The Patriots have prevented cornerback Malcolm Butler from voluntarily participating in three weeks of voluntary practices because he missed the first day of voluntary OTA sessions, because he involuntarily missed a flight. And that could be a problem for the Patriots.
According to Albert Breer of NFL Media, the NFL Players Association is investigating whether the team’s decision to keep Butler out of voluntary practices because he missed one of them violates the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Article 21, Section 5(a) of the CBA states: “No Club official may indicate to a player that the Club’s offseason workout program or classroom instruction is not voluntary (or that a player’s failure to participate in a workout program or classroom instruction will result in the player’s failure to make the Club or result in any other adverse consequences affecting his working conditions).”
By imposing adverse consequences against Butler for failing to show up for the first voluntary OTA session, the Patriots necessarily are indicating to Butler and all other players that the program is not voluntary but mandatory. Otherwise, it would be no problem if a guy missed a voluntary session.
Except for the mandatory minicamp, all offseason workouts are voluntary. The NFL agreed to those rules, and if the NFL doesn’t like those rules, the NFL should try to change those rules through the process of collective bargaining.
In turn, the NFLPA should cling to those rules as strongly as the NFL clings to the Commissioner’s final say over certain aspects of player discipline.
Maybe that’s a fair trade; all offseason workouts become mandatory, and independent arbitration is used for all matters of player discipline. At a minimum, it’d be interesting to know whether the players currently clamoring for the Commissioner to lose his power over player discipline would agree to a mandatory offseason program in exchange for that.
It’ll be even more interesting to see how the NFLPA resolves this potential tug of war with the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick.
