All 90 in attendance: holdouts becoming a thing of the past

Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images

Welcome to the most exciting time of the year for football fans. While expectations are high for our New England Patriots, every team is filled with the hope they'll take home a shiny new Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season. Per Bill Belichick's interview this morning, there's a full house down in Foxboro:



While some players are sure to be limited, or excluded from activities overall, having the full 90 on site is a huge positive for the team. Those 90 will all have a chance to show consistency over the run of training camp, which is clearly important to the coach:



Now, while much of the above should go without saying, it has been a trend league wide to avoid contract disputes in recent years. With the recent news of several extensions, teams are moving towards appeasing the players they rely on in order to get them into training camp early. Roddy White signed a new 4 year extension today, as Jamaal Charles did yesterday. In fact, Charles' holdout was so short he jokingly blamed car trouble for his delayed arrival:



While White showed no indication of holding out, even the possibility of players not attending every training camp practice can scare a team. In fact, it can scare players (such as Andre Johnson and Vernon Davis) away from holding out at all. So why has this suddenly become the case? It seems a few years ago we were annually watching a heated holdout or two in every preseason, and that they didn't get resolved until the season was almost upon us. It's pretty clear that the rules limiting practices have taken their toll on the contract negotiation process.

We've all seen some of the rules take effect, and possibly lead to the increased rash of injuries. With that being the case, every second of training camp becomes more valuable to player and team alike. While these measures may be saving the long term health of players, they are certainly forcing both sides towards rushed negotiations.

All and all, it seems the holdout is becoming a thing of the past. There are more empty threats of avoiding camp than players who actually follow through. In those cases where a player does, or may even think about it, the new contract is hammered out at the speed of light. 90 players treating their contracts like... well contracts. What a novel thought.

Are holdouts a thing of the past? Let's chat on Twitter- @TheFib0624

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-Bill Stiles

Also, make sure to check out photographer and writer Joshua Powers on twitter (@jmano33), his tweets from the presser made this article possible

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