KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs may be looking to get a new practice facility soon.
The Chiefs ranked 29th out of 32 teams when the NFL Players Association Team Report Cards were released last month.
One of the most surprising parts of the report is the players’ views of head trainer Rick Burkholder. The report suggests he does not treat players fairly and consistently or with personal care.
The D- grade for the training staff ranked last in the NFL.
On Monday, head coach Andy Reid said the reports were conducted early in the season and that the training room is for recovering from injuries, not to have fun in.
“That training room, it’s not a leisure world. So that’s a place that you come in and you get your rehab done. That’s what it is and that’s how we do it here and other places do it differently, but we’re in there to fix your problems and if you have a problem we’ll get it taken care of.”
“Rick is in a position where he’s got to enforce that and that’s just kind of the bottom line on it. And so it’s different. It’s different when you get different people in. The trainer is normally not necessarily the good guy in those situations. There’s a reason why you have the training room.”
“But we’ve looked at all of this. We’ve evaluated it.”
The report also said the facility feels outdated and players would like to see upgrades across the board. Only 56% of respondents believe club owner Clark Hunt is willing to invest the money to upgrade the facility, ranking him 27th in this category.
“We’re in a position now with our facility, which also got knocked down, where you know there are future plans for whatever direction it goes for new facilities,” Reid said.
Reid said he experienced this transition when he was head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and that it takes time to get that process in motion.
“You’re not gonna take and put a whole load back into your facility that you have here if there’s future plans.”
Here’s giving an extensive answer from HC Andy Reid on the #Chiefs NFLPA report card findings.
“We’re in a position now with our facility, which also got knocked down, where you know there are future plans for whatever direction it goes for new facilities.” (at the 1:08 mark)… pic.twitter.com/dOLTOHq6Ug — PJ Green (@PJGreenTV) April 17, 2023
The Kansas City Royals are working to build a downtown stadium and the lease for both teams’ facilities with the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority ends in January 2031.
The 65-year-old head coach said the organization tries to keep a great work environment at 1 Arrowhead Drive and that players at the end of the season may have felt differently than the report cards suggested.
“But 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. Things might not be as fancy as in other places, but we normally come here to work hard.
“I think if you would have talked to the guys at the end of the season, they would have been probably a little different evaluation. We try to stay on top of all that, make sure we know how the guys are feeling on that.”