But using dangerous techniques or going after defenseless players is beyond the pale. We're compensated very well for it, but if you try to take that away from someone?' Winston, like many other players, stressed that hard, clean hits are part of the game-and injuries happen. 'This is our work,' Cincinnati Bengals tackle Eric Winston told Bleacher Report. 1 rule, whether it's practices or games, teammates or opponents, is to not purposely injure another player. Most of them deal with the day-to-day reality of playing football for a living: games, practices, meetings and travel.Įvery rookie eventually gets with the program-or gets out of the NFL.įirst, Do No Harm-At Least Not On PurposeĮvery player Bleacher Report talked to agreed on this point: The No. 'You talk to guys from the '60s, and they'll say, 'You know, when I played, I walked uphill both ways in the snow!'' But there are still plenty of must-follow rules fans and media never hear about. Older fans might say important parts of football culture have been lost.įormer All-Pro guard Steve Hutchinson, a breath after disparaging the work ethic of today's players to Bleacher Report, laughed and admitted complaints about the changing facts of football life have been going on since long before his time. There isn't much room for out-and-out thuggery or eye-for-an-eye policing of it. A lot of the unwritten rules have been put into words and enforced by the league. Now, more than ever, the NFL culture is public. Training camps are mostly held at team facilities rather than far-off college campuses, and every NFL game is monitored by a forest of high-definition cameras. Practices are lighter, shorter, less frequent and far less often padded. Several players made sure to point out the sport has changed a lot in recent years.Ĭellphones are everywhere, players are managed more like movie stars than football players, and the Internet-driven news cycle never stops. The only way to get along is to live by the rules, and that's why veterans take it upon themselves to teach every rookie class what you do, and what you don't do, in the NFL. Sometimes, though, the only way to learn the rules is to break them.īleacher Report talked to active and former NFL players to figure out where the unspoken lines are drawn, how they're delineated for newcomers and what happens to those who cross them.

On the field, in the locker room, even on the team plane, NFL culture is all-encompassing.

Who sang scratch of first class song