Holdouts in the NFL are largely considered a thing of the past.
The collective bargaining agreement inked between the league and the NFL Players Association in 2011 instituted a rookie wage scale that, in part, has helped prevent contractual holdups for incoming rookies. Veterans, meanwhile, have often had their own money concerns handled thanks to the complex long-term deals of today's salary-cap era.
That doesn't mean, however, everyone is always happy. (Even if they show it on the outside, like Kirk Cousins).
Holdouts, as rare as they might be, still steal headlines. They did as recently as last summer, when a city that no longer calls the Chargers its own wasn't looking too homey to the team's first-round draft pick. And they could once again if the Pittsburgh Steelers' Le'Veon Bell extends his minicamp absence into training camp to protest a lack of a big-money extension.
In a glimpse at the past decade of NFL offseasons, here are five of the most memorable (and distracting) holdouts:
5. Joey Bosa, San Diego Chargers, 2016
There might not be a better example of a nightmare becoming pure bliss than Bosa as a rookie with the Chargers. The franchise watched its third overall draft pick go from antagonist to Defensive Rookie of the Year in a matter of months.
In just 12 games in 2016, Bosa lit up the stat sheet with 10.5 sacks as an undoubted pillar of the Chargers' long-term defense, all under a fully guaranteed four-year deal. But his journey to stardom had a rocky start. Preceding a four-week holdout that went into the preseason and had San Diego publicly sharing details of its contract offers, not to mention the rookie's agent accusing the Chargers of manipulation through the media, Bosa's mother said on Facebook she wished the family had "pulled an Eli Manning" and demanded a draft-day trade from San Diego.
4. Kam Chancellor, Seattle Seahawks, 2015
What better way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of a four-year contract extension -- and respond to a Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots -- than to request more money and start a holdout?
That's what Chancellor did in 2015, presumably to replicate the successful contract plea from teammate Marshawn Lynch in 2014. It never worked, as the big-bodied strong safety is still playing under his old four-year pact, but it did cost both sides, to some degree. Seattle went 0-2 to start the season without Chancellor, who was a no-show after minicamp and didn't return to team facilities for roughly two months.
3. WR Michael Crabtree, San Francisco 49ers, 2009
Selected 10th overall in the 2009 NFL Draft, the former Texas Tech standout probably wasn't making or breaking anyone's season by withholding himself from action as a rookie, but his absence at one time had people wondering if he would ever play for the Niners.
Crabtree didn't strike his six-year contract with San Francisco until the team had already played four regular-season games. He didn't debut until Oct. 25. And there were suggestions from both media and the wideout's adviser that Crabtree was prepared to sit out the entire 2009 season and re-enter the draft the following spring. The Jets, in fact, were even hit with tampering charges from the 49ers during Crabtree's holdout because of alleged contact with the receiver's agent.
2. CB Darrelle Revis, New York Jets, 2010
Entering the prime of his All-Pro career, the cornerback -- er, businessman -- threw a wrench into an otherwise stable Jets situation (yes, that was a real thing) by claiming, at least through reports of family members' accounts, that New York had backed away from a promise to make him the league's highest-paid corner.
Revis got what he wanted in a four-year, $46 million deal in September, but it was just two years later that he hinted at another training camp holdout and he was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013. His 2010 absence lasted through all of summer camp and the Jets' preseason. It racked up more than $575,000 in fines and spurred a reported visit to Revis' home from then-Jets coach Rex Ryan and owner Woody Johnson.
The biggest irony of it all? Five years after his tumultuous Jets feud and two teams later, Revis came back to the tune of a five-year, $70 million contract in free agency.
1. QB JaMarcus Russell, Oakland Raiders, 2007
Not only is Russell a consensus top pick as the biggest draft bust of his generation, the former No. 1 overall pick also has an infamous entry to the NFL on his résumé.
The Raiders caved (and what else could they have done at the time?) to the ex-LSU quarterback's contract demands when they handed Russell a six-year, $68 million deal in September 2007, but the agreement didn't come until after the short-lived Oakland signal-caller skipped all of the team's offseason and preseason work, as well as the Sept. 9 regular-season opener. He boycotted more time than any rookie had in five years -- and any No. 1 pick had in more than two decades.
