The UFL clarified to its players Wednesday night that they would be disciplined but not released if they boycotted the league's media days this week, executive vice president of football operations Daryl Johnston told ESPN's Todd Archer.
Earlier Wednesday, three players told ESPN that they discussed a boycott to protest a lack of progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement.
The players, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said all eight of the UFL's head coaches told their teams that the league was aware of those discussions and was prepared to release anyone who followed through. The threat rankled some players, who considered it an unfair labor practice.
Johnston confirmed that he instructed coaches to speak to their players about attendance at media days but that "what is said and what is heard are two completely different things."
"This is an irreplaceable two days," Johnston added. "We can't do this at any other time the rest of the season. So it was really emphasizing the importance of these two days to not only us as a league but to you as an individual player within our league.
"So I stressed to our coaches there's some talk that there could be an opportunity to boycott this event, and just please let the guys know how important this is, not only to us as a league but them as the individual players. And the league will look at this as conduct detrimental to the league, which could raise to the level of termination. You're not going to get cut, [but] it can raise to this level."
Johnston said the league "didn't have enough clarity" in the initial communication and followed up with a second statement to all players.
"So we came back [Wednesday] last night and we added clarity to the situation and told them exactly what our stance was going to be, and how it would be handled, and what the consequences would be so they had a clear understanding, and we can get rid of some of these rumors that were out there."
As of Thursday afternoon, Johnston said, there had been no unexcused absences from media days and emphasized that there has been no threat to the start of the UFL season, which is scheduled to begin March 28.
"We continue to negotiate in good faith," he said. "We want this to be resolved so we can start focusing on football. It's not an easy thing to have hanging over your head as you start training camp. The biggest thing for us is to make sure we get this done in a way that benefits both parties."