I remember when the Denver Broncos fired coach Dan Reeves back in the day. The perception was that the franchise valued their quarterback, John Elway, more than their coach. Mike Ditka even went so far as to say that the "inmates [were] running the asylum" in Denver. I don't remember it being that big a deal at the time.
However, in a league where the majority of players are African Americans, and in a nation where African Americans are incarcerated at significantly higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups, and especially in a situation where the issue is already highly racially charged, an "inmates running the prison" metaphor is just about the dumbest thing you could say as a league executive.