The NFL is set to review the NFL Players Association's (NFLPA) report card leak just weeks after the league's owners believed they had successfully barred the publication of them
07:01 ET, 27 Feb 2026
A general view of the NFL logo painted on the field prior to the NFL Super Bowl LX football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Levi's Stadium on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California.
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The NFL is set to investigate the NFLPA report card leak(Image: Getty Images)
The NFL has announced it will review the leak of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) report card, just weeks after the league's owners believed they had scored a win by blocking the publication.
In mid-February, it was announced that the NFL owners had successfully prevented the publication of the team report cards, which had given NFL players across the league an opportunity to voice their opinions on everything from family treatment to locker rooms to training facilities, after winning a grievance case against the NFLPA.
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New York Jets owner Woody Johnson was heavily involved in the campaign to prevent the release of the report cards after his team ranked near the bottom of the league in every category following the 2024 season.
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However, despite winning their grievance case against the NFLPA, the 2026 report cards were still leaked to the media.
ESPN published the full rankings for all 32 NFL teams, with the Miami Dolphins ranking as the best team in the league.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, meanwhile, ranked bottom.
Following the leak, the NFL has sent out a memo to all NFL teams, with Pro Football Talk reporting the league intends to investigate how the report cards went public.
"We understand that the NFL Players Association posted its 'Team Report Cards' on its players-only website today, and we are aware that the media is reporting some of the purported results," read the memo.
The Miami Dolphins ranked top of the NFLPA's report card rankings
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The Miami Dolphins ranked top of the NFLPA's report card rankings(Image: Getty)
"As we previously advised, the admissions made by the union and its counsel during the grievance hearing — including that: (i) the Report Cards are ‘union speech'; (ii) the union cherry-picks which topics and responses to include and exclude; (iii) players have no role in drafting the Report Cards commentary; (iv) the union chooses which anonymous player quotations to include and which ones to leave out; and (v) the union determines how much weight to allocate to each topic before assigning the ‘grades’ — confirmed that the Report Cards are neither reliable nor scientifically valid. "
The NFL concluded the memo with: "We will review the developments in light of the Arbitrator’s decision."
The 2026 report cards saw the Steelers, who went 10-7 and made the playoffs, finish last in the league rankings.
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For their treatment of families and team travel, Pittsburgh's players gave the franchise an F, while their home field and locker room received an F-, the worst grade possible from the grading scale.
Mike Tomlin, who walked away from the Steelers at the end of their 2025 season campaign, received an A for his job as Pittsburgh's head coach, while team ownership received a D-.
The top overall ranking from the report cards went to the Miami Dolphins, who received A grades in all but three of the 17 categories.