STEVE LOVE

Author,  Award-Winning Journalist and Proud Oklahoman

Logo Courtesy NFL Players Association

Want to guess the premise on which the National Football League Players Association and a growing number of teams for whom they play—especially the Cleveland Browns—can base their decision not to show up for the league’s offseason program that begins Monday (April 19, 2021)? A common answer—the Hippocratic Oath—is wrong. I know, because it was mine.

Wrong may be too strong a word. The Hippocratic Oath, classic or modern version, may not contain the precise phrase “First, do no harm” but it might as well. Whether classic or modern, the underlying idea, before healing, is to protect those who have entrusted their well-being to minds with the best of medical knowledge, including preventative. Beyond their contractual right to reject participation in certain offseason activities, the NFLPA, whose president is Browns center JC Tretter, wants to protect its members and those with whom they come into contact during the continuing coronavirus pandemic.

This, of course, includes coaches, team administrators, from General Manager Andrew Berry and Coach Kevin Stefanski, and staff. It can be a difficult task in the best of times and these continue to be, despite vaccination availability for those who want it, the worst of times. Tretter and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith believe that last season’s virtual offseason program kept players safer and allowed teams to nurse their ways through a full season in the throes of unprecedented challenges and difficulties. (Remember Stefanski isolated at home with COVID-19 as his team played on.)

When the NFL informed Tretter, Smith and the rest of NFLPA that it would proceed with a “hybrid” offseason of virtual and in-person workouts, the response was swift and, if you will, confrontational. The Browns players issued a statement that, in part, said: “The NFL’s memo outlining how they plan to implement voluntary workouts falls short of what we as players believe is adequate. The Cleveland Browns players agree that a virtual offseason, like we had last year, is the best decision for everyone in our league.”

While early on more than half the teams stood down, for this to prove a “level playing field” all NFL teams must to do the same. “We are professionals who train year-round, wherever we spend our offseason,” the Browns players’ statement pointed out. “As we proved last year we will be ready to compete this upcoming season.”

This belief belies the fact that seasons cannot necessarily be repeated. Good seasons can be followed by bad and vice versa. The Browns, of all teams, should be eager to work together and prepare to improve upon the best season (12-6) of the new era that began with the 1999 reincarnation of the famed franchise that then owner Art Modell had moved to Baltimore, leaving behind only bitterness and the team name. (Why would Modell want to continue with Browns; he fired the coach—Paul Brown—for whom the team was named?) Even before the 2021 draft, the Browns strengthened themselves by adding players who, based on previous performance or promise, should improve them.

Tretter himself, who is from Akron (not Ohio but New York), did this when he joined the Browns as a 2017 Green Bay free agent. He knows what it is, especially as a center, to develop chemistry and timing, to coalesce into a whole better than its parts, even if they are good. The center is the fulcrum of a line that must function as one if the offense is to succeed and the quarterback to live to play another day. With all due respect to Tretter, this is what the defense faces. It cannot be done in virtual meetings and separate workouts when the team will begin a more challenging season with the upgraded schedule of an NFL winner while putting at least six new players/starters on the field.

I am old, and my beliefs are old-school. My on-field experience came in a cauldron of learning that is junior high and high school football, not in that of college and professional players perfecting their advanced skills. I do have experience in being both the new player on a team and later trying to help and encourage those who followed. It is a process, which is why players and coaches alike preach and whine about the need for repetition. That may occur in smaller doses this year and will be another challenge.

For teams such as the Browns—ones filled with new and higher hopes but having never known the ultimate success of reaching the Super Bowl—it should give them pause. At a moment when they should be redoubling their effort, they are putting their foot down. This may come as a surprise to coaches and players alike, DeMaurice Smith believes.

“I think what a lot of players have said that they’ve heard from their coaches is that they need to show up,” the NFLPA executive director has said on ESPN’s Sports Center. “We’ve known for years that this is a voluntary workout where a lot of coaches put their finger on the scale and, while they call it voluntary, they expect players to show up.

“I think that what we are seeing now is, for the first time, players exercising their voice … to say ‘no.’ And frankly, it’s probably one of the first times that coaches have heard players say ‘no.’ And, for some players, it’s probably the first time they’ve said ‘no’ to their coach.”

It comes at a time when the players have as strong and prepared a president as they have ever had. Tretter, a graduate of Cornell University where he made All-Ivy League while studying in the School of Industrial Labor Relations, could not be better prepared to make the argument with management , that “What’s Good for the Players is Good for the Game.” In a treatise to NFLPA members, he addresses not only COVID-19 issues but also the resulting decrease in injuries, including concussions, that the approach the NFL was forced to take during the 2020 season should be kept and advanced.

This could become even more important as the NFL adds a game (the 17th) to the schedule (while subsequently reducing the preseason from four games to three). “The good news for our sport,” Tretter writes, “is that while the NFL season looked and felt noticeably different from previous years, we learned that the game of football did not suffer at the expense of protecting its players more than before.”

Now we’ll see if the Browns’ shot for ultimate success suffers. Snap your chin straps—tight.