Because of an NFL rule that prevents underclassmen from joining their NFL teams for practice until their school year is complete, Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey had to stay away from the facility for a while, even though his teammates were already gearing up for the 2017 season. McCaffrey Skyped with coaches to get the information he needed, but he still was held behind his teammates because of Stanford's use of the quarters system. 

His new teammate, tight end Greg Olsen, took the NFL to task for the rule last week. 

"Yeah, I think that's just backwards. At some point I think the NFL and the NCAA struck up that agreement as kind of a 'we'll take care of you, you take care of us,' but I just think it's so outdated," Olsen said. "That rationale is just not up to date with how things operate. In today's world, a kid makes a decision, he moves on to another step of his career and leaves school early. He's not even enrolled; he never even started the last quarter or whatever they're on, because obviously he was training for the combine and the draft and whatnot. It just seems like a very antiquated rule that definitely needs to be revisited. 

"At the end of the day, these kids are being hurt. Here's a young kid looking to come in and become acclimated with a new team and join the NFL and make a huge step in his life. Because of something completely out of his control, he's forbidden from being with us."

Since then, Stanford's quarter has officially ended. That means McCaffrey is officially able to join his teammates, and on Thursday, he did just that. 

That's McCaffrey with some of his backfield teammates, Fozzy Whitaker and Darrel Young, walking into the facility. (And then a video of him doing some drills.) The Panthers have big plans for McCaffrey in their offense this coming season, so they'll likely try to get him acclimated pretty quickly.