NFLPA Wants Virtual Offseason Again
PHILADELPHIA - The NFL is speeding toward normalcy and its Players Association wants to at least pump the brakes when it comes to COVID-19.
“We’re not normal. I think we need to start there, and not get too ahead of ourselves,” NFLPA president J.C. Tretter said Wednesday during a virtual press conference alongside union executive director DeMaurice Smith.
Tretter, the Cleveland Browns starting center, believes the league is overstepping its bounds by preparing for on-field offseason work, something that was shuttered last year due to the pandemic.
“The NFL doesn’t get to decide when the pandemic is over, or when we get to stop caring about COVID," Tretter said. "COVID is still out there. Our players do not want to catch it."
Tretter, Smith, and the other union leaders have a tough job in front of them when it comes to solidarity. Perhaps the most notable tightrope the NFLPA is walking is Tretter's stance of urging pandemic-related safety measures to continue while stewarding a larger group where many members are not exactly lining up to get vaccinated.
From the league's standpoint, it almost has to prepare for business being closer to usual as the country as a whole continues to loosen restrictions.
After the NFL owners rubber-stamped the expansion of the regular-season schedule to 17 games, commissioner Roger Goodell said he hoped stadiums would be full in the fall. A day later, the league confirmed offseason work will begin April 19, although negotiations continue on what that will look like.
Smith pointed to the calendar and had no issue with the optimism of full stadiums in the fall: “I hope that stadiums are full as well – in September. We’re in March.”
The union is advocating that the 2021 offseason follows the 2020 approach, although much of that isn't related to the pandemic and it's long been one of the union goals to further limit time spent at team facilities.
Tretter has been especially vocal in pointing to the quality of play in 2020 not dipping due to the scale back in offseason on-field work. Statistically, injuries were down as well.
“It’s important to highlight that information because what it also shows is that we had an extremely successful, competitive season, too,” Tretter said. “And the decrease in practice time, the virtual offseason, the acclimation, all that stuff that was dictated by science to keep us healthy, it worked in keeping us healthy and we had more competitive games, more scoring, higher performance, more parity, more drama than really any year."
Smith called 2020 “a season that had an unprecedented amount of scoring, the lowest amount of penalties in NFL history, and players actually feeling better."
The penalty aspect was a welcome directive from the league office to pull back on what had become overbearing and had nothing to do with more or less practice time nor will the results moving forward.
Coaches, however, have long argued that scaling back practice time in the prior CBA affected the quality of the game and further restrictions will continue to harm the product, a sentiment that while true has not harmed the popularity of the product as coaches evolve to simpler schemes on both sides of the football.
The sweet spot would seemingly be limiting time for veteran players while allowing coaches to get their hands on the younger players who need developmental work, but that's a slippery slope for veteran role players who could be negatively impacted by being away from the team facility.
That unintended consequence doesn't seem to be a concern for the union, however.
“I think the data overwhelmingly shows that perhaps the most dangerous place to be if you’re a veteran player is in an offseason program,” Smith said.
Both Smith and Tretter advocated for the 2020 model as a proven winner.
“We’re facing the same issues we faced last year, and we have a formula of what worked to get us through an entire season,” Tretter said. “I think it would be a shame if we didn’t utilize what we know works.”
“So I think the model for how we should operate in COVID is there," Smith added. "We have to find out whether or not there’s the willingness on the part of the NFL to actually do what we know worked.”
On the vaccination front, the league and union agreed on education and incentives trying to push the thought of relaxed testing and more freedom from what some players believe are overly intrusive protocols.
“The point about there being groups of people who feel uncomfortable about vaccines or things that are mandated by the government, you and I both know that’s not only a very real feeling," said Smith, "but it’s also a very real thing rooted in very real, nasty, horrible things that have happened in history."
John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Thursday on The Middle with Eytan Shander, Harry Mayes, former Eagles OT Barrett Brooks streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and SportsMap Radio. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
