The kinder, gentler NFL offseason begins Monday with voluntary workouts.
Many of the Washington Redskins have already been inside a gym for weeks, if not months. The most hard-core players begin just a few weeks after the season ends. Most realize in March they needed to find a neighborhood gym.
It’s the first offseason under the new labor agreement that shortened workouts and practices. As important as money to some players was fewer weeks at the team facility. The NFL became a 10-month season — 11 to Super Bowl teams — and players wanted more down time.
Will less time at the facility change the game? The NFL did nothing until August last year under a lockout, and the season went just fine. Everyone learned the plays and injuries were no more excessive.
NFL coaches needed to be pushed back. They’re workaholics who would have players take two weeks off and get right back to it. Playbooks often surpass 1,000 pages as coaches keep looking for an edge over competitors. It was just getting too much.
Opponents of shorter offseason workouts say players are more injury prone. Indeed, there’s a popular saying that titles are won in spring weight rooms. Some injuries can be avoided by better conditioning but most will happen anyway.
It’s just hyperbole. Before big money contracts in the 1980s, players worked offseason jobs and survived the season. Of course, the preseason went eight weeks then, but smart players know extending their careers comes down to spring workouts.
Redskins receiver Anthony Armstrong recently spoke of golfing over the offseason during an interview with WJFK. Callers soon berated him over not spending all of his time working out and studying the playbook.
It’s the offseason and Armstrong can do whatever he wants on his vacation. Nobody’s telling you to take a vocational class during your vacation. He’s still working out. You can’t do so 16 hours a day.
Armstrong chooses to golf in his free time. It’s better than being in a strip joint making it rain. If Armstrong attended an NFL-sponsored event at Wharton Business School nobody would complain he wasn’t home studying the playbook.
There is a limit to preparedness and the NFL exceeded it so the new labor deal gives everyone a breather.
Most players already have been deep in the playbook and working out on their own for the past month.
But the weight room will be booming with music and clanking metal Monday. The schedule is expected to be released Tuesday and the draft starts April 26.
The NFL is back — even if it never truly goes away.
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or email [email protected].
