When things are mandatory, it usually connects with the feelings of urgency and discipline. One would be obligated to complete whatever task is asked by them if that task and/or event is ‘mandatory’. But what about when something is voluntary? Are you still obligated? Does it look bad when you don’t complete? Many questions surrounding the amount of optionality tied into camp during the NFL offseason. As many players refuse to show up for these “voluntary offseason practices”, off the field camera time is then being spent on trying to figure out why that is. Two-time Pro Bowl safety, Reshad Jones who has recently rejoined the Miami Dolphins, decided not to attend the voluntary team practices and chose to workout out on his own partly due to his recovery of a shoulder surgery and the fact that these practices are indeed voluntary. “Voluntary mean voluntary, so I took the time to get physically ready to play a 16-game stretch coming off a surgery in February,” Jones says.

In my personal opinion, I feel that the media puts way too much emphasis on this aspect of the offseason. Understanding that it is the media’s job to make things more dramatic is understandable, but for teams to then comment and bash players who don’t come to a voluntary event doesn’t bode well for team management from my perspective. Reshad Jones isn’t the first and only player who has refused to attend voluntary offseason practices and yet anytime that a player does decline, it seems to be an issue. If the player performs when he is supposed to perform and at the top level that he does so… does it matter?