Jets owner blasts NFLPA report card

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson slammed the NFL Players Association’s annual team report cards at the annual league meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday.

The NFLPA released the report card on Feb. 26. The Jets ranked 29th in the survey, and Johnson received an F.

“My first read is I think it’s totally bogus,” Johnson said of the report card, via The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt. “But we want to get better every day. I want to be No. 1 in everything.” 

The surveyed players didn’t feel Johnson contributes to a positive culture and isn’t committed to building a competitive team. However, the owner said the way the survey gathered information was flawed. 

“The whole thing,” Johnson said when asked what about the survey was bogus. “How they collected the information, who they collected it from, it’s supposed to be a process where we have representatives so we know it’s an honest survey. And that was violated in my opinion. So I’ll leave it at that. But there’s a lot of owners that looked at this survey, and said this is not fair, not balanced, it’s not every player, it’s not even representative of the players.” 

According to the survey, 1,695 players (approximately 70 percent of active players in the NFLPA) took part, which seems like a solid sample size.

Perhaps Johnson should admit he must address his shortcomings as an owner instead of saying the report card is a sham. 

Since Johnson purchased the team in January 2000, the Jets haven’t made a Super Bowl. They also haven’t clinched a playoff berth since 2010, the longest active drought across the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA. 

In December 2024, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, Michael Silver and Rosenblatt published a story detailing how the Jets’ ineptitude can be attributed to Johnson. In the report, a source said he’s “consumed with the public perception of his franchise, sometimes at the expense of on-field success.” 

If Johnson would accept the negative feedback in the survey, perhaps the Jets would improve. But it doesn’t appear he will.