[aeneas1]

charles woodson was a guest on a local (sfo bay area) radio show recently and talked about the grind of camp and preseason, his take was very insightful, said that he was very happy to see the drastic changes in approach to the regular season that have taken place, he credited the cba.

woodson said that back in the day things had simply gotten way out of hand - the pads, contact, number of two-a-days, hours on the practice field, etc., said that camp/practice had become nothing but an arms race among nfl head coaches who lived in constant fear that other head coaches would physically work their guys harder than they would, and if they didn't at least match or exceed the other guy's grind they would be out-muscled and out-conditioned during the course of the season, it became a vicious culture of physical one-upmanship, of "if nothing else, no other team is going to do more or work harder in practice/camp than our team".

he said this wasn't lost on players and caused a lot of resentment, especially among vets, because it wasn't smart hard work, it was just hard work for the sake of hard work, driven by paranoia (this, btw, reminded me of vermeil's archaic approach that caused disgruntled rams players to walk out on him after the 1998 season).

he finished by saying that the cba has removed the arms race mentality and leveled the playing field because of the rigid rules that are now in place that cap what coaches can ask of their players during practice, i.e. one coach can no longer physically drive his players harder than the next guy... he also said that this has spawned an above the neck movement in the nfl, where a lot more player time is spent studying concepts, strategies, watching film, understanding their role, grasping a coaches vision, and it's producing smarter football players, and a better game.

[dieterbrock]

he also said that this has spawned an above the neck movement in the nfl, where a lot more player time is spent studying concepts, strategies, watching film, understanding their role, grasping a coaches vision, and it's producing smarter football players, and a better game.

I was reading the article thinking meh.... basically being an old “get off my lawn” guy. But this last part really hit me like a brick. Makes a lot of sense. Work smarter, not harder. Good stuff. Thanks for posting

[Neil039]

You gotta have a little smarts to understand X-ray, Tango, Jet Wing Left, Tight Texas, Zebra Delta, 58 Choice. Well that’s what Chris Simms is always saying 🤔

[Elvis]

I was listening to VSIN in the car yesterday and Brent had a guy on (a former Raider i'm assuming) who was saying the opposite and i was thinking, this guy's an idiot but Brent and his crew we're all on board: The NFL has gone soft, they need to hit more in camp, two a days, pads, 6 preseason games, they missed the old days...

[aeneas1]

I was listening to VSIN in the car yesterday and Brent had a guy on (a former Raider i'm assuming) who was saying the opposite and i was thinking, this guy's an idiot but Brent and his crew we're all on board: The NFL has gone soft, they need to hit more in camp, two a days, pads, 6 preseason games, they missed the old days...

tough guy millen spewed the same noise during the raiders/rams preseason game, and there's no shortage of ex players and coaches who will parrot the same, which was why woodson's take was so surprising and, frankly, pretty forward thinking for a guy who played in the 90s.

one of the things that really jumped out when listening to him, something that i had never really thought about or considered before, was the carte blanche head coaches had back in the day in terms of how much they wanted to work these guys, how much they wanted to put them through - i mean couple that carte blanche with what sports medicine used to be, with what coaches knew about player safety / health, with the ex military drill sergeant personalities that some of those guys had, and it was pretty damn scary thing, ha ha.

[snackdaddy]

I have a feeling McVay will be the pioneer who began a different era of training camp. Working veterans less. Not playing starters in preseason games. They've been pretty healthy overall with this approach. I'm sure there will be some old school holdouts. But don't be surprised to see other teams follow suit.

[aeneas1]

I have a feeling McVay will be the pioneer who began a different era of training camp. Working veterans less. Not playing starters in preseason games. They've been pretty healthy overall with this approach. I'm sure there will be some old school holdouts. But don't be surprised to see other teams follow suit.

i think they've already followed suit, in fact i think the league has been heading in this direction for a while now, mcvay just took the next step... that said, there would have been no shortage of blowhards ready to bash mcvay's approach, ready with the "i told you so's" locked and loaded, had the rams not been successful.