NFLPA Player Survey Blasts Steelers Facilities, Treatment of Families

In new grades that were revealed in a brand-new NFLPA survey, the Steelers ranked low in the treatment of families, and their facilities graded out poorly while their nutrition, strength staff, and travel were viewed favorably by the players surveyed.

Overall, the Steelers ranked 22nd in the team guide. According to the survey, the facility is not up to par with the rest of the league, and that is the biggest concern of the players.

“The common theme that arose through player respondents’ feedback was a feeling that there is a lack of resources and investment into the facility,” the report read. “Player respondents believe that the team is understaffed in both the weight room and the training room.”

Overall, they received a D+ grade for the locker room, C grade for the weight room, and D- grade for the training room, ranking 22nd, 25th, and 27th respectively in the league. It is one of the harsher grades for the Steelers, but only 44 percent of the players felt like team president Art Rooney II would invest money to upgrade those facilities. The Steelers are one of the more valuable franchises, but the Rooney Family is worth just over $1 billion according to Forbes, putting them in the bottom 10 percent of sports franchises.

Recently, Pittsburgh decided to make upgrades to the urinal troughs in Acrisure Stadium. Speaking of the stadium, players were not happy with how families were treated, giving them only a D- grade on that scale, ranking 27th. The post-game meeting area ranked 31st. The Steelers are 1 of 11 teams that do not offer daycare on gameday. They are also one of 14 teams that do not offer a family room at the stadium.

Meanwhile, the training and strength staff were praised. They received B+ and A- grades respectively, ranking 22nd and 17th. For nutrition, Pittsburgh ranked 8th with a B+ grade while they received a B for team travel, tied for 15th. It seems that the Steelers have some problems they can address in teh facilities but the raw staff was praised by the report. This seems to come down to space concerns for the players while they received quality care from the staff they dealt with overall.