On the road

Training camps have changed, somewhat for the better

It's time for me to embark on my annual NFL camp tour. In the old days, I’d hit the road soon after the Fourth of July, then spend three or four days with each club just to sort through the 120 to 150 players there. Any day you showed up there’d be a double session in pads with full contact going on.

Players viewed camp as a place to get back in shape and find out what new stuff their coordinators had in store. None of that is true anymore. Players are in year-round form and the new packages on offense and defense were installed in the spring. As one prominent defensive coach said to me this past week, "When we hit camp it will be our fourth look on video this offseason at our 2002 defense."

With 80 players the lines at each drill are shorter, there are 15 coaches on the field instead of eight, and every practice is videotaped from multiple angles. Quality has definitely overtaken quantity in the NFL. Said one veteran coach: "At the end of this camp experience, the guys who are going to line up for you all season will get more repetitions in this new format than they did the old way."

The Jets start camp with a double session Saturday, then they take Sunday off. Few teams have scheduled more than two days in a row of double sessions and rarely does a club go out in full pads for more than three consecutive practices. Some claim it's a function of the salary cap. For most teams there is no cap space to replace a quality starter should one go down with a season-ending injury in camp. Plus, with the addition of the Houston Texans this year, the "ready list" to replace the injured has been significantly depleted.

Twenty-four of the 32 teams still pack up all their belongings and head off for a camp experience somewhere outside of their regular practice facilities. Just a few years ago I could fly into Milwaukee, rent a car, drive around the state and see the Bears, Saints, Jaguars, Chiefs, Packers and Vikings practicing at small colleges and scrimmaging each other every other day. Not anymore. The old "Cheese League" has been broken up.

Most don't come up to the cooler country to get away from the distractions. Only the Chiefs and Saints are getting together for a scrimmage. These days the Cowboys can be found at the Marriott Riverwalk in San Antonio, practicing in the air-conditioned Alamodome. You can catch a glimpse of the Bucs at Disney World in Orlando.

My favorite stop is a visit to California's wine country to catch up with the Raiders at the Napa Valley Marriott. The Cowboys and Bucs both compete against an NFL rival for instate fans, so their camp strategies makes good business sense. Al Davis has always preferred hotel amenities and good beds for his players, but then again Mr. Davis has done things his own way for a long time.

Even the teams that still prefer the rustic small college campus set in the middle of nowhere don't stay in town all summer like they used to. For example, the Falcons open camp in Greenville, S.C., on Thursday but they close down Aug. 8. Two to three weeks away, instead of six or eight, is the norm all over the league.

Head coaches are more interested in getting players into their true routines than in building a team bond offsite. One very astute coordinator told me this week, "Our draft picks have already made the team and we know they're going to play sooner rather than later. So let's just get them ready ASAP."

Coaches don't want to wait until the season starts to get their new players into their weekly routine. They would much rather have a few weeks of going through a "game week" schedule where players can commute from home and practices are once a day. Nothing is left to chance anymore.

I just spent the final two days before camp with an NFL staff. They weren't scrambling to get playbooks put together or making sure there were enough cones for their drills -- that was done already. They were sitting in on a seminar to learn how to be more effective teachers and how better to solicit information from their players. You would have thought they were in a Ph.D. program in education at Columbia University.

Yes, training camp has changed and, from where I sit, it’s mostly for the better. Heck, coaches even see the merits of holding night practices during the summer. A few years ago anyone who might have brought up the idea of training pro players in anything but the blazing midday heat was viewed as weak and not in full understanding of the NFL way.

It won't be long before some network is broadcasting live from an NFL practice in a primetime slot. That show would probably get a rating similar to 60 Minutes.

Pat Kirwan, who spent 12 years as a pro football coach, scout and personnel administrator, is an NFL analyst for CNNSI.com.

 

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