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 set within the Mercedes-Benz Dome after residence video games, the place there’s meals and a spot “our households can be capable of join on a unique stage.”
“I feel that is what separates us in comparison with quite a lot of different organizations,” Bates mentioned.
It is the sort of delicate distinction that may matter rather a lot to NFL gamers.
In February, when the NFL Gamers Affiliation launched their annual report playing cards, the Bengals obtained the bottom rating — an F-minus — within the “therapy of households” class. The Falcons obtained an A, the second-highest grade.
The report playing cards are based mostly on a survey of 1,695 gamers throughout the league, administered from August 26 to November 20, 2024 and consists of grades on every part from head coach to crew journey and the locker room. In response to the NFLPA, solutions had been collected anonymously.
ESPN spoke with gamers about how they outline “therapy of households” and the suggestions that serves as the idea for the NFLPA’s grades.
A number of present Bengals gamers, who had been granted anonymity to talk freely on the topic, referenced the shortage of gameday facilities out there to them and the way tough 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. The Bengals have an outside space beneath a big white tent roughly 20 yards away from the gamers’ car parking zone.
“They’ve that tent on the market, nevertheless it’s a s–t present and it is chilly and it is not inside,” the participant mentioned.
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 recreation performed by younger males means a major variety of NFL gamers who’re fathers have younger kids — brings stress and safety considerations.
“Simply various things the place they’ll make it extra handy for our households, particularly when the husband’s not there,” the veteran mentioned to ESPN. “We’re apprehensive about them. I feel it might 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 notably the assessments of how the crew treats households — has been key to the back-to-back monster free agent courses they signed in 2024 and 2025.
Falcons offensive lineman Chris Lindstrom, who’s an NFLPA participant rep, mentioned earlier than the report playing cards had been finished — the primary was revealed in 2023 — when gamers had been going by way 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 influence,” 2025 Vikings free agent signing Ryan Kelly mentioned. “Since you’re a man searching for a brand new residence, you have bought youngsters, you have got a household. It is like, ‘what is the therapy like?’ If you happen to deal with my household effectively, I’ll be happier as an individual, I’ll be happier as a participant, I’ll be in a greater temper, and we’ll in all probability 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 had been correct.
“Being solely there for a bit of over 24 hours [to sign his FA contract], we felt that as my complete household was there,” Kelly mentioned. “It did not matter if it was my mother or my dad or my youngsters or a nanny, everyone 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 assist employees can and can deal with sure wants for a participant’s household.
On Tuesday or Wednesday of every week, Vikings assist employees will ask gamers if they’ve household touring to the sport. In the event that they do, employees will ask what number of tickets they want and whether or not the household requires lodge 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 lodge?’ It simply takes all of that away.”
The Vikings assist employees will deal with every part 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 fingers,” Jones mentioned.
The alternative is true for the Jacksonville Jaguars, in keeping with 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 speculated 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 these items, [stuff] occurs, you realize 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 to name [a team rep] to deal with this. It should not [happen]. Household needs 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 — will probably be having enjoyable. The working again mentioned whereas his oldest may be very into the sport, the Vikings do such a very good job at their daycare throughout halftime — with every part from face portray to a petting zoo and different actions to maintain the youngsters engaged — that “he does not wish to come again [for the second half].”
The Bengals don’t have little one care out there throughout video games, considered one of three groups that doesn’t present that choice, in keeping with the NFLPA survey.
“It is arduous for teenagers to get by way of a full recreation,” a Bengals participant informed ESPN. “Clearly, your loved ones needs to return assist. My [kids] are sufficiently old to the place they suppose it is cool nevertheless it’s additionally like rather a lot. I feel that [child care] could possibly be superior.”
In response to a number of gamers, plans are in place for Cincinnati to implement little one take care of 2025 residence 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 probably the most 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 informed 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 government vice chairman Katie Blackburn addressed the survey on the NFL’s league assembly within the spring saying, “We’re at all times completely satisfied to speak to gamers about points they could have. I focus extra on suggestions from our gamers, [coach] Zac [Taylor]. F-minus is a bit of harsh. It does not actually offend me. If there’s one thing they need us to have a look at, we are able to take that message and construct on it and have a look and see if there are issues that we’d be capable of do to make individuals really feel higher. We’re definitely open to that.”
The Dallas Cowboys present little one care on recreation days, however the enjoyable begins earlier than that. The day earlier than a Sunday recreation at AT&T Stadium, the Cowboys host gamers’ households for lunch, bringing in issues like ice cream vehicles and occasional vehicles. The Cowboys name it FIT, or household ice cream time, which permits “time for our important others to be up right here round one another,” Cowboys proper sort out Terence Steele mentioned.
“Which means rather a lot,” 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 obtained a poor grade based mostly on the 2024 surveys — Jaguars gamers voiced within the report playing cards that they need a household room out there throughout video games “so their households can escape the warmth and permit moms to alter/nurse infants” — new head coach Liam Coen, who has two younger sons, made household involvement a precedence through the spring.
“He is finished 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 services, 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 are able to 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 will probably 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 world, 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 really like a devoted, safe inside space for households to fulfill up after the sport. Final yr, for instance, the house was a tent outdoors the gamers’ entrance to the EverBank Stadium locker room.
Just like the Bengals, the Cleveland Browns don’t have a post-game spot to collect contained in the stadium after residence video games. The Browns obtained 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.” In response to the crew, the tent is heated and the group spends round $200,000 on the house.
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 nearly like a logistical factor in our stadium,” Bitonio mentioned in regards to the downtown lakefront stadium that opened in 1999. “There’s groups just like the Raiders, the Vikings, the Cowboys, they may 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 sort 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. However it’s sort of a thrown-together section. I feel the gamers simply wished one thing [with] a bit of extra space and a bit of 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 convey alongside their households or important 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 based mostly on the NFLPA surveys,” Demoff mentioned. “We at all times do what we expect is finest for our group, our gamers and their households. I feel should you wished to make this an incredible journey for them, they’d to have the ability to convey their households and have that chance open to them.
“I’ve liked getting to look at our soccer operations employees household work together with participant households in ways in which by no means actually occurred. The genuine collisions that occurred within the lodge foyer and folks 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 convey the complete group collectively. Doing it since you may do higher in a survey could be a backwards outcome, I feel, from what we’re all making an attempt to realize.”
However some groups are undoubtedly guided by the surveys. A Jaguars official mentioned they listened to participant considerations over the shortage of entry sideline passes to allow them to see their households pregame, and so they have options in place for 2025. Pre-game sideline passes at the moment are out there, 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 throughout the league, the veteran Jaguars participant additionally talked in regards to the significance of having the ability to depend on somebody on employees to assist with communication [such as ticket information], organizing household occasions, and ensuring issues run easily on recreation days for the households. That may take a load off the gamers’ minds and eradicate some distractions, he mentioned.
The veteran participant acknowledged a number of the points he talked about are associated to the present stadium, which is scheduled to bear a $1.4 billion renovation over the subsequent three seasons. The crew should play its residence video games elsewhere in 2027 — doubtless Orlando — and that can current a problem on recreation days for households, however Jaguars officers say areas for gamers/households on recreation days will probably be among the many main upgrades from the present stadium when it reopens in 2028.
Bitonio mentioned he thinks the report playing cards have “finished a very good 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 way of the survey, he known as the report playing cards “a bit of 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 presently 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 had been requested. So we’ve got to go replicate these questions — good or unhealthy — to our gamers and discover out, ‘Hey, what was the difficulty on this specific merchandise?’
The NFLPA doesn’t share what number of gamers voted for every crew.
“I do suppose it might be useful if there was a extra clear sharing of the questions and of the info in order that we did not must go and guess as to ‘this is what the difficulty might need been,'” Demoff mentioned. “Not every part I feel is as sensational because it’s made out. However I feel if there’s actually a aim to make it a real partnership, we’ll be capable of share the info extra.”
In response to 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 challenge that serves to enhance working environments for our participant members,” an NFLPA spokesperson mentioned. “We’re keen to interact in significant conversations with any membership concerned with discussing their suggestions. Nonetheless, the league has instructed us to chorus from initiating any direct conversations with particular person golf equipment on this matter.
“If a membership wish 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.
