report cards, they rank the various organizations based on
a variety of factors. How they treat their players,
the football facilities, the Vikings were first parade. You
don't get a trophy for it though. No Lombardi trophy for
being first in this competition dolphins and Raiders. Second
and third
and they went all the way down at the bottom,
what a shock, the Washington commanders
and and some of the some of the Tough.
And I want to focus on the Cardinals Chris. Yeah, because
there was a time when
and I think was Mike silver when he was with S, I
wrote a story about the Cardinals and it was clear that
they
are cheap and this was at the time. Sure, when Robert
Griffith, remember him,
safety signed their free agent contract, right?
His signing bonus check, they sent it to him via FedEx. They
deducted from the signing bonus. Check the Cost of
the FedEx that they sent him, its hilarious signing bonus check
in
and in that same article, silver wrote that on
the players off days. They put a padlock on the Gatorade.
Cooler, tellurian, the facility, hilarious. Oh,
and and people, since I have said well, they've changed.
Well, they've changed mean one of the things that that
the Cardinals ranked last at is quality of food. If players
would like dinner, it will be boxed up for them. But players
reported that the team will charge you
via payroll deduction.
This is apparently the only club that does this.
It's when I saw that yesterday, I mean, this is, we could have
devoted the whole show to All the different things,
the players voted on in the things. I mean, because it really is
a pretty cool report. You know, it
people should check this out.
Give you a good feel for organizations and things like that. But
that was by far the most shocking thing I saw on there.
I mean Beyond shocking
and just again, you know, it goes back to our conversation,
the owner sitting on a gold toilet, and a private plane,
and a jet. And you know, the yacht and seven houses, but
we're going to
Penny, pinch over the
penny. Pinch. Excuse me /. Yeah, I may have ever done.
Ha ha
Penny, pinch over, you know, dinner are you kidding me?
I mean, are you kidding me? I would like, that's the kind of
thing where like I mean damn you had the right people in The
Rocker room. They might be in like, hey, you know, at 4:30,
we're all out of here guys. Let's rally the team.
Tell the owner out of here at 4:30 because we're going to go
get dinner somewhere else here in a little bit or 5:00.
I mean, our that's just crazy, it's disrespectful and makes no
sense
and it just creates a
negative thought in your organization that you don't
want hovering over it.
How about this to their grade in Arizona for the weight room?
F - wow. Not just to have
f- players described it as a health and safety risk. Just to
walk through the weight room. The flooring is nearly
a unanimous complaint. The floors are uneven,
the floorboards are peeling
up, good lord, it's like inexcusable and excusable this
Lord right. I mean, but hey, they got an A for this
strength. Coaches.
But well, look at the rest of the report card. Yes. Yeah.
Strength. Coaches is funny. If you look it up, just about
everybody's report card. Got A's right strike cord. Coaches
are got unbelievable ability to,
you know, communicate and and make players feel like, hey,
I'm here for you. And I'm going to be your buddy and we're
going to get you healthy and strong, right? But some of that
stuff right there. It's inexcusable
I mean
again you know we see some of the top organizations and what
they got and weight rooms. I mean I go in there. They're
sometimes goes this a weight room, or is this a spaceship
like holy cow. This is amazing. You know. And again where
the league has at
its the most powerful league in the world. Yeah, that's that's
inexcusable to have some of those things here in 2023. So
they got to make some adjustments there without
a doubt. You're right? They've always had that reputation,
but this is going to Fan the Flames of that and open some
people's eyes.
This all came out yesterday. We were tied up with our show and
then traveling home. I'm going to do a deeper dive and write
some stuff about this at PFT today. A couple of other
highlights, though, the Jaguars dealt with a rodent problem
for three to four weeks. During the season,
it doesn't include the PS.
PS still better than having Urban Meyer's head coach.
I'm kidding,
but, but rodent problem, not good. And
it all comes down to
How much you value the players, it's one thing to give them
the big check because you have to have a salary cap, you have to
spend the money on
the players, some teams do it reluctantly and you see how
much they truly care about these people
as human beings by how
they treat them in every other way
that isn't covered by the salary cap. And here's how this
is a Difference Maker as free agency approaches.
Some of these teams are going to have to pay more to attract,
guys. Yes, to their facility. Yes, the Is will win all ties.
When it's time to sign a free agent. The Vikings are going to
win all ties and somebody else is going to have to
burn up more cap space,
pay more money to get a guy to go there instead of Minnesota,
because this is the ultimate tiebreaker. Now, for
the Vikings, and these other teams at the top, you got good
facilities.
Good treatment of your players.
That if it's closed,
is going to get the player to pick a team like the Vikings
the Dolphins, the Raiders at the top of the stack. Yeah. And
then they talk to other players and they go oh man this
organization they got For the players man, they treat us,
right? They got respect for us,
they're willing to.
Hey if we say there's a problem they fix it.
I bet they fix this stuff in Jacksonville though. Doug
Peterson has been around the block. He knows how important
this type of stuff is there and I think they are fixing. And
when I was down there for the playoff game, there's a lot of
construction and things going around going on around their
facility
but the yeah that's that's a bad look.
Hey, at the end of the day,
the Pirates just want to feel respected,
you know. And and not only just the respect of
You know again we know what the franchise are worth. We know
what these franchises are all raking in to a degree. They're
all north of 400 million dollars a year. It seems like,
you know, I know it might be give or
take a little bit
then the appreciation of the franchise has, these are all
franchises that are worth anywhere from three to what six
billion dollars basically. Okay. So
yeah, and then you're a player and you go wait I'm here every
day for like six seven months in a row like, you know, That's
where it goes. A long way to be. Hey it's a nice plane or
hey the facilities gray. The the the mess hall is really good.
You know, there's those are things that you like you're
talking about, you know, put a team over the edge, make them
feel more comfortable, get players to go there. Create
a culture of like, hey, this place likes me. They love me,
and they treat us the
right way. Let's go work for them
because they are, they're giving us the respect. So,
we'll give you the respect to, to work really hard and go
after it as well.
So you're saying, Doug Peterson will fix the road and problem
in Jacksonville. He won't just simply tell the players to
regard them as pets and I don't think so.
I did. I've witnessed
I've witnessed a rodent problem as well, right?
Why I played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back at the old
facility and I don't know Mike. If you ever saw the old one
Buck place, but
it was I popping. When I got there is They just won
the Super Bowl
and I walked into the locker room and I was like, damn.
My high school locker room. Might have been better than this
ticket sales were in a trailer.
There were rat traps in the corners,
right? We would go in there some days and there'd be a rat.
And the middle of the floor, dead, the place was so toxic.
He was like, damn, not even the
rat can make it across the locker room.
He was dead. There was there was
all like eight or nine
working showers we would have lines when the team had like,
you know, 80 90 players in the Aussie. We'd had a line for
the shower. I mean, that's crazy. And yeah,
It creates a like what the f is going on here type environment,
right? They got that fixed. They got one of the best
facilities ever now. But yeah, those things go
along, way, the hotel room, right? That's another thing
that came up in these little guys, don't want to share
a hotel room. You're a grown man,
27 years old, twenty eight thirty years old. What?
I got a roommate here.
I want to be able to do what I want to do. Is I based
High School travel team. Exactly.
That's just like, come on.
On and then again, what? Because you're saving, like
a thousand dollars like what? That's nothing so that's where,
you know, the NFL has to filter some of that stuff out.
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