Schiano Down On Some CBA Details
August 6th, 2012Pressed on SiriusXM NFL Radio to talk about some of the challenges presented by the new labor agreement, Greg Schiano seemed to have one detail really eating at him today.
Players, when not in an official team practice, can’t be on team fields unless they’re working solo.
“Not more than one player can run on the football field in their time off,” Schiano said. “They have to go to a high school [to work together].”
Schiano then stated that when players do work out off site, they cannot take advantage of team trainers, “some of the best trainers in the world,” suggesting forcing players off site for voluntary workouts could be dangerous.
Mike Williams, Josh Freeman, Vincent Jackson and other Bucs were seen on the football field at Plant High School working out days before training camp. Of course, this is rather ridiculous when One Buc Palace is a short drive away.
Likely the only way this rule changes is after a player gets hurt on some second-rate turf because he couldn’t play catch at a team facility.
Schiano didn’t talk much more about the challenging CBA, other than to say he gets that players need time off and he thought rules were fair and fine when he was coaching in the NFL back in the late 1990s.
Schiano also joked, “If I were the guys making the rules, I don’t know if the players would be real happy.”
August 6th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Unions…start out well intended
August 6th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
20 billion dollar industry, world class athletes having to go to a high school field to workout on their own time. Sounds un-NFL like to me – ass backwards.
August 6th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
I think you are missing the best point here. If a player is injured (or worsens a current injury) outside of team facilities, then it is a non football injury. Doesn’t matter if they were practicing with teammates on an actual football field.
If a player has a non football injury, the team can cut them without penalty, or can withhold pay.
This is going to become a bigger issue in coming years.