A survey released earlier this month by the NFL Players Association chided the Cardinals for charging players for meals, under certain circumstances. Cornerback Byron Murphy has now joined a team where there’s no charge for food.
“I think it’s free, so I’m good now,” Murphy told reporters at his introductory press conference, via SI.com. “It’s all you can eat now.”
The Vikings got the highest marks in the survey not simply because of free food, but because their facilities are among the newest and nicest in the league.
“I can tell since I got here,” Murphy said. “Everything here is nice, I’m not gonna lie. Everything. . . . For me to come here and see . . . I would say time and effort into this building, from the players to the coaches to the people upstairs, it’s just a blessing to be able to come here and see that.”
There’s no bright-line link between having nice facilities and winning. It’s far more likely that bad facilities will lead to losing. It will be interesting to see whether the teams that finished at the bottom of the rankings change their ways, in lieu of obsessing unreasonably over the bottom line.