A new report from the NFLPA shed new light on how Kansas City Chiefs players view the team and the results weren’t particularly good.
In an effort to improve the overall working conditions in the NFL, the NFLPA polled 1,300 of their member players last March asking them to share information about where their current team excels and where they could improve. Those players were surveyed in eight different categories ranging from club treatment of family members to how they’d rank areas of the facility like the weight room. After compiling the survey results, the NFLPA released a report card for each team that is available to the public and its members.
Unfortunately, the Chiefs didn’t do so well in this anonymous player survey. The team ranked 29th overall in the NFLPA’s team guide out of 32 NFL teams. Their highest grade in the eight categories was an A- and it was in the category that gave out the most A-and-above grades. Their training staff, shockingly, ranked as the worst in the NFL. According to the survey, that’s largely due to VP of Sports Medicine and Performance Rick Burkholder. The survey called for “a more welcoming environment” and said that several players had a negative opinion of Burkholder. The NFLPA made the following notes available:
With the lowest rating and concerning qualitative responses, we learned that players’ key concerns are with head trainer Rick Burkholder (not the rest of the training staff, which is generally well-liked).
Player respondents expressed beliefs/opinions that:
They feel discouraged from reporting their injuries
They do not feel they get the level of personal care that they should
They fear retribution for speaking up for better care
That’s not a particularly good look for Kansas City and it’s not the only one. In total, only two of the eight categories had grades ranked a B or above. The team ranked in the top 12 in the NFL in only a single category.
Below you can find the letter grades and rankings for each of the eight categories in the NFLPA’s report:
