Aaron Rodgers hits the beach and has even hosted a TV game show. Alvin Kamara has snowboarded in the mountains of Montana. Quinton Jefferson takes his kids to school and runs errands. Sheldon Rankins catches up on cooking and traveling.
Game plans and practices are replaced in the NFL offseason by all the activities — from the exciting to the mundane — that players couldn’t do the past several months. It’s also a chance to rejuvenate their bodies and minds from the tolls of taking part in such a violent, competitive sport.
Playoff teams can compete deep into January and even into February if they make it to the Super Bowl. But for players on the 18 teams that failed to make the postseason, the offseason begins when the clock hits zero in the regular-season finale.
“You want to get to that ultimate goal of the Super Bowl and all that,” said Kamara, the versatile running back whose New Orleans Saints have missed the playoffs the past two seasons. “But if you don’t make it, you fall short, it’s still like, ‘All right, we lost,’ but now you’ve got some time to decompress and really just get your body right, get your mind right. Because it’s demanding every week.
“You can’t do this job halfway. So I just kind of disconnect from everything. I go on a hiatus, really.”