The NFL sent a memorandum to teams on Wednesday setting out rules for its off-season programs – rules the league decided to impose after failing to reach an agreement with its players’ union on some important aspects.
The parts of the off-season program that are voluntary under the CBA – everything except the annual mandatory June mini-camps – will remain so. But while the NFLPA has publicly called for virtually the entire off-season to take place in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, league teams say work on the field will be allowed.
Phase 1 of the off-season program, which reflects what the players requested, runs from April 19 to May 14. Virtually all meetings are held and no field work is allowed. The league says they want to use this phase to focus on vaccination efforts and making vaccines available to players, team staff and their families as soon as their various local regulations allow.
Phase 2 runs from May 17 to May 21. It will remain voluntary and meetings will remain virtual, but field exercises are allowed under the normal Phase 2 guidelines (which prohibit contact and the amount of time you spend per field per day). Annual rookie mini-camps after the draft are held in the week of Phase 2.
Phase 3 is a traditional Phase 3 that runs from 24 May to 18 June and will include the normal ten days of voluntary OTA work, as well as the compulsory mini-camps. Meetings may be allowed during this phase in fact or in person and the COVID-19 rules apply to testing, contact detection and restrictions on the number of people allowed in different parts of the team facility.
Players who virtually participate in meetings or workouts are still entitled to their $ 250 daily allowance, which was an important part of the NFLPA’s request during off-season negotiations.
The league does not require players or staff to be vaccinated, but it is waiting to hear back from the NFLPA on its proposal related to vaccine that will alleviate COVID restrictions on vaccinated players and on teams with staff a certain percentage threshold of vaccinations reached. According to the league’s proposal, vaccinated players will be subject to fewer tests and fewer restrictions on contact detection and more freedom of movement around the team facility and beyond. Teams with players and staff achieving a certain percentage of vaccinations will be subject to more relaxed COVID protocols, as teams have been in other professional leagues.
The NFLPA has said publicly that it believes the off-season program should be exclusively virtual, and urges its members not to attend the portions of the program that are voluntary under the CBA. The union does acknowledge that 203 players have training bonuses in their contracts that require them to attend off-season training sessions to receive the bonuses, and this does not actually discourage players, although the union is trying to articulate a broader message that players it must do. ceases to agree on contracts that include bonuses for attending out-of-season volunteer workouts.