Bucs players give team low marks for travel, treatment of families

Bucs players love their strength coaches, weight room and training staff. But they hate their travel policies and the treatment of their families by the organization.

Suffice to say, the road trips aren’t much fun for players or their loved ones.

Those were some of the takeaways in a survey by the NFL Players Association that measured treatment of families, food service/nutrition, weight room, training staff, locker room and team travel.

Bucs players gave the highest grades to strength coaches (A), the training staff led by Bobby Slater (A-) and the weight room (B+).

Team travel earned the only failing grade followed closely by the food service/nutrition (D) and treatment of families (D+).

One thing that weighted heavily in the results of the survey was that the Bucs do not offer any childcare or a family room for players’ families, unlike most NFL clubs.

“Players feel their locker room is small and outdated and their travel policies are uncomfortable,” the summary said. The Bucs are one of six teams that make a large segment of their players have a roommate for road games and are among only eight teams that don’t offer players first-class seats.

“Only 79 percent of players feel like the Glazer family is willing to invest money into upgrading the facilities, ranking them 23rd among all clubs in this category,” the NFLPA summary said.

It’s interesting because the 135,000-square foot AdventHealth Training Center opened in 2006, setting a new standard for team training and business headquarters. Player areas include a 6,600-square foot locker room, nearly 10,000 square feet of workout and weight training space, and an expansive training room and rehab center.

Last September, the Bucs relocated players, their families and pets to Miami to escape Hurricane Ian.

The NFLPA team report cards were generated from confidential surveys issued to all players about the teams they worked for in 2022. At least 1,300 forms were completed to create the findings.

In a statement, the Bucs said, “One of our top priorities is that our players and their families are well taken care of and this feedback will be useful as we continue looking for ways to enhance their experience.”

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