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One of the most bizarre aspects of the offseason voluntary workouts throughout the NFL is that teams from time to time affirmatively excuse certain players from taking part in those exercises.
But if the sessions are truly voluntary, why would an excuse be even necessary?
Most recently, the Vikings “excused” running back Adrian Peterson and quarterback Tarvaris Jackson from Wednesday’s practice, allowing Maurice Hicks and Gus Frerotte, respectively, extended opportunities to get comfortable in the Brad Childress version of the West Coast offense.
For Frerotte, who played for the Vikings in 2003 and 2004, only nine players remain on the roster from when he last wore purple.
Childress said he expects Peterson and Jackson to return on Thursday.
Also “excused” on Wednesday was linebacker Ben Leber, whose wife was giving birth to the couple’s first child.
May 29th, 2008 at 7:06 am
They’re just having their own private workouts. It’s like how Peyton and Marvin spent so much time 1-on-1, developing a rapport.
It’s just like that… except here the QB is simply perfecting his hand-off skills.
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May 29th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Even if they are truly voluntary, the team doesn’t have to approve of players being absent. The team must approve of whatever Jackson and Peterson are doing, and they want the public to know there aren’t problems brewing with those two.
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May 29th, 2008 at 8:09 am
“Excuse” is a nice way of saying that Childress told them to stay home so he could look at the other guys. I don’t see what the confusion is.
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May 29th, 2008 at 9:42 am
How naive is Florio? Even corporate white-collar types have “voluntary” events that require excuses not to go.
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May 29th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
My buddy txted me last night, AD was playing in a poker tourney at canterbury last night, 2nd time a friend of mine has seen him there, the time before that AD was there playing till 6am haha….I would rather have him playing cards all night at a place that doesnt serve booze than out at the clubs
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May 29th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
If I were a player I would REQUEST an excuse.
I would want my teammates to know that I wasnt skipping out on them.
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May 31st, 2008 at 8:52 pm
what maddenboy said is how i look at it because as some people look if players skip this its like whats wrong is he mad at the team or his teammates and stuff like that. When most people dont go to these and the team doesnt know why they think something is wrong they said excused just so people didnt start thinking this kind of stuff because basically these guys wanted personal days probaly.
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