And after three practices the players shall rest. Per the rules of the new collective bargaining agreement. And New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin shall be, not unexpectedly, entirely unhappy about it.
After three one-a-day practices in shorts and shells, the new CBA also mandated the elimination of two-a-day practices and full-pad practices for the first three workouts, Giants players have a mandatory off day today. Welcome to the new kinder, gentler world of the NFL.
Coughlin, already concerned about the loss of the entire offseason program and the impact of not being able to fully practice twice a day during camp, could barely contain his disgust when discussing today's day of rest for his team.
"You know what I said to the guys this morning? You guys have been here for a tremendous number of days, like three, and you are going to have a day off. I don't think it has ever been done in the history of football," said Coughlin. "They have the training room, obviously. That is mandatory. They can come in and if they do, it is voluntary."
Coughlin was asked Monday night if the one-a-day practices were enough. As you might expect, the NFL's oldest coach didn't sound so sure of that.
"That is very difficult to say that. The first thing and I have to tell them every night, I keep track of all the snaps and I keep track of all the plays. I keep track of the number of times run. There is one color ink for walk through and there is another color ink for practice. But what we are getting done in the walk through better suffice for some of the learning because we are just not going to get that many number of snaps out here," Coughlin said. "In the first three practices, I have 40, 46, and 50 snaps. We thought we would be operating with three teams and it is more like two teams. So I will increase the number of snaps when we get this other group August 4th. The walk through is absolutely critical and the players have to see it that way and focus on it just as if they were practicing."