As NFL teams prepare to begin training camps in earnest this week, it’s worth remembering how drastically that six-week preseason period has changed over the past few decades. For generations, camp was a way to whip players into shape; intense practices, often twice per day, left players bruised, tired, and often injured.
For the Green Bay Packers, much of that changed in 1992 when Mike Holmgren arrived. He eased off on the intensity of the summer practice schedule, giving his players more time to recover and in turn helping them absorb the playbook better. Then in 2011, the new collective bargaining agreement further cut back on the intensity of camp, instituting harder limits on full-contact practice time.