Packer Pre-Season Heats Up

If you played football in high school or college, the August practices could be VERY difficult!  Heat, humidity, and the grind!  Full pads, tackling practice, holding dummies for the veterans, wind sprints, pit drills, bull in the ring, and any other drills that coaches dreamed up!

Todays coaches have trainers, doctors, training and many resources to guide them through the summer practices.  Yesterday, well some of us were lucky enough to "survive" the practices to play Friday nights or Saturday afternoons!

The collective bargaining agreement for the NFL players is very strict & safety is a BIG issue!  Here are some of the guidelines:

Practices

Day 1: Limited to physical examinations, meetings, and classroom instruction; no on-field activities other than running and conditioning

Day 2-3: No contact permitted, no pads worn

Day 4 and on: Two-a-day practices permitted with following rules:

• Players may be on the field for a total of no more than 4 hours per day;
• Players may participate in no more than 1 padded practice per day, which shall be no longer than 3 hours of on-field activities;
• There must be at least a 3 hour break after the practice, and the second practice on the same day may only be for a maximum of the remaining available on-field time, and shall be limited to only "walk-through" instruction (i.e., no helmets, full-speed pre-snap, and walking pace after the snap).
• The three-hour limit on padded practices shall begin as soon as position coaches begin to coach players on the field.
• In the event that a Club begins a padded practice but such practice is cancelled within sixty minutes of its commencement due to inclement weather or for any other reason beyond the Club's control, such practice shall not count as a padded practice
• A "padded practice" shall be defined as a practice in which players are required to wear helmets and shoulder pads, in addition to any other equipment required by the Club.
• It is not a padded practice if, 1) QBs, kickers, punters, and/or long snappers only wear helmets and/or shoulder pads during practice at the option of the player(s); 2) a player who suffered a head injury is directed by a club physician to wear a helmet as a precautionary measure; 3) the quarterback and/or the defensive player who receives signals from the coaching staff via helmet communication wear helmets during the team period in which helmets are used for such communication.

So, for all you "old-timers" out there that suffered through two a-days and drinking out of the same bucket of water and NO concussion testing and no athletic trainers and no "Collective Bargaining Agreement"!  Congrats for surviving!!!!

Many of us had coaches like former Alabama coach Bear Bryant and are here today to still love the game of football!!!