NFL players union says it doesn’t see a reason to rush back into team facilities this spring

The NFL Players Association’s idea of how to return pro football to something approaching normalcy this year might not quite jibe with the league’s notion.

“We’re not normal. I think we need to start there, and not get too ahead of ourselves,” NFLPA president and Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter said Wednesday in a virtual news conference held with union executive director DeMaurice Smith. They addressed such topics as the 17th game having been added to the schedule, and ongoing talks with the NFL about how teams should proceed this offseason.

“The NFL doesn’t get to decide when the pandemic is over, or when we get to stop caring about COVID. COVID is still out there. Our players do not want to catch it, still,” Tretter said.

The union seems to be doing a delicate balancing act – urging a continuation of pandemic-inspired measures such as remote offseason work because of the threat of infection, while acknowledging that a lot of players are leery of getting vaccinated.

After NFL owners on Tuesday approved the 17th game, which was provided for in the collective bargaining agreement signed a year ago, commissioner Roger Goodell said he hoped for full stadiums this fall. Wednesday, the NFL announced that offseason work will start April 19, though negotiations continue on what will take place in person and what will be remote.

“I hope that stadiums are full as well – in September. We’re in March,” Smith said.

The union wants this offseason to look much like the offseason looked in 2020, in part because one of its goals is less time spent at team facilities, pandemic or not.

In pushing for this, Smith and Tretter leaned heavily on the premise that the quality of play in 2020 was undiminished, and that missed-time injuries declined 20%, meaning less prep time did not cause players to be dangerously out of shape when the games began. (Though declining injuries were not the story for the Eagles, who finished behind only the 49ers and Patriots in the 2020 injury tally.)

» READ MORE: The Eagles were once again one of the most injury-plagued teams in the NFL in 2020 | Early Birds

Smith said 2020 was “a season that had an unprecedented amount of scoring, the lowest amount of penalties in NFL history, and players actually feeling better and being better.

“So I think the model for how we should operate in COVID is there. 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.”

The union feels injury rates were lower because of the reduced time spent on the field, and the cancellation of the preseason. The NFL intends to have a preseason this year, though with the added regular-season game there can be no more than three preseason games instead of the previous four, as per the 2020 CBA.

“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.

Tretter said the union is “following the science,” in advocating for the same precautions as were put in place a year ago, as medical experts warn of another COVID surge.

“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,” he said. “I think it would be a shame if we didn’t utilize what we know works.”

Since the official approval of the 17th game, some players have voiced their disapproval on social media. It was a contentious issue, the main reason the union’s executive board voted against advising passage of the CBA, 7-4, and that the vote among the team reps was only 17-14 in favor, with one abstention. The pact was approved 1,019 to 959, and it might have passed only because of the uncertainty caused by the looming pandemic. The Eagles will play their 17th game this season at the Jets.

Smith and Tretter said the 17th game was a necessary concession to get the things in the agreement that players wanted, such as a bigger share of profits, 20% raises in minimum salaries, and expanded rosters.

“You have to look at what we got back, or how they purchased the right to go to 17 games,” Tretter said. “And then look at the whole picture. In simplistic forms, that was what the vote was about last year. Did they pay us enough for the 17th game? And in the end, more players said yes than no.”

Discussions between the league and the union resulted in the league announcing Tuesday that vaccination will be encouraged but not mandated for participation this season. The league said there will be incentives, in the form of relaxed testing and freedom from other intrusive protocols, for teams that achieve high vaccination rates. Tretter said Wednesday he does not think this will lead to disputes within locker rooms between vaccine proponents and skeptics.

“From membership, I think the most overwhelming conversation was whether the league was going to mandate vaccines or not,” Smith said. “Now that the league has indicated that they’re not, we’ll start to have other conversations with players about the vaccine.

“This is one where I care more about what’s going on in the country than in what’s going on in the football world. I think we have to do everything we can to make sure that we message that the vaccines are safe, that people should get them. We know that there’s groups of people who have a number of feelings about the vaccine that can be based on all sorts of things.”

Later, asked another vaccine question, Smith said: “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, but it’s also a very real thing rooted in very real, nasty, horrible things that have happened in history.”

Smith added that he hopes popular players will speak out in favor of vaccination, for the benefit of the public.