DMN Blog: "What do voluntary mean?"

by Albert Breer

Jacques Taylor was quick bring up this line as a piece of Cowboys history last week, with Roy Williams off on a cruise ship somewhere while his teammates were put through the paces. Those were Darren Hambrick's words, and linebacker found out that it means you don't have to show up, but it for you're not there, it's not good for your job security.

Now that we're well into OTAs, here's ESPN.com's John Clayton providing another definition of "voluntary".

It might be a headline that Brian Urlacher and Jason Taylor are skipping their teams' offseason workouts and minicamp, but it's not the end of the season or the end of the world. Urlacher's decision may cost him $8,000 a day to miss the Friday-Sunday mandatory minicamp, but it won't change the fortunes of the Bears one bit. Taylor's absence angers Parcells because he wants to see his best player be a leader, but the Dolphins won't be as good of a team without him.
Coaches, with the blessing of the NFLPA, turned football into a year-round sport. Offseason workouts at team headquarters begin in mid-March and last until July. Like Urlacher, Anquan Boldin and T.J. Houshmandzadehtry to make a point in renegotiating a contract by missing the offseason work. It makes a point without causing organizational damage. Sure, coaches and general managers want their best players attending the 14 organized training activities and the minicamps, because these top players control the locker room.

But often, many of the top veterans are recovering from surgery and can't do much on the field in these camps anyway. In some ways, the minicamp holdout has become the polite, professional way to try to force management to give a player more money.