Quote:Definitely.  The fact that the league and players union couldn't work out something a little less preposterous is silly though. 

 

I somewhat agree with you.  I just took a glance at the current CBA.  In it practices, workouts, off-season, etc. is discussed.  I think the idea of the rule is to keep teams from "suggesting" that a player or players might want to do a bit of extra work.  That basically constitutes a "practice" other than what is outlined.

 

Remember, the NFL is a business.  Players don't play or practice for free.  Extra "practice" or workouts not outlined in the CBA constitutes a player or players "working for free".  The rule also keeps one team from having an advantage over other teams by having extra "practices".

 

Now one thing that I noticed is that it talks about team facilities a lot.  I could be wrong about this and I'm just speculating here, but I don't think that there is anything wrong with a player and a coach "meeting up" at a local park for example, on their own time to do some extra work.  Another example could be perhaps a QB and the WR's decide to "meet up" somewhere and throw some balls around to maybe work on timing.

 

One other thing to keep in mind.  Players don't necessarily live in the city/state in which they play year round.  For example, I do know that Keenan McCardell used to go home to Houston during the off-season, Jones-Drew would go home to California and Brad Meester would go back to Missouri.

---