The Canadian Football League Players’ Association (CFLPA) will release its first-ever team report cards next month to paint a public picture of how they are being treated on a day-to-day by franchises around the league.
“The results of this survey will allow our members and their agents to make informed decisions during free agency,” said CFLPA president Solomon Elimimian on Tuesday in Vancouver. “It will support accountability among team owners, because it will encourage clubs to improve working conditions based on real-time player feedback. We want our teams to listen, respond, and respect the needs of our members.”
The NFL Players’ Association (NFLPA) released its first-ever set of team report cards in 2023 after giving members the opportunity to provide feedback on their clubs. Letter grades were assigned for each team’s locker room, training room, training staff, weight room, strength coaches, travel, food, treatment of families, head coach, and owner with a handful of player quotes, which were anonymous, accompanying the data.
Over 1,300 NFL players responded that year, which led to some intriguing report card findings. Among them were players in Kansas City claiming their head trainer “does not treat players fairly and consistently,” toilets and showers not working consistently in Cincinnati, and a team facility rat infestation in Jacksonville.
Peter Dyakowski, the CFLPA’s interim executive director, indicated that the CFLPA team report cards will be similar to those of the NFL but not a direct copy.
“We want to have a report card that’s relevant for the CFL. We don’t want to set anyone up for Fs across the board because they don’t have tens of millions of dollars for certain player considerations,” said the 40-year-old native of Vancouver, B.C.
“We looked closely at the NFLPA’s process — they assisted us, they gave us a lot of information and background, which is extremely helpful, and we did follow their lead in a number of areas. However, our league and their league are quite different in some ways. In some areas, our players have very similar considerations to NFL players. In other areas, the clubs and their capabilities do differ.”
The CFLPA garnered 495 responses from its members and has hired a statistician to formulate the results into letter grades. The report cards for all nine teams will be released publicly in December.
“What we want to give with the report card is a very accurate picture so that our players can make apples-to-apples comparisons when they’re in a free agency and in some cases, it might be a tool to help them see that the grass isn’t greener on the other side, and that could aid with player retention,” said Dyakowski. “It’s going to give clubs another tool to attract the best free agents to help build Grey Cup-winning rosters.”
