Bengals unveil upgraded locker rooms after getting poor grades on NFLPA report cards

The Cincinnati Bengals on Tuesday unveiled their brand-new, state-of-the-art locker room with a series of pictures and two videos of players touring the facility. 

Quarterback Joe Burrow marveled over the fact that his corner locker is right next to a refrigerator; wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase commented on the increased space; and center Ted Karras showed off the new features of the individual lockers, including a ventilated storage rack for shoulder pads, personal cleat-driers, a lock-box charging station, and additional storage space for tape, supplements, and shoes.

"It's sick. The more we continue to invest in stuff like this, the more comfortable the players are going to be," Burrow said. "We're going to love coming into work. I'm really happy with it. It's quite an upgrade. Credit to ownership for putting this all together."

The changes come after the Bengals were given (D) and (D+) grades for their locker room on the 2023 and 2024 NFLPA report cards. 

In the 2024 report, the NFLPA noted, "The locker room is another major issue for the players. Approximately 50% of the showers don't work; they either don't provide warm water or there isn't enough water pressure. They face consistent plumbing issues that limit the amount of functioning toilets the players can use."

In 2023, only 44% of Bengals respondents told the NFLPA that they believed owner Mike Brown was willing to spend money to make the facility better. That year's report stated "players feel that they have some of the smallest hot/cold tubs in the league; they have issues with the showers and toilets not consistently working, and they are the only team that does not have outlets in their lockers to charge devices."

Those issues and more appear to have been remedied with the upgrade, and the players seem to be quite happy about it. 

The Bengals still had low marks in 2024 on their treatment facilities (F-), food/cafeteria (F-), and nutritionist/dietician (F-) in the most recent report so there are likely still further upgrades needed, but it's nice that the team finally has what it needs in the locker room.