Well, let me tell ya somethin’ ‘bout this football off-season thing. It’s like this, the games stop, them boys ain’t runnin’ around on the field no more, but that don’t mean they just sittin’ around eatin’ pie all day, ya know?
What in the world is the off-season, you ask? It’s that time between when one season ends and the next one starts. Like, when they ain’t playin’ no games. This here “off-season,” it ain’t the same for everyone, see? Some leagues, they finish up early, some late. And them big-shot players, the ones always on TV, they might have other games to play, international stuff, ya know?
Now, during this off-season, the teams, they do this thing called “OTAs.” That’s “Organized Team Activities” for you fancy folks. It’s like practice, but they ain’t hittin’ each other too hard. They run around a bit, do some drills, seven guys on seven guys, nine on seven, eleven on eleven, all that jazz. They ain’t allowed to tackle hard, though. Just runnin’ and catchin’ and such.
The big fellas, the veterans, they gotta go to this thing called “minicamp.” It’s mandatory, ya hear? They gotta show up and do what the coach tells ’em. It’s in the rules, somethin’ they call “Collective Bargaining Agreement”, sounds important I guess, article 22 or somethin’.
- Recovery is key! Them boys runnin’ and jumpin’, beatin’ each other up all season long, gotta rest up. Their muscles and bones get tired. If they don’t rest, they get hurt.
- Gotta train too! Even though they restin’, they can’t just sit on the couch. They still gotta work out, lift weights, run a little, stay in shape for the next season.
And listen to this, they got this new thing, a “College Football Playoff.” Twelve teams now, can you believe it? It used to be just a few. So, they play some games after the regular season ends, figure out who’s the best of the best. This year was somethin’ else, all sorts of teams winnin’ and losin’, nobody knew who’d come out on top.
So, this year the big college games, they gonna start on December 20th. That’s a Friday, right before Christmas. They call it “2024-25 College Football Playoff”, must mean it goes into next year. And the regular season, the one that happens before all them playoffs, that starts on September 5th. That’s a Thursday. They always playin’ on weird days, not just Saturdays like they used to.
Before all that starts, before the games and the cheering, there’s all this stuff happening in the off-season. Teams signin’ new players, draftin’ young fellas outta college. Coaches movin’ around, goin’ to different teams. They gotta figure out all sorts of things: new players, new coaches, and even new rules sometimes. They change the rules every now and then, ya know, keep things interestin’. And there’s always other news, things happenin’ off the field too, players gettin’ in trouble or doin’ good deeds, you name it.
So that’s the football off season in a nutshell. It ain’t just nothin’, it’s a whole lotta things happening. Teams gettin’ ready, players restin’ and trainin’, coaches plannin’. It’s all gotta happen so they can play them games come fall. And then, after all that, it starts all over again. Just like plantin’ and harvestin’ back on the farm, ya know? Always a cycle.
They gonna start playin’ games again soon. Week Zero they call it, August 26th. That’s when the off-season is officially over and the fun begins again. Until then, they’re just gettin’ ready, gettin’ strong, gettin’ their heads in the game.
Tags: [Football, Off-season, NFL, College Football, Training, Recovery, OTAs, Minicamp, Playoffs, Schedule, 2024, 2025]
