NFL Training Camps Underway; Majority Now at "Home"

As of today nine NFL training camps are underway, at least for rookies, and by the weekend the majority of teams will have their full squads beginning the two-a-day regimen, or what passes for two-a-days in this era.

While the mystique of "camp" lives on, the reality is that in the past decade there has been a major shift in what it really means.

Two areas where the greatest change has occurred are training camp location and the practice schedule. Or basically, everything but heat, sweat and injuries.

As detailed in a recent press release from the NFL PR department--and noted by Patrick Smyth of Denver Broncos PR via his Twitter feed (@psmyth12)--17 teams this year will hold training camp at their permanent facilities. This figure is up from just four teams in the year 2000.

Driving this change is the continued improvement and amenities at team training facilities and the sophistication of offseason strength and conditioning programs. Put simply, when NFL players are spending four days per week at their facilities from March to July, working out together and studying the offense and defense, there isn't much need to pack up, move to a remote location, whip everybody into shape and build team unity. The players are already in terrific shape and by the time they hit the field for the first training camp practice they are working through an installation they have already experienced in May and June during their Organized Team Activities, or OTAs.

In 2003 with the Denver Broncos we made the switch from our training camp home of 20 years, the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, to stay home and train at the permanent facility at Dove Valley. Once the change was made it was remarkable how much more efficient things were without having to move the entire football operations and other football-related business operations to a new location. We typically spent as much as a week getting set up and working through things that didn't function properly (i.e., computer systems).

Sure, there was always a sense of camaraderie and team-building at UNC, but that was greatly overshadowed by the aforementioned inefficiencies for what had also become a much shorter period of time. It seems we were getting ready to tear-down and move back to Dove Valley shortly after we got set up, in contrast to the six-week camps of the '70s and early '80s.

The latter point is an important one, as the schedule now includes far fewer true two-a-day sessions and fewer practices in pads over what is now just a three- or four-week period. The entire experience is now geared more toward perfecting the offensive and defensive schemes and learning to be efficient working as a team. By this point the coaches have hours of video to evaluate players from the OTA sessions, and training camp continues that process, followed by preseason games to add game speed and reacting to an unfamilar opponent to the evaluation.

To be fair, it has been noted by the well-respected Mike Signora of NFL PR in his Twitter feed (@signoranfl) that the last four Super Bowl champions went away for training camp. While I don't think all 32 teams will train at home at any time in the near future, the previous point is more a nod to the fact there are some unique traditions that make going away the better option for some teams, as in the Steelers' 43-year run at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. And some teams' facilities still cannot accommodate training camp, if for no other reason than the challenge of housing and food service.

But the move to teams training at their permanent facilities is a trend that is not expected to reverse any time soon. If a franchise has all the elements in place or available near its permanent facility, it is likely to prefer that location over the time, cost and inefficiency of moving away for training camp.

--Paul Kirk/ProLink Sports
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NFL Draft Memories

The NFL Draft is upon us. It’s not just a two-day festival once known so understatedly as the "NFL Player Selection Meeting,” but a four-month odyssey that has become one of the major sports unto itself, alongside the NBA and MLB.

It begins, really, the day a team’s season ends in the fan’s mind—and sometimes sooner depending on how bad the season was. And then it’s the Combine, the college Pro Days, the individual workouts, combined with the rhetoric and bluster from agents, the misinformation and smokescreens thrown out by the teams, and fans’ insatiable desire to know which players are going to come in and save their team. It is incredible what a two-day “selection meeting” has become.

And when it’s over, nobody—not fans, media or the teams themselves—actually knows for sure what they have. Not for 2-3 years will those answers begin to emerge, but that doesn’t stop every media outlet far and wide from offering instant analysis and judgment. It’s their job, and the fans want it. So keep the machine cranking—there’s another mock draft to post in 10 minutes!

Over the course of 13 NFL Drafts as a media relations executive with the Denver Broncos, quite a few memories come back to me this time of year, mostly about the individuals who came and went as a result of those drafts. There were years we selected a whopping 12 players (1996 and ’99) and a year we chose only three (1997); a year when our first pick didn’t come until round four (1995), and two when we were finished by the end of that round. Some of the highlights:

--As far as personalities and commanding presence, I’ll never forget the day we first laid eyes on Al Wilson, a day after the linebacker was made our first-round choice in 1999. He was joining a two-time defending champion, and looked like he could step on the field that day and be the leader of the defense. In his press conference we learned that he had been a boxer as a teenager, and I’m not sure there was a person in that room who didn’t picture the poor victims he had likely pummeled and wondered how—or if—they had survived the beating.

--For pure entertainment value, nothing tops the choice of Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett in 2005. At the time there was hope his talent could be harnessed in “the right environment,” but this one was over almost before it began. Two memories: One was knowing we were about to select him with the final pick of day one (3rd round/101 overall), and strolling into the media room to watch the reaction from our assembled media. As a story they would love him—but maybe about four hours earlier. Not right before deadline with their stories already written and waiting for a nondescript name to add to the pile and call it a night. The collective groan and spewing forth of expletives said it all. The other memory came the next day when Clarett was asked to hold up his jersey at the podium for the overflow media crowd before his introductory press conference. Broncos VP of PR—and my former boss—Jim Saccomano instructed Maurice to “smile like you mean it.” He did smile, and was generally pleasant to deal with that day, but to say that was his best performance as a Bronco would not be a stretch.

--The 1998 selection of Michigan quarterback Brian Griese gave us our first glimpse of how self-assured he was, having grown up the son of a Hall of Fame quarterback. For starters, he did not arrive in Denver the day after his selection with fellow first-day choices Marcus Nash and Eric Brown, I think for no other reason than he just wasn’t in that much of a hurry. He came in on Monday, and I remember after he was finished with his press conference and the rest of the dog-and-pony show, I went searching for him to put him on the phone for one more interview. I found him in the office of offensive coordinator/QBs coach Gary Kubiak—no doubt having probably memorized a good portion of the offensive playbook by that time—sitting at Gary’s desk. To say he looked comfortable would be a colossal understatement. Heck, he looked more relaxed sitting in Kubes’ chair than…well, Kubes himself ever did. To this day I have the utmost respect for Brian as both a player and person, and I recall thinking at the time that he is a not guy who is in awe of any part of this experience. It’s tremendous to see him entering his 12th NFL season and to see what he has done with his life’s mission to help children with the establishment of Judi’s House in Denver.

--Finally, in 2000, after we had begun to notice the run of alliteration we had going with consecutive selections of Kenoy Kennedy, Chris Cole, Jerry Johnson, Cooper Carlisle and Muneer Moore, the streak was broken with the choice of Utah running back Mike Anderson. As an attempt at humor, then-GM Neal Dahlen offered to the media, with a smile, that Mike’s real first name was Andy. To which one of the beat writers responded incredulously, “Really?” Again, the draft can be a mind-numbing experience.

If only it had been true, because the next selection was Jarious Jackson.

--Paul Kirk / www.prolinksports.net

ProLink on Campus

This week afforded us the chance to be back on campus when we were invited by the University of Colorado athletic department to speak to student-athletes about the importance of image and the transition from collegiate student-athlete to professional athlete.

We spoke to draft-eligible football players who had worked out earlier in the day for NFL scouts during their on-campus Pro Day. Our presentation focused on the benefits of establishing a positive image, effective ways to build that image, media training and financial awareness, with an assist from our friends at Alliance Bernstein, certified NFLPA financial planners. Whether drafted or not, any player who has the opportunity to get into an NFL training camp not only has a tremendous opportunity, but an enormous challenge. We wanted to open their eyes to the way NFL franchises are structured, the differences they will see compared to the support that surrounded them in college and some of the realities of the current sports business environment.

The week also saw ProLink Sports featured in an NBCSports.com piece by veteran NFL writer Tom Curran, about the obstacles and challenges any franchise would encounter in the hypothetical situation that they were to acquire quarterback Michael Vick, if and when he was reinstated by Commissioner Roger Goodell. We were asked to outline what steps that franchise would take in its efforts to navigate what would undoubtedly be a very controversial decision.

This is a topic about which people have some very strong opinions. As to our place in the conversation, it's important to note we're speaking from the standpoint that the franchise has already made the decision, and now the question is how to handle it. Like a relief pitcher entering the game with the bases loaded and nobody out. Good luck putting out the fire.

Thanks for checking in to the ProLink Sports blog.

--Paul Kirk / www.prolinksports.net