Failing a Physical (1 Viewer)

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

When someone 'fails a physical' what does it mean? Is that a medical thing? Fitness? A ready made excuse to release someone you want to get rid of?

Does the term have legal meaning in the CBA?

 

[DawnBTVS]

Not sure about CBA but this often correlates to players who are recuperating from injuries and is usually related to medical testing.

Quick Example: RB has surgery for a torn ACL and is expected to be back in 8 months. He suffers this injury in September, missing the prior season. So now it's almost August and month 9. The team medical staff tests the player/diagnoses the injury again and finds that the player happens to be healing slower than expected and may only need 2-3 more weeks to fully heal and get cleared for practice.

This often explains why teams give medicals to traded players or sign/trade for a player "pending physical" usually meaning if they have fully healed from an injury.

Near as I can tell, the camp/NFLI (Inactive?) is often where a player is placed if they fail to pass any conditioning tests as they can immediately get pulled back off it upon passing.