One of the grievance rulings hidden by the NFL and the NFL Players Association (and discovered via the PFT/PTFO collaboration) related to the non-suggestion suggestion made by former NFLPA president JC Tretter that disgruntled players should fake injuries to avoid practicing or playing. Beyond the fact that it was idiotic for Tretter to say that (the ruling basically confirmed this, with a lot more words than “it was idiotic”), it was irrelevant.
The reality is that any NFL player can identify some condition that will keep him from practicing and/or playing. It’s not about faking. It’s about focusing.
By the time a football player gets to the NFL, he has played football for many, many years. (With rare exceptions, like soon-to-be Hall of Fame tight end Antonio Gates, who didn’t play football in college.) By the time the player has spent at least three years in the NFL (no draft pick is eligible for a second contract until his third regular season has ended), the player will have something that he can say is bothering him sufficiently to keep him from practicing or playing.
Back issues, bone spurs, muscle strains. There ‘s always something a player is dealing with. If he simply decides not to deal with it, he won’t practice or play.
So that’s what Tretter should have said. Players who aren’t happy with their contracts should simply identify one thing (or more than one thing) that they otherwise ignore when they suit up and head to the field.
For the players who held out and showed up without new deals (Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin and Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson), that’s the play. There’s no need to fake something. Find something.
That mindset is also relevant to Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons. Why stay away and get fined when he can show up and limit his practice time by relying on a real condition that can’t be denied by the team?
The situation becomes far more interesting, and the stakes become much greater, when the games begin. Will an unhappy player rely on a real condition that he otherwise would deal with if he had the deal he wants?
It’s not fake. It’s a real issue. Somewhere in the player’s body. Something that justifies not practicing or playing.
As July becomes August and September looms, that’s the dynamic to watch for McLaurin, Hendrickson, and Parsons.
Read the full article here
