Oct 29, 2015NFLPA: Monitoring Player Sleep Habits Violates CBA
The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) has deemed using sleep monitors a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Monitoring the sleep of players has been a growing trend, but the NFLPA says that what players do outside of practices and games is their business.
According to an article at SportTechie.com, NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith is pursuing an order to ban the devices. Under the CBA, coaches are allowed to have players wear devices during practices and games, but the NFLPA says tracking sleep goes too far.
Players for the Seattle Seahawks, among other teams, have used the sleep monitors, and their coaches argue that tracking sleep can help improve performance. Some teams don’t go as far as using devices, but they still want access to lifestyle information about their players. Coaches for the Philadelphia Eagles have players fill out a wellness questionnaire every morning about their sleep, as well as soreness and other variables, and the information gets entered into a database for analysis. While this allows the team to collect information without the players having to wear a monitor, for the NFLPA, the debate continues about whether coaches have a right to this information.
