-
Sarah Barshop
AFTER HOME GAMES for the primary 5 seasons of Jessie Bates III‘s profession, the previous Cincinnati Bengals security needed to go away the stadium to search out his household.
Now in Atlanta, Bates meets his household in a collection within the Mercedes-Benz Dome after house video games, the place there may be meals and a spot “our households can have the ability to join on a unique degree.”
“I feel that is what separates us in comparison with lots of different organizations,” Bates mentioned.
It is the type of refined distinction that may matter quite a bit to NFL gamers.
In February, when the NFL Players Association released their annual report cards, the Bengals acquired the bottom rating — an F-minus — within the “therapy of households” class. The Falcons acquired an A, the second-highest grade.
The report playing cards are primarily based on a survey of 1,695 gamers throughout the league, administered from August 26 to November 20, 2024 and contains grades on all the things from head coach to crew journey and the locker room. Based on the NFLPA, solutions have been collected anonymously.
ESPN spoke with gamers about how they outline “therapy of households” and the suggestions that serves as the premise for the NFLPA’s grades.
A number of present Bengals gamers, who have been granted anonymity to talk freely on the topic, referenced the shortage of gameday facilities obtainable to them and the way troublesome that may make it on their households.
One participant famous that one other AFC crew had an indoor cookout-style assembly space within the stadium postgame. Up till final yr, when the Bengals added a postgame space contained in the stadium for households to satisfy, the they’d an outside space beneath a big white tent roughly 20 yards away from the gamers’ car parking zone.
One participant described the tent as a “s–t present,” particularly when it was chilly.
One other veteran identified that one of many main points for his crew on gameday is the shortage of a devoted space for households by way of bogs and concessions. Many instances, households are continuously ready in lengthy traces for each of these issues, which for gamers with younger kids — and a sport performed by younger males means a big variety of NFL gamers who’re fathers have younger kids — brings stress and safety issues.
“Simply various things the place they will make it extra handy for our households, particularly when the husband’s not there,” the veteran mentioned to ESPN. “We’re nervous about them. I feel it will be simpler for us if we had sure issues for households, we do not have to fret about it.”
And whereas the significance of the surveys varies from crew to crew, some groups, just like the Minnesota Vikings, imagine the NFLPA survey — and significantly the assessments of how the crew treats households — has been key to the back-to-back monster free agent lessons they signed in 2024 and 2025.
Falcons offensive lineman Chris Lindstrom, who’s an NFLPA participant rep, mentioned earlier than the report playing cards have been carried out — the primary was printed in 2023 — when gamers have been going by means of the free company course of, they needed to attempt to name round to different gamers they knew to get a really feel for the professionals and cons of every franchise.
“The survey has had a serious affect,” 2025 Vikings free agent signing Ryan Kelly mentioned. “Since you’re a man in search of a brand new house, you have bought youngsters, you’ve a household. It is like, ‘what is the therapy like?’ In the event you deal with my household effectively, I will be happier as an individual, I will be happier as a participant, I will be in a greater temper, and we’ll most likely have extra success.”
Kelly spent his first 9 seasons with the Colts, a crew that was middle-of-the-pack with a B-minus rating for therapy of households in the latest survey.
And though it’s early in his Vikings profession, it did not take Kelly lengthy to really feel just like the survey outcomes he had seen have been correct.
“Being solely there for somewhat over 24 hours [to sign his FA contract], we felt that as my whole household was there,” Kelly mentioned. “It did not matter if it was my mother or my dad or my youngsters or a nanny, all people felt the love and that goes to indicate you it is a particular place.”
IN THE MIDDLE of a busy season, Vikings working again Aaron Jones appreciates that the crew’s help workers can and can deal with sure wants for a participant’s household.
On Tuesday or Wednesday of every week, Vikings help workers will ask gamers if they’ve household touring to the sport. In the event that they do, workers will ask what number of tickets they want and whether or not the household requires resort lodging. Gamers can select to pay immediately or have the associated fee deducted from their paychecks.
“It simply makes it that a lot simpler,” Jones mentioned. “Your loved ones’s not, ‘Hey, I am looking for a spot to remain. The place are you guys staying? What is the closest resort?’ It simply takes all of that away.”
The Vikings help workers will deal with all the things to make “positive your loved ones’s taken care of,” Jones mentioned, “from directing the households into the sport to serving to them get seated to sideline passes.”
“It’s no stress, simply because I do know they’re in good arms,” Jones mentioned.
The alternative is true for the Jacksonville Jaguars, based on a veteran Jaguars participant who requested for anonymity. Jacksonville scored an F for therapy of households on the report card, which was the second-lowest grade.
“I do know we’re purported to be those to inform our household sure issues, however when there’s 30 different issues that us as gamers have to fret about after which we inform our household [information] on the final minute, issues can get miscommunicated within the info,” the participant mentioned. “When we’ve got to [be the person] to provide them the tickets or [be the person] to provide all of them this stuff, [stuff] occurs, you recognize what I imply?
The participant continued: “I wish to be sure that my household is OK so I haven’t got to fret about them. [Sometimes] these safety guards ain’t letting my rattling spouse in. I’ve bought to fret about that or we have got to name [a team rep] to deal with this. It should not [happen]. Household ought to be already taken care of. They need to be an extension of a participant in sure areas.”
ON GAME DAY, Jones is aware of his youngsters — he has a one-and-a-half-year-old and a five-year-old — can be having enjoyable. The working again mentioned whereas his oldest could be very into the sport, the Vikings do such an excellent job at their daycare throughout halftime — with all the things from face portray to a petting zoo and different actions to maintain the youngsters engaged — that “he would not wish to come again [for the second half].”
The Bengals wouldn’t have little one care obtainable throughout video games, one among three groups that doesn’t present that choice, based on the NFLPA survey.
“It is exhausting for teenagers to get by means of a full sport,” a Bengals participant instructed ESPN. “Clearly, your loved ones needs to return help. My [kids] are sufficiently old to the place they suppose it is cool but it surely’s additionally like quite a bit. I feel that [child care] may very well be superior.”
Based on a number of gamers, plans are in place for Cincinnati to implement little one take care of 2025 house video games, which might enhance their rating. However one participant famous that it took three consecutive years of failing grades on the NFLPA survey for the Bengals to probably add the service.
What’s extra perplexing is that the Bengals are one of the vital distinguished family-run organizations in skilled sports activities, with three generations of the Brown household working the franchise based by Paul Brown, the daddy of present crew president Mike Brown.
Regardless of this, one participant indicated to ESPN that the crew does a poor job of integrating households into not simply the gameday expertise however different instances all through the common season.
“Is not it nice that your daughters and your granddaughters are at work with you?” one participant instructed ESPN. “After which we’ve got to go within the car parking zone to see our household within the rain? Yeah, it sucks.”
Brown’s daughter and Bengals govt vp Katie Blackburn addressed the survey on the NFL’s league assembly within the spring saying, “We’re all the time glad to speak to gamers about points they could have. I focus extra on suggestions from our gamers, [coach] Zac [Taylor]. F-minus is somewhat harsh. It would not actually offend me. If there’s one thing they need us to take a look at, we will take that message and construct on it and have a look and see if there are issues that we’d have the ability to do to make folks really feel higher. We’re definitely open to that.”
The Dallas Cowboys present little one care on sport days, however the enjoyable begins earlier than that. The day earlier than a Sunday sport at AT&T Stadium, the Cowboys host gamers’ households for lunch, bringing in issues like ice cream vans and low vans. The Cowboys name it FIT, or household ice cream time, which permits “time for our vital others to be up right here round one another,” Cowboys proper deal with Terence Steele mentioned.
“Which means quite a bit,” Steele mentioned.
Falcons crew president Greg Beadles mentioned Atlanta has month-to-month household dinners on the facility and hosted a Halloween trick-or-treat final yr for gamers’ youngsters.
Whereas the Jaguars acquired a poor grade primarily based on the 2024 surveys — Jaguars gamers voiced within the report playing cards that they need a household room obtainable throughout video games “so their households can escape the warmth and permit moms to vary/nurse infants” — new head coach Liam Coen, who has two younger sons, made household involvement a precedence through the spring.
“He is carried out a hell of a job on doing much more household stuff, particularly this early on,” the participant mentioned. “I do know he speaks about how he was raised within the locker room within the amenities, and I need my youngsters to do the identical factor. And so now even throughout OTAs, each Thursday he is doing household day. Our households can come and watch our follow and we will hang around with our household for lunch and stuff, too. So he is having much more family-orientated issues, which is superior.”
AFTER HOME GAMES, Cowboys particular groups ace C.J. Goodwin, the second-longest tenured Cowboy, is aware of the place his household can be: the Landry Room. Named after the Cowboys Corridor of Fame coach, it is a personal membership space inside AT&T Stadium. Every participant will get two free tickets to the realm, which incorporates meals, drinks and “something you need.”
Cowboys gamers rated the post-game household space 9.05 out of 10, rating them second out of 32 groups.
A veteran Jaguars participant, who requested for anonymity, mentioned he would love a devoted, safe inside space for households to satisfy up after the sport. Final yr, for instance, the area was a tent outdoors the gamers’ entrance to the EverBank Stadium locker room.
The Cleveland Browns wouldn’t have a post-game spot to collect contained in the stadium after house video games. The Browns acquired a D-plus in therapy of households, the fifth-worst grade in that class.
The report playing cards famous that the Browns gamers surveyed “imagine that the coaches’ households are handled higher than gamers’ households,” as “the coaches’ households have a post-game meet up contained in the stadium, whereas the gamers’ households meet in a tent within the car parking zone.” Based on the crew, the tent is heated and the group spends round $200,000 on the area.
Browns left guard Joel Bitonio, the longest tenured member of the Browns, mentioned he does suppose “there was enhancements so far as households go.”
“I feel it is virtually like a logistical factor in our stadium,” Bitonio mentioned concerning the downtown lakefront stadium that opened in 1999. “There’s groups just like the Raiders, the Vikings, the Cowboys, they are going to have devoted areas the place after the sport, you’ll be able to meet up with your loved ones, your pals. They’ve meals for them contained in the stadium, the place we’re type of throughout the road within the car parking zone.
“It will get chilly in Cleveland and there is a little tent there the place you’ll be able to meet up with them for 5 minutes. Nevertheless it’s type of a thrown-together phase. I feel the gamers simply wished one thing [with] somewhat more room and somewhat extra time.”
The Browns say that they’ve been eliciting suggestions from gamers on concepts for a household room as they transfer ahead with their plans to construct a $2.4 billion domed stadium in Brookpark, a Cleveland suburb.
SPEAKING WHILE WATCHING his crew follow in Maui final week, Los Angeles Rams crew president Kevin Demoff mentioned holding minicamp in Hawaii — and welcoming gamers to deliver alongside their households or vital others — was not a response to the crew’s poor NFLPA report card.
The Rams, who ranked thirtieth of thirty second groups within the therapy of households class final season, had already deliberate this journey when the report playing cards got here out, Demoff mentioned.
“There’s nothing we ever try this’s primarily based on the NFLPA surveys,” Demoff mentioned. “We all the time do what we expect is greatest for our group, our gamers and their households. I feel if you happen to wished to make this an incredible journey for them, they’d to have the ability to deliver their households and have that chance open to them.
“I’ve cherished getting to observe our soccer operations workers household work together with participant households in ways in which by no means actually occurred. The genuine collisions that occurred within the resort foyer and other people going out to dinner or enjoying golf and doing these issues, watching the households plant bushes yesterday collectively in Wailea. These are all particular moments that deliver the complete group collectively. Doing it since you may do higher in a survey can be a backwards outcome, I feel, from what we’re all making an attempt to attain.”
However some groups are undoubtedly guided by the surveys. A Jaguars official mentioned they listened to participant issues over the shortage of entry sideline passes to allow them to see their households pregame, they usually have options in place for 2025. Pre-game sideline passes at the moment are obtainable, and gamers and their households will collect postgame within the cafeteria of the crew’s soccer facility adjoining to EverBank Stadium.
“We worth all our gamers and their households,” the official mentioned.
Like others inside the league, the veteran Jaguars participant additionally talked concerning the significance of having the ability to depend on somebody on workers to assist with communication [such as ticket information], organizing household occasions, and ensuring issues run easily on sport days for the households. That will take a load off the gamers’ minds and get rid of some distractions, he mentioned.
The veteran participant acknowledged among the points he talked about are associated to the present stadium, which is scheduled to bear a $1.4 billion renovation over the following three seasons. The crew must play its house video games elsewhere in 2027 — seemingly Orlando — and that may current a problem on sport days for households, however Jaguars officers say areas for gamers/households on sport days can be among the many main upgrades from the present stadium when it reopens in 2028.
Bitonio mentioned he thinks the report playing cards have “carried out an excellent job in Cleveland,” pointing to the brand new weight room the Haslam household put in.
Whereas Demoff mentioned he appreciates the suggestions from gamers by means of the survey, he referred to as the report playing cards “somewhat little bit of a double-edged sword.” Together with serving because the Rams’ crew president, Demoff oversees the operations of all Kroenke Sports activities and Leisure groups, together with the Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Avalanche (NHL) and Colorado Rapids (MLS). Demoff mentioned no different league’s gamers affiliation at the moment produces comparable report playing cards.
“I want we knew the questions and the info, as a result of we solely see the grades,” Demoff mentioned. “We do not get an opportunity to see the questions that have been requested. So we’ve got to go replicate these questions — good or dangerous — to our gamers and discover out, ‘Hey, what was the problem on this specific merchandise?’
The NFLPA doesn’t share what number of gamers voted for every crew.
“I do suppose it will be useful if there was a extra clear sharing of the questions and of the info in order that we did not need to go and guess as to ‘here is what the problem might need been,'” Demoff mentioned. “Not all the things I feel is as sensational because it’s made out. However I feel if there’s actually a purpose to make it a real partnership, we’ll have the ability to share the info extra.”
Based on an NFLPA spokesperson, the NFL has instructed the gamers affiliation to not focus on the report playing cards immediately with particular person groups.
“We acknowledge that context and background are important to understanding the outcomes of this venture that serves to enhance working environments for our participant members,” an NFLPA spokesperson mentioned. “We’re keen to have interaction in significant conversations with any membership serious about discussing their suggestions. Nevertheless, the league has instructed us to chorus from initiating any direct conversations with particular person golf equipment on this matter.
“If a membership want to communicate with us immediately, we encourage them to contact the league workplace to request permission. We’d welcome the chance to have these conversations.”
Todd Archer, Ben Child, Michael DiRocco, Daniel Oyefusi, Marc Raimondi and Kevin Seifert contributed to this story.