The Arizona Cardinals appear to be rebuilding both on the field and off it.
In the first year under new head coach and former Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, Arizona finished with a (4-13) record and clearly lacked significant talent on both sides of the ball.
The Cardinals have committed to QB Kyler Murray long-term and while he was out for the first half of the 2023 season continuing to heal from a brutal knee injury he suffered last year, he eventually came back and it took him a while to look like his old self.
While Gannon has provided promise to an Arizona Cardinals team that may have finished with four wins, but competed and even upset his old team in one of the biggest surprises of the season.
Fans will keep an eye on how the Arizona Cardinals approach the offseason when it comes to things happening on the field. But off it, the organization continues to make moves that lead to headlines that are disturbing to say the least.
A report that came out in October from the Athletic who spoke to multiple current and former employees. Cardinals longtime Michael Bidwill allegedly presided over a toxic culture of fear while running the organization.
Former COO Ron Minegar said in 2019 that “a majority” of Cardinals employees were “working in fear” because of the workplace conditions created by his behavior.
Bidwill is described as a micromanager who yelled at employees over seemingly minor transgressions, creating a culture where workers felt like they were “walking on eggshells.”
“You would think being an entertainment sports team that it would be a fun place to work. No, not at all,” one employee said.
“People just didn’t say anything. They complain under their breath, and they go into their car at lunch and they cry,” an employee said.
The team did not have a dedicated human resources director from 2008 until 2021, which only furthered the culture of silence. When the Cardinals sent out an employee survey in 2019, Bidwill was torn “to shreds” but the team allegedly went radio silent in its aftermath. One employee said the survey “disappeared into thin air,” and former team executive Terry McDonough accused Bidwill of burying its results in a lawsuit.
The team released a statement to The Athletic saying the results of the survey were taken into account despite their results not being made available to employees.
“The 2019 survey was not ignored. In fact, significant action was taken based on its feedback, the most prominent of which was the creation of the Chief People Officer role,” the team said. “Some changes were immediate, like the employee wellness initiatives announced in February of 2020, just weeks before COVID shut down the country. Others took longer as a result of the pandemic.”
Michael Bidwill also responded to allegations made by employees, saying he has “room to grow” and he’s working on being a better leader in a statement released by the Arizona Cardinals.
According to the report, the team directly discriminated against women, with unwritten rules about how they dress and frowning on them speaking to players and coaches—even when the players/coaches initiate the conversation
Arizona Cardinals Suddenly Lay Off Multiple Longtime Stafffers, Including CFO In Latest Move Since Michael Bidwill Reports
Things have been fairly quiet from the team since the reports about Bidwill came out, but there have been fairly significant changes to the non-football side of the organization happening behind-the-scenes.
Ahead of the 2023 season, it was reported the Cardinals franchise is worth $3.8 billion, up roughly $500 million in the last year, according to Forbes.
The team set an al-time high with $500 million in revenue last year and had an operating budget of $83 million.
Yet still, the Arizona Cardinals hired new Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Walls, who was hired in August by Michael Bidwell to oversee the business operations.
On Thursday, the Cardinals made a shocking move, suddenly laying off laying off several longtime high-ranking executives and a bevy of other employees according to multiple reports.
Longtime CFO Greg Lee was one of three high-level employees that was stunned and let go by the Arizona Cardinals. The others were the Vice President of Corporate Partnerships and the Vice President of Digital Content & Creative.
Several lower-level employees also lost their jobs in the shakeup. The total number of employees laid off was in the double digits, per sources.
Lee had been with the Cardinals since 2006 and was its CFO for the past 15 years.
Owner Michael Bidwill did not lay off any employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, something in which he took great pride. This is the first instance of layoffs in at least the past 10 years.
The report states this is a move spear-headed by Walls, who has been laser-focused on boosting ticket sales revenue despite the team’s recent financial success.
The Arizona Cardinals aren’t expected to lay off anyone else, but with how things have been going on the business side of the NFL organization, nothing would be surprising.
