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Dan Graziano
Let's please let 'voluntary' mean voluntary - NFC East Blog - ESPN
I like this, makes me think and smile.
Let's please let 'voluntary' mean voluntary - NFC East Blog - ESPN
I like this, makes me think and smile.
Down here in Philadelphia, new cornerback Cary Williams missed a big chunk of the voluntary offseason program for a variety of reasons. He got married. His daughter had a dance recital. He had to pick out sconces for his new house. The reasons for his absence subjected Williams to a high level of ridicule from Eagles fans who believed he should be working out with and getting to know his new teammates and coaches. Williams was perplexed by the fuss.
"I mean ... fans ... I love you, but jeez," Williams said after Tuesday's mandatory minicamp practice. "If I had three kids with three different women, and if I was a womanizer, you all would be reporting that. But now I'm a guy who wants to see his little girl's recital and I'm a bad guy? Come on."
Look, I know I'm not an NFL coach or an NFL fan, but to me Williams sounds like the voice of reason and Coughlin sounds like the cranky old man who wants everybody off his lawn. Words have meaning, and the word "voluntary" means of one's own will and without outside interference. Translated for purposes of this discussion, that means that neither Nicks nor Williams nor any other player in the league has to attend voluntary OTAs or tell his coach, teammates or anyone on the planet why he didn't. This is their right as human beings and as NFL players, and no amount of conventional meathead wisdom changes that. None.
The fact that almost everyone else on the team is there practicing doesn't change it. The fact that they make a lot of money and play a game for a living doesn't change it. The fact that coaches and fans prefer players who go above and beyond what's required of them doesn't change it. Nothing does. Every single defense of Coughlin's rant about Nicks is unjustified. Every single bit of scorn directed at Williams for staying home is just another example of the NFL establishment insisting on treating the players like something less than human beings. And it needs to stop.