WORLD WIDE WEB REPLACES GRIDIRON FOR NFL PLAYERS
Pandemic has forced league to reimagine its typical late April to mid-June training
Like your kids, NFL players are now learning virtually — online.
Not via TeachAssist, but rather some other video-conferencing platform.
Their teachers are their coaches. And unlike most current grade school and high school kids — at least in my corner of the world — grades actually matter. Even if attendance doesn’t.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the NFL to reimagine its typical late April to mid-June training, classroom and on-field programs for players, which are commonly called “OTAs” (organized team activities).
Here’s a primer on what has changed, and how, this spring.
Normally, after two to three months off, players return to team facilities in April to begin working toward the fall season ahead, with on-field workouts and off-field playbook meetings. In May and early June, on-field football activities gradually ramp up to full 11-versus-11 game situations, but with hard physical contact forbidden. There is no blocking, tackling, etc., permitted until late in the first week of summer training camp.
A team’s spring program is strictly voluntary, until typically culminating with a three-day, mandatory mini-camp held by the end of the third week of June.
This spring, because of COVID-19, all team facilities have closed, with all club employees working from home.
By original planning, teams with new head coaches would have been permitted to reconvene April 5, with all other teams doing so April 19.
But COVID-19 physical distancing scuttled that.
Instead, the league last month blew up the whole off-season program. It instituted a replacement regimen — dubbed the “virtual period” — that began April 20 and goes to May 15.
Teams at this time may conduct online classroom sessions and virtual physical workouts.
As in previous years, off-season workout programs may be conducted for no more than four days a week, and no more than four hours a day.
Beginning May 18, each club may continue with an off-season program that may go as late as June 26 — “either under a virtual format or under an on-field format, depending upon conditions. The virtual period will end and the “on-field period will begin for all clubs” if club facilities reopen.
Reports say the league won’t permit such a reopening until all states in which there’s an NFL team permit close-distance activities.
Veteran players are paid US$235 for every day they participate in the above.
What’s more, starting next Monday teams may conduct a rookie development program, five days a week for seven weeks. If virtual, sessions may be only an hour long, for a daily total of five hours of tutelage for rookies, with veteran sessions folded in.
Rookie players are paid $135 for every day they participate in the above.
“It’s a crazy time,” Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “We’ve never been through something like this. I think that (player and coach continuity) can help. I think the attitude that’s set and the aggressiveness that’s set with what we have available technology-wise, is important.”
Detroit Lions head coach Mike Patricia, on a conference call Tuesday, was asked how classroom sessions have been going for his two new co-ordinators, Cory Undlin (defence) and Brayden Coombs (special teams).
“It’s been an interesting challenge for them,” Patricia said. “There’s a lot of individual reaching out going on — just contacting guys individually, catching up and explaining. Really cool. The Zoom calls, the different calls that we’ve had — Microsoft Teams, things like that.
“To watch these guys, as I sit in the background and watch them try to build the relationship with the players has been pretty neat. They’re very creative. They come up with different ideas. On some levels, it’s actually more intimate because there’s either family running around in the background, or somebody’s wife or kid might be there, too. And I think that’s really great.”
Looking ahead to summer, although the league hasn’t publicly shared any backup plans it might have for training camps — which typically kick off before the fourth weekend of July — all teams must proceed as though they’ll take place, as in past years, other than new, more protective rules included in the new collective bargaining agreement.
“I’m real big on organizing, so I’m doing training camp right now just like it’s training camp,” Reid said. “I’ve gone through the new rules that the CBA has presented to us, and I’m setting up camp under those rules. I’m ready to adjust if needed as information comes in.”