Tom Coughlin doesn’t know what the word ‘voluntary’ means

The Jacksonville Jaguars have begun Phase One of their offseason workout programs. Two players are absent — Jalen Ramsey and Telvin Smith — and that doesn’t matter at all to anyone except the guy in charge of the entire franchise.

You see, Tom Coughlin decided to use the majority of his time during Thursday’s State of the Franchise presentation to hammer home the point that all players participating in all team activities is a non-negotiable.

“We’re close to 100 percent attendance and quite frankly all of our players should be here,” Coughlin said.

There’s only one problem: The workouts that Jalen and Telvin are “skipping” are 100 percent voluntary.

Phase One of offseason activities consists of conditioning workouts and weight room activities. Some players, especially if they are Pro Bowl or All-Pro caliber players, work with their own trainers at home or in a secluded environment.

In short, they do what’s best for them because they know better and they have the results to back it up.

But not to this grumpy excuse for a front office lead, who is spending the twilight of his life extolling the virtues of grit and determination and why the youths aren’t working hard enough. The man was talked out of drafting Deshaun Watson. He doesn’t know what a tight end is.

And it seems he doesn’t know (or worse, doesn’t care) that saying that voluntary workouts aren’t really voluntary is a violation of the most recent NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement which reads that “No Club official may indicate to a player that the Club’s offseason workout program or classroom instruction is not voluntary.”

I bet Coughlin hates bat flips too.