Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Rams Huddle › a former player, & also a former NFL exec, on the start of training camp
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July 24, 2019 at 12:08 pm #103204
znModeratorRetired NFL lineman Geoff Schwartz shares why the start of training camp is like the first day of school.
Geoff Schwartz
https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2019/7/22/20703876/nfl-training-camp-first-day-what-happens
By the end of the work week, every NFL team will be in training camp. Just like y’all get excited to see your favorite team get back to work, the players feel the exact same way. The first day of training camp is like the first day of school, but with higher stakes!
There’s an optimism to begin every season that’s infectious throughout the building. Everyone believes this new season will be a success, with the hope it ends with a winning record and a Super Bowl parade through your city. Your team might be the @#$%&, but not on the first day.
Or, maybe it’s a contract season and you’re hopeful it means you’ll get paid soon. Or you’re a rookie and just want to finally get back to football after a long offseason of training, draft, offseason programs, extra meetings, and anticipation.
Training camp is where it all begins. So what actually happens on the first day? Let me explain, step by step.
Step one: Get comfy.
The first day of camp is mostly a procedural day. You have an arrival time for your first team meeting, but everyone enters the facility much earlier than that, excited to get going and start the routine. If your training camp is off site, which doesn’t happen often, you’re arriving at the dorm. If you’re at home, you either first go to the hotel or to the facility.
At the dorm or hotel, you’re checking in and getting your room assignment and ID card. Then, you haul all your stuff into your room. Veterans get the best rooms, often on a lower floor. They usually don’t have a roommate and can spread out in the room, too.
If you’re away to camp, you’ve arrived with more amenities than at a hotel. You’ve brought pillows, a foam mattress pad, a blanket, sheet, and more. The goal is making that dorm room as comfortable as possible. You don’t spend much time in that room, but it’s your escape from football. Often, you’ve forgotten something and a trip to a nearby Walmart is in your future. It happens every year.
Once you’ve gotten your stuff in the hotel or dorm room, it’s off the facility.
Step two: The dreaded weigh-in.
Your first order of business is the weigh-in. This was the part of the day I looked forward to least, as I typically spent the last few days before the weigh-in on a strike calorie restriction to make my weight. Some lucky players are the opposite and are chugging water before they step on the scale.
The relief is visible for all the players, mostly the linemen, who are under their weight. If you’re not, the strength coach might turn his back to the scale as you sprint away into the steam room.
Teams vary for how they handle the weigh-in now. It used to be simple. You had a weight, and you had to be under it. Otherwise, you’d get fined. Now, some teams thankfully use body fat and/or a range of weight. If you’re over your weight, but your body fat has improved, your team might be less inclined to fine you.
Might is the key word. I was fined for the first time my last season in Detroit. I had dropped 3 percent body fat and lost 13 pounds between the end of the offseason program and the first day of camp, but I came in one pound over and got fined. The first and only fine of my career. Yikes.
Step three: Suit up
Once you’ve done your weigh-in, a quick check with the medical staff is next. You’re just walking through to ensure them you’re healthy and ready to roll. You grab any braces, sleeves, and/or tape you need for practice and carry everything to your locker. If you’re a player who’s not cleared for practice, or still needs clearance to get back on the field, then you are spending time with the team doctor to asses your playing status.
After the training room check-in, it’s time for a visit to the equipment staff. Most everything you need is already in your locker: shoes, workout and lounging gear, pads, and a helmet. However, guys want specific gear to wear.
For example, I wanted tight, half sleeves for camp. The strap on my pads would rub my armpits and give me severe irritation. The half sleeves would shield my sensitive skin from those straps. I’d always grab extra gloves, because mine would get super wet during practice and turn disgusting quickly.
Players, including myself, would examine our cleats in the locker room. I’d cut a small X where my pinky toe would be to avoid a blister. Others would ask the equipment staff to stretch out shoes or switch them out for something else. Lastly, we’d all need to get our helmet fit rechecked by the staff. Player safety is always of the utmost importance.
Step four: Test time
All of this is leading up to one of two things: either a team meeting to welcome everyone or the conditioning test. The conditioning test isn’t meant to see if someone is in football shape. It’s a test to see if you’ve been working out all summer.
Most of the drills aren’t super taxing, but they are if you’ve been slacking during the summer. If you have, then you will fail, or worse, get injured. Getting injured — most often, a hamstring pull — in the conditioning test is embarrassing. The worst case scenario is a season-ending injury, like an Achilles tear, which is no joking matter.
If you don’t pass the test, you can’t practice until you do. I’ve seen players attempt the test multiple times before passing.
At some point, dinner is served and then you’re off and running. Meetings go into the night to prepare for the first practice the following morning.
In between all of these interactions with the various staff, you’re seeing all your buddies again. Everyone is excited to be around each other. Players swap stories about their summers, discuss the upcoming camp schedule, and are just generally pumped to be back in the facility.
It’s like the first day of school all over again. We all know that feeling.
July 24, 2019 at 12:15 pm #103205znModeratorA fact, a piece of fiction, and a word of caution about the reality of NFL training camp
Amy Trask
As training camp kicks off this week for each team, former Raiders CEO Amy Trask offers some wisdom about what really goes on during this prelude to the season.
FACT: Dreams die at training camp.
Young men who have been dreaming of careers in the league may never play a down in an NFL game. Men who have played and worked at this for years may not make the final roster. Whether a player is at what he hopes will be the beginning of his career or trying to fight off what looks to be the conclusion of one, dreams will end and careers will end. Informing a player that he will not make the team should be done in a manner that reflects an understanding that this may be crushing news. Ending a player’s career should be handled not only in a professional manner but in a caring one. Players are men, not commodities. Dashing a dream or ending a player’s career should not be fodder for a television show.
FICTION: Training camp is hard for coaches and team staff.
Over the course of my decades in the league I heard umpteen coaches and others on staff state that “no one understands how hard this is.” Each time I heard that I thought: you are being paid a six or seven figure salary, you are standing outside on a football field in the Napa Valley (earlier in my career, in Oxnard, not too far from the Pacific Ocean), you are provided a room (in some cases a suite) at a beautiful hotel, you are provided every meal (and snacks!) and the team takes into account your dietary wishes and requests, you are provided a car (which is gassed and washed for you), and you get to perform your job in shorts and a t-shirt. I’m not suggesting that many of these jobs aren’t difficult. Of course there is pressure and stress associated with them. But let’s put this in perspective: hard is when you are a single parent working multiple jobs to support a family; hard is when you are earning minimum wage for maximum effort; hard is when you are serving the country in a hostile environment and know that at any moment you may be fired upon or step on a landmine. It is a privilege to work in the NFL.
A WORD OF CAUTION: Be careful when reaching conclusions.
Every year, teams and fans look forward to the start of training camp and to a new season in which every team ostensibly has the same likelihood of success. This annual sense of optimism is not fortuitous; it is borne of the league goal of parity: the belief that in any given season, any team can win.
As personnel and in some instances coaching moves are the subject of intense debate and analysis throughout the offseason, there is often a rush to judgment as training camp gets underway.
It is certainly fair to draw some conclusions from training camp practices. However, not all you see (or don’t see) during those practices paints an accurate picture of what to expect when the season starts. So be careful not to rush to judgment — training camps tell us some but not all things about teams.
Case in point: Raiders Training Camp, Napa Valley, 2006 — Throughout camp, numerous coaches and player personnel staff touted our pass protection. The praise was effusive. I heard that our pass protection would be the strength of our team and that our quarterback would have all day to throw.
Then came our opening game: Monday night football, San Diego at Oakland. Our quarterback was sacked 9 times. I’m fairly confident that had I been lined up at defensive end for the Chargers I would have gotten at least one sack. We went on to give up more sacks that season (72) than any other team. In fact, the team which was second in that category gave up 18 fewer sacks (54) than we did.
When these bold proclamations were made and these predictions were shared with me, I asked Al Davis (who, by the way, made no such proclamation and offered no such prediction) “how can we tell?” I went on to note that I didn’t believe we had enough data to reach such sweeping conclusions. Not only were our quarterbacks clad as they always were at practice in “no touch” colored jerseys, but it also appeared to me that we were blowing plays dead far more quickly than we traditionally did. I didn’t think we were letting plays develop long enough to get a real sense of the strength (or lack thereof) of our pass protection. He replied to me as he often did: “aw f***.”
This example of a rush to judgment at training camp is not intended as an indictment of our offensive line alone as many factors contribute to pass protection (or lack thereof): offensive line, tight ends, quarterback play, running back blocking assistance, etc. As is the case in most every aspect of the game, many pieces and parts work together.
This example is, however, a reminder of the danger of drawing sweeping or firm conclusions based on training camp alone.
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