The second annual NFL Players Association Report Cards were released yesterday, February 28, 2024.

Our beloved hometown Kansas City Chiefs ranked 31st out of the 32 teams, which is down three from last year. (Link to the Chiefs Report Card)

The team won the Super Bowl last year and earlier this month, yet their scores are at the bottom of the League.

What’s up with that?!

Here are three lessons for leaders who want to outperform the Chiefs when it comes to leading their teams:

1) The Chiefs players were promised a renovated locker room after last year’s poor report and Super Bowl victory, and all they got were chairs at their lockers. The owners did not follow through on what they told the team, according to the Report.

Lesson for leaders:
Follow through on your commitments. No excuses, especially when the excuses would be lame anyway.

2) The Chiefs gave the players chairs in 2023. It’s mind boggling to think the team’s owners thought benches and stools were reasonable for grown men in the NFL for 65 years, isn’t it?! They won the Super Bowl and went from stools to chairs with backs. Additional examples of insufficient resources revealed in the Report include players sharing hotel rooms when traveling for games, average weight room facility, and poor access to rehab and training staff.

Lesson for leaders:
Take care of your people. Don’t make them ask for reasonable things that would help them perform their jobs better. YOU should be looking out for THEM! Anticipate their needs and reward them for cool accomplishments instead of thinking, “I hope they don’t ask for equipment that’s better than Planet Fitness!”

3) The Chiefs team owner received an F- grade. The Report said it is for not investing in the facilities. The Hunt family does not invest in its team, and they do the bare minimum for the community, unlike some of the players. For example, after one person was killed and more than twenty people were shot at the celebration of the recent Super Bowl victory, the Hunt family and Chiefs organization they own joined with the NFL to donate a total of $200,000. Total. Between the three. $200,000. According to Forbes, the Hunt family is worth nearly $25 billion.

Lesson for leaders:
Dance with the one who brung ya. Show loyalty to the people who support you, cheer for you, and help you succeed. Do not just take from them; help them succeed too. If all you do is gouge people to get the highest ticket prices, parking fees, and tax cuts, one of these days, they’ll realize you’re not worth it. Competition is fierce, so don’t take the ones who love you for granted.

When you’re 95 years old, you’re not going to care who won the Super Bowl in 2024. You are going to care if you matter to people.

You are not going to care if you have a billion dollars at 95yo either. You are going to care if you matter. You will care about how you will be remembered.

Be leaders who matter. Be leaders people want to work with and would want their kids to be like. Create your leadership legacy by keeping your word, taking care of your people, and being loyal to those who are loyal to you. Those three are a good start.

Whether you lead a company or project team, being cheap with the budget and focused on the short-term won’t pay off in the long-run. Focus on what really matters. Businesses of all kinds, even in the NFL, need leaders like that these days.