Andy Reid addresses NFLPA criticism of team facilities, Rick Burkholder

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) recently released a survey it had conducted among 1,300 players who were on 2022 team rosters.

The survey’s results covering team weight, locker room and training facilities — and training personnel — were particularly bad for the Kansas City Chiefs. Grades for these items ranged from C-plus to D-minus.

Asked about these data points during his first media availability since the report was released in early March, Kansas City head coach Andy Reid pointed out that the survey was taken early in the 2022 season — when there were a lot of new faces in the building.

“I think if you would have talked to the guys at the end of the season,” started Reid during Monday’s Zoom press conference, “they would have been probably [given] a little different evaluation. We try to stay on top of all that — make sure we know how the guys are feeling on that.”

But Reid didn’t want to completely dismiss the NFLPA’s report.

“Between the training room and the equipment room and weight room, those are the first people that are going to be seen,” explained Reid. “And that training room is not Leisure World, right? So that’s a place that you come in, and you get your rehab done. That’s what it is. That’s how we do it here — and other places do it different.”

Reid specifically addressed the report’s criticism of vice president for sports medicine and performance Dr. Rick Burkholder — whose staff was considered “well-liked” but was reportedly described by survey respondents as someone to whom players could not comfortably disclose injuries.

“We’re in there to fix your problems,” noted Reid. “If you have a problem, we’ll get it taken care of. And Rick is in a position where he’s got to enforce that — and that’s just kind of the bottom line on it. It’s different when you get different people in — and the trainer is normally not necessarily the good guy in those situations.”

Reid claimed the team has adequately addressed the union’s report.

“We’ve evaluated it,” he declared. “We’ve looked at it. We’re in a position now with our facility — which also got knocked down [in the report] — where [there are] future plans for whatever direction it goes for new facilities.”

Reid said, however, that it’s unreasonable to expect facilities to change overnight.

“So I lived this when I was in Philadelphia: that takes time,” he recalled. “It takes time to get all that planned out. You’re not going to take it and put a whole load back into your facility that you have here if there are future plans. So I get all of that.

“We’ve tried to keep it where it’s a great place to come to work. I think we do a good job with that. I don’t think we’re behind, necessarily — and things might not be as fancy as other places — but we normally come here to work hard.”