To address the rest of this more fully, to start, I don't know what the reports are of what they tried to pull at Notre Dame. If it was about a kid being in control of his strength and conditioning program or nutrition program or what meds or surgeries he would or wouldn't do, I will stand behind him and his dad's right to fully make all those decisions. I will support him to make those decisions in the NFL as well. They can control your position on the field, the amount you can play, what opportunities you will get etc. They will never have control over what is put in my body or how I get it ready, the best way I see fit. If I trust my trainer, i trust my trainer. If I trust myself, I trust myself. If I trust my dad, I trust my dad.
In the end, if I am not physically able to play the game, it hurts only me. I have to live with this body during and after football as well. There are no trade secrets when it comes to nutrition and conditioning. It's all right there for anyone to see, and learn and implement. If the kid in front of me is in physical shape to play football, what exactly is the issue? At the end of the day all they should care about is, Can this kid play. If he can, do I care if he's running hills instead of parachute sprints? Do I care if he's doing front squats or single leg hungarian box stuff? If he's not injuring himself in workouts, do I really care? should I? and when it comes to meds or surgery, i'm sorry, no coach or trainer gets any say over what is done to someone's body if that person doesn't want to allow them to. There is enough info pro and con to almost every procedure for every condition out there. if I guy doesn't want to get "shot up" and play because he values his achilles tendons, that's his choice. and if he's not good enough to keep in the training room for a week and let him come back in a week or 2, then cut him. If he is, don't hold it against him just because he chose to let it heal and preserve the body he has to live with forever rather than increase his chances of tendon rupture or knee issues because you shot him up to numb pain then had to tape and lock his ankle so severely because his proprioception was shot that resulted in abnormal forces in his knee.
Now if his issues are, I 'm not running that pattern because i can get hit from the blindside. or I'm too good to be a 3rd option on that play so I'm only going to run route #1. Or I'm too special for special teams. Then I have problems with it. Though if in some way the NFL was the goal and he chose to make it there on WR skills alone knowing his refusal to play special teams would hurt him in the end. Well he gambled on himself and won so far. if his only way to make the team are to play special teams and he choses not to, well then he gambled on himself and will lose. so be it. But if a trainer is telling me I have ankle mobility problems but the trainer I trust is telling me I have good mobility but a stability problem higher up, i'm going to listen to the trainer I trust. It's my body. If I can physically perform my job, the other trainer and staff can take their hurt feelings and stick them somewhere
If I can't physically do my job, then I'll get sent home.