Where Seahawks, NFL teams rank in union report card on facilities, taking care of players
Just as it sought, the union sure got the league’s attention.
The predominant talk this past week among coaches, executives and staffers at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis wasn’t as much about the college prospects there as about how players already in the league feel about their teams taking care of them.
That was after the NFL Players’ Association released results of a poll it said had 1,300 players participating. Players confidentially graded the teams they were on in 2022 from F (a comical “F minus,” actually) through A-plus on eight categories of facilities and player care: treatment of families, food service and nutrition, weight room, strength coaches, training room, training staff, locker room and team travel.
The Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins and Las Vegas Raiders graded highest on the first-of-its-kind, NFLPA team report cards.
The Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Chargers and Washington Commanders were the three lowest-graded teams, 30th through 32nd in the league.
The Seahawks ranked 11th. They got high grades for their 15-year-old Virginia Mason Athletic Center team facility in Renton.
Their lowest marks were for the staffing of their training room and team travel.
NFLPA president JC Tretter wrote on the union’s website: “One of our core jobs as a union is to improve the overall working conditions for our players. Often, you see our advocacy on ‘big’ issues — like our push for better field surfaces at stadiums or standardized safety protocols that limit the risk of workplace injuries — but it also includes the daily experience of players at the team facilities away from the lights and cameras.”
Tretter said the idea of the poll was to have something of a “free agency guide” for players, “providing players with information about each club would not only help them make important career decisions, but it would also help raise the standards across each club.”
Seahawks grades
The Seahawks received a B-plus for treatment of families. The NFLPA report noted the team provides a family room and day care at Lumen Field on game days, plus a postgame gathering area for families. The team’s grade in treatment of families was fifth-highest in the league.
Food service and nutrition received a B-plus, ninth-best in the NFL. Seattle general manager John Schneider talked at the combine about how popular his team’s food service and chefs are with the players.
“We think we have the culture here, a fun culture, a great place,” Schneider said of the Seahawks last week in Indianapolis. “Guys want to play here. They know when they come here they are going to get taken care of.”
The NFLPA report card noted the Seahawks provide breakfast, lunch and dinner in a spacious dining room, which overlooks Lake Washington.
While that sounds like a given, it’s not in the league. Not even inside Seattle’s NFC West.
In Arizona, players reported having the cost of dinners in the Cardinals’ team dining facility deducted from their paychecks. The Cardinals received five F’s and F-minuses in the NFLPA report.
The Seahawks got a B-plus for their training staff members.
The Seahawks received A-minus grades, their highest of the NFLPA’s survey, for their locker room, weight room and strength coaches. They are spacious inside the team’s 200,000-square-foot, lakeside facility.
The locker room in Renton is 5,700 square feet. That’s nearly five times bigger than the team’s old locker room at its former facility at Northwest University in Kirkland, its home for 22 years until 2008.
All players last season said in the NFLPA survey they had enough space in Seattle’s locker room. The Seahawks were the only NFL team to have 100% of its players report the locker room is plenty big enough.
The Seahawks received a B-minus for the training room. Head athletic trainer David Stricklin has four assistant trainers, including one full-time physical therapist listed on the staff directory.
“There is a desire to have more staff support player training and recovery,” the NFLPA report card stated.
The report said 82% feel the Seahawks have enough athletic trainers (ninth-worst in the league) and 80% feel they have enough physical therapists.
The space of the Seahawks’ training and recovery areas was an issue for players. Seventh-five percent feel the sauna is big enough, while just 61% of players feel they have enough hot-tub space (that ranks 24th in the league). And 79% of players feel they have enough cold-tub space, ranking 16th in the NFL.
Seattle travel, never an A
The Seahawks got a C for team travel. That ties for 21st in the league.
That’s not an surprise. Because of basic geography, the team usually flies a league-high 30,000 miles a season. Seattle flew across a league-most 34 time zones for games last season, including to Germany.
The NFLPA report cited the Seahawks as one of seven teams that do not offer players first-class seats on their flights, as a general policy.
The exception: veteran players sit in first class and push coaches into, well, coach class on the way back from road victories. That’s a policy Carroll instituted early in his 13 years running the Seahawks.
The team contracts with Delta Airlines to travel on a commercial jet. It’s often a Boeing 767-400ER with 34 first-class seats and flat beds, plus 156 seats in the main cabin.
In September 2019, after the Seahawks won at Pittsburgh, then-All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner was giddily shouting on his way out of the visiting locker room at Heinz Field. He wasn’t just celebrating Seattle’s first 2-0 start since 2013, its Super Bowl-championship season. The All-Pro linebacker was jacked about the team’s five-hour flight home.
“Yeah, first class!” Wagner yelled as he eyed Seahawks coaches on his way out to the team’s buses to the Pittsburgh airport that evening.
Who gets the plushest, roomiest seats on the team plane after road wins?
“The oldest guys,” Carroll said in 2019.
The NFLPA report card said 93% of players believe Seahawks ownership is willing to invest in upgrading the team’s facilities.
Contrast that with Washington. The NFLPA concluded through its survey: “The locker room does not have confidence that club owner Dan Snyder is willing to invest to upgrade the facilities, as player responses rank him 31st in this category.”
The Commanders ranked last, 32nd, overall in the union’s report card.
This story was originally published March 6, 2023 at 9:55 AM.
