APMake sure you are sitting down before you read the following breaking news: NFL coaches are not following the rules of the lockout.
Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com reports that assistant coaches and players across the league have been keeping in close contact regarding workouts, often with weekly chats.
He recalls seeing one player have a 20 minute conversation with a coach. Others have kept in touch via Twitter (direct message), texts, Skype phone calls, and email. Some coaches have even joined players at their homes to watch game film. Others reportedly have faxed plays to players.
Some conversations are casual, but others focus on what the players are doing to prepare for the season.
It sends a mixed message for the players to work with the coaches, but the reality is that labor unity isn’t necessarily the top priority for most players.
“Eventually we’ll have football again. All that matters to me is who is ready and who isn’t,” one player told Freeman.
Freeman says that roughly 25% of the league’s players are keeping touch with assistant coaches. Head coaches appear to be letting their assistants do the work to keep some distance while breaking the rules.
This news should surprise absolutely no one. In a $9 billion industry, both sides (players and coaches) are going to do what they can to get ahead while the labor uncertainty boils.
A story like this supports my belief that getting playbooks distributed won’t remotely be a problem for teams. Once a few players have the playbook, the rest will get it whether it is from coaches or teammates. Who is going to stop them?
We doubt the phone conversations will stop either.
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Eli looks awful in that picture
Good!!! I hope all team captains on are getting as much training as possible.
OK..saved all the comments for the rest of this thread. Bottom line is, we don’t care how they do it, we just want football.
Eli got a head start.
I’m sure somehow the 49ers will get fined/docked draft picks for this while no one else will be punished. Goodell likes to keep his pimp hand strong with John York.
Good. Players not being able to talk to their coaches is stupid. Players’ and coaches’ wives and kids not being able to communicate is stupid. The lockout is stupid. The rules are stupid. The whole thing is stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. (Channeling my inner first-grader.)
Not all that surprising. If the NFL doesn’t levy fines for this, it better not try levying them to players for off the field behavior. No rules = no rules.
If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying…
Faxing plays? What’s a fax?
Other players and coaches are communicating by passing notes in English class, while others are using carrier pigeon and pony express.
I also gather that Tony Romo is letting Jason Garrett caddy for him.
I think I speak for all fans when I say, “good.”
The quicker we can get competitive football the better.
of course they are talking…pro and college football are both corrupt businesses…you wont find many people who are following the rules
More Breaking News: Osama Bin Laden is dead!
Good. This whole thing is ridiculous anyways.
Good for them, not surprising at all. NFL can’t monitor them 24/7.
Seriously, you sports media folks sound like a bunch of tattle-tales.
Didn’t Goddell already break the rule when he spoke with Chad ocho last month..I mean REALLY…
hawkeye6 says:
May 9, 2011 4:45 PM
Eli looks awful in that picture
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Not unlike last season.
More breaking news:
Francisco Franco is still dead…
Fax plays? What is this? 1997?
So, what happens if a player and a coach eat lunch at a restaurant and their tables happen to be next to each other. Are they obligated to ignore each other and pretend the other is invisible?
Seems like you can do whatever you want, as long as it’s not “official”.
I’m SHOCKED. SHOCKED I tell ya. Who didn’t think there would be an asst who might invite a few of the fellas over for a cookout? As long as man has existed he’s tried to get around rules. Man will keep doing it as long as there are rules.
Shock and awe! Really? Are you sure? There is not an assistant coach out there that would cheat. Ha, ha, wink, wink.
Of course they are talking and working together.
Players and coaches who aren’t breaking the rule are going to be big steps behind the ones that are.
In other news…. Andrew luck will not enter the 2012 NFL draft. Instead, he opt to join to 49ers as offensive coordinator.
dontouchmyjunk says:
May 9, 2011 6:05 PM
Fax plays? What is this? 1997?
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You must be 15 years old. Believe it or not there were computers, scanners, and email in 1997…and we even had cell phones the size of you know, cell phones.
Now saying, 1987 would have been funny…there was actually a strike that year, and FAX machines were the prevalent technology for that type of thing.
Jets assistants have been seen working on their tripping moves.
Name on business where all the rules are actually followed.
Appears that Eli has not lost all the baby weight yet.
who is the retard in the powder blue sweatshirt, ohhh eli,now it makes sense…