campaign, the Jets ranked near the bottom of the league in nearly every category — including owner, for which they received the only “F” among all 32 teams.
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Speaking to The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt last March, Johnson described the NFLPA survey as “totally bogus” before reaffirming his commitment to constantly improving the Jets’ organization.
"My first read is I think it is totally bogus," Johnson said at the time. "I thought this whole setup, the way it was done is all … that's enough said on that. But we want to get better every day, in every category.
“I want to be No. 1 in everything. All of our people do. We want to be No. 1, like we are in girls flag football. We're No. 1 or 2 in the country and that's where we want to be in everything, including on the field but also off the field in all of our philanthropy.
“So if there's areas we can improve, and there's always areas we can improve—not because of this bogus report — we are going to do it.”
Woody Johnson stands on the field
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Woody Johnson reportedly pushed to have the NFL player report cards banned(Image: Getty Images)
As for what aspects of the survey Johnson disagreed with, the 78-year-old explained: "The whole thing. How they collected the information, who they collected it from.
"It's supposed to be a process where we have representatives and they have representatives so we know it's an honest survey.
"And that was violated in my opinion. So I'll leave it at that. But there's a lot of owners that looked at this survey and said this is not fair, not balanced, it's not every player, it's not even representative of the players."
In a recent memo distributed to each NFL team, the league revealed that an arbitrator found after hearings with the NFLPA’s witness and counsel that the report cards violated the collective bargaining agreement by "disparaging NFL clubs and individuals."
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During these hearings, the NFLPA was unable to provide data from previous surveys, with several witnesses conceding the union “cherry-picked” topics and players’ answers to feature in the publicized report cards.
The arbitrator therefore determined that the surveys were “designed by the union to advance its interests under the guise of a scientific exercise."
Despite no longer being allowed to make the report cards public, the NFLPA confirmed it will continue surveying players in the future.