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Miscellaneous Definitions
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Here are several miscellaneous, but important, terms as used in the National Football League's rules and/or the Collective Bargaining Agreement ("CBA").
Accrued seasons determine players' free agency status and also their eligibility for a team's practice squad.
Six or more regular-season games on a club's active or inactive, reserved-injured, or "physically unable to perform" (PUP) lists constitutes an "accrued season."
PUP—physically unable to perform—status is used by clubs to protect a player who is relatively seriously injured but who may recover soon enough to play again that same season. It is similar to major league baseball's 60-day disabled list. Contrast this with injured reserve status, where the player is ineligible for the remainder of the season.
A player who is put on the PUP list before the preseason's first roster cutdown (from 80 to 65 players) must remain inactive through the sixth week of the regular season. At that point, he has a three-week practice "window" before he must either return to the 53-man roster or end his season on injured reserve.
Here's a 7/18/08 blog post from one-time Raiders personnel guy Michael Lombardi (his blog is at www.lombardionfootball.com) discussing the PUP list in considerably more detail:
"WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE NEW WEEK".
A team may establish a practice squad of no more than eight* players who do not have an accrued season of free agency credit or who were on the 45-player active list for less than nine regular season games during their only accrued season. A player cannot participate on the practice squad for more than two seasons.
Sources: NFL.com, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, NFLPA web site (www.nflpa.org)
Last updated Tuesday, July 22, 2008
