Quote:
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Section 1.Voluntary Workouts: No player shall be required to attend or participate in any off‑season workout program or classroom instruction of a Club other than as provided in Article XXXVI (Minicamps). Any other Club off‑season workout programs and classroom instruction sessions shall be voluntary and take place in the manner and time period set forth in this Article.
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That is a
direct quote from Article XXXV, Section 1 of the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement regarding off-season workouts. They are voluntary, and even though players are "expected" to attend, as you say, the players cannot be held accountable for not attending.
Now I am not saying that it is "OK" to not participate, I think that the players should do just that. But many of your top-tier players in the league conduct thier own off-season program because they have hired a personal trainer that in many cases is better than the teams weight training staff and costs considerably more then the team wants to pay for one weight coach on the teams training staff.
Just because they are not participating this early does not mean they are sitting on the couch with a bag of chips playing MADDEN all day waiting for minicamps to start.