NFLPA to boycott NFL in-person offseason workouts?
This time last year, the NFL and NFL Players Association agreed to an all-virtual offseason schedule due to concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ongoing and future coronavirus vaccine rollouts have owners and executives pushing for a return to in-person offseason activities this spring, but the players aren't yet backing down.
Per NFL Network's Tom Pelissero, Cleveland Browns center and NFLPA president JC Tretter said during a Friday call with players that union members should threaten to boycott in-person work organized by teams:
NFL media's Ian Rapoport previously tweeted:
As Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk noted, phase one of the offseason program allows players to train in small groups at team facilities and is set to open on April 19.
"The pandemic is not over, and despite increasing vaccination rates, the number of infections are on the rise," Tretter wrote for the NFLPA website late last month. "Even the most aggressive estimates put herd immunity in the U.S. at some time in early August." He also touched upon what the players consider to be improvements directly linked with last year's offseason program.
Around the same time that Tretter's piece went public, reports emerged that the NFL and NFLPA are expected to agree on relaxed health and safety protocols for teams that hit a certain percentage of vaccinated individuals within their traveling parties. Thus far, the NFL is not mandating that any players or other employees receive vaccine shots to participate in the 2021 season.
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