One of the victories for the NFL Players Association when it negotiated the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the owners was a reduction in offseason work: Players are now doing far less mandatory work, and even less voluntary work, at the team facilities than they did under the old CBA.
To Bengals offensive tackle and NFLPA President Eric Winston, that reduction in offseason work was mostly about allowing players to do their own thing, without the coaches watching over them all offseason long.
“I remember having to go back to work after the Fourth of July and having to come in and do workouts and do all those things that just didn’t make sense then and still really doesn’t,” Winston told the Cincinnati Enquirer.