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Bobby Shaw can’t wait for the NFL’s regular season to begin. In many ways, it will be easier than the nomadic lifestyle the Buffalo Bills veteran wide receiver is leading this off-season.
The Bills, who assemble at St. John Fisher College on July 31 for the start of training camp, are wrapping up their off-season work under new coach Mike Mularkey with 14 days of organized team activity at Ralph Wilson Stadium that began on May 24 and ends June 16.
These on-field practices, voluntary for veterans, follow a three-day mandatory mini-camp that was held in March and another voluntary three-day session held in late April, all part of a total off-season workout program of weight training and nutrition adherence that lasts 14 weeks.
For Shaw, it has meant traveling to Buffalo from his off-season home in the San Francisco Bay area.
”It’s quote, unquote ‘optional,’ that voluntary-mandatory thing,” Shaw said. “It makes it a little tougher for players to be motivated when you’re not able to spend more time with your family this time of year, but that’s the nature of the beast. You do it. You want to be good. You want to have a successful season and sacrificing some family time now comes into play. It’s a double-edged sword, I guess.”
Giving up more and more of their off-seasons is the tradeoff players made for getting unrestricted free agency 11 years ago. Before 1993 and the rise in multi-million dollar signing bonuses, a player’s commitment to his team in the off-season generally consisted of one spring mini-camp and a promise to stay in shape that not many kept.
The Bills, who assemble at St. John Fisher College on July 31 for the start of training camp, are wrapping up their off-season work under new coach Mike Mularkey with 14 days of organized team activity at Ralph Wilson Stadium that began on May 24 and ends June 16.
These on-field practices, voluntary for veterans, follow a three-day mandatory mini-camp that was held in March and another voluntary three-day session held in late April, all part of a total off-season workout program of weight training and nutrition adherence that lasts 14 weeks.
For Shaw, it has meant traveling to Buffalo from his off-season home in the San Francisco Bay area.
”It’s quote, unquote ‘optional,’ that voluntary-mandatory thing,” Shaw said. “It makes it a little tougher for players to be motivated when you’re not able to spend more time with your family this time of year, but that’s the nature of the beast. You do it. You want to be good. You want to have a successful season and sacrificing some family time now comes into play. It’s a double-edged sword, I guess.”
Giving up more and more of their off-seasons is the tradeoff players made for getting unrestricted free agency 11 years ago. Before 1993 and the rise in multi-million dollar signing bonuses, a player’s commitment to his team in the off-season generally consisted of one spring mini-camp and a promise to stay in shape that not many kept.
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