Steelers Were Granted Special Permission for Monday's Practice

By: Michael Stiffler, @Stiffeezy_ on Twitter

SteelerNation.com

According to the NFL and NFLPA collective bargaining agreement, "players must be given four consecutive days off in a bye week." For those keeping count, the players for the Pittsburgh Steelers only had three days off. Given the Steelers had a very unusual Week 4 situation with the COVID-19 outbreak in Tennessee where the game was not postponed until Thursday of last week, the Steelers had to seek permission from both the NFL and NFLPA to have practice on Monday. Now what was the reasoning behind a Monday practice? "We always work on Mondays coming out of byes [...] So the PA and the league were considerate of those special circumstances, and they allowed us to stick to our schedule," according to head coach Mike Tomlin. There was some speculation yesterday that the Steelers might have had a "voluntary" practice yesterday given the CBA guidelines but this helps clear the air of that rumor. I don't think coach Tomlin would have held practice on Monday if the team was relatively banged up, but given their luck so far early in the season, it makes sense to stick to the routine most of the players know. It also helps that the league was understanding in the fact that these are unprecedented times and trying to keep things as close to their schedule is preferred. Now let's get back to our regularly scheduled programming of Steelers football!

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