Consequences of the Lockout

[CloakNNNdagger]

I'll start out with article:

Even high school practices will be tougher than NFL workouts

By Michael Lombardi NFL.com
NFL Network Insider


Hooray, football is back!

Well, sort of back. At least the pads and helmets are back, although it seems there is little need for them anymore during the week.

Under the terms of a new agreement, teams will be required to conduct only one full-contact practice a week during the regular season. No longer will two-a-days be part of NFL culture.

For a sport that requires physical contact, the new rules will make preparing an entire team to play in that style much, much more difficult. Coaches are restricted by the length of practice. It's Club Med meets the NFL.

How can NFL players even say they are heading off to training camp now with these rules? What must George Halas be thinking, or Vince Lombardi, or better yet, the players from that era? This is like a military academy softening its indoctrination rules.

Let's face reality: every high school football practice in America will be harder than any NFL team can mandate. High school teams will have two-a-days, practice each day with contact, and be on the field longer. The concerning part for most coaches trying to become a physical team in the NFL is that it requires practicing full-contact in pads. To be physical, you must practice physical.

These new rules will affect the game -- at least in the short term -- as coaches learn the best approach to practice within the framework of the new rules. To be a great coach requires adaptability, therefore the ones who adapt the quickest will benefit the most.

Former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Eric Shinseki once said about the changing climate regarding warfare: "If you don't like change you will like irrelevance even less." Coaches who don't change will become irrelevant.

This is an exciting time for most every fan, but it might be an unhappy time for many NFL coaches nervous about the health and fitness of his players. Without the benefit of offseason supervision, many players will walk back into work unprepared for the rigors of the NFL. If you think some coaches are unhappy with the new practice rules, wait until they get reacquainted with some of their old players.

Every NFL team has a few (some more than a few) overweight players who must be monitored all year. Teams normally assign weight limits to each player during the season and each week monitor those weights. When a player is over his limit, he is fined and off to see the strength coach to exercise in order to get to his playing weight.

In the past during the bye week players would leave the facility for sometimes more than four days, and the concern for most coaches would always be how much weight all the fat guys would gain while being away. Time off does not work well with overweight guys -- at least in the NFL. No matter how much warning or how much money the fines might be, the overweight players typically come back heavier than ever.

Typically, the diet always starts tomorrow for the overweight crowd (me included). We all have grand plans to lose weight starting tomorrow, and NFL players are no different. However, the bad news is now with the lockout ending, tomorrow is here.

This is going to be a huge problem for all the strength coaches the next few weeks. With the heat and humidity running rampant all throughout the country, no team can risk placing a player on the field unless they are confident he can handle the work load. For fans attending NFL practices in the near future don't be surprised to see as many players working out with the trainer as are working out with the team. Conditioning will take many players away from the game.

Another concerning issue will be the injuries suffered by some players while the lockout was in full force. We all know about the concerns the Colts have with Peyton Manning and his rehabilitation of his neck injury and how it has prevented him from getting ready for the NFL season. How many more players are like Manning? How many players pulled muscles while training? How many players will walk back into work with an injury that might cost them the season? These potential problems will then force teams to go after certain players in free agency that perhaps they might not have been interested.

And then there are the unrestricted free agents who might not be completely healthy but will command a king's ransom to sign. Clubs will be limited in terms of time to sign players, therefore the touring of potential free agents to club facilities, eating expensive dinners and taking physicals won't happen. Teams will simply have to agree to terms on a player and hope (really hope) he passes the physical. That's a scary proposition.

The next few weeks will be wild, but at least instead of talking about the lockout we will be talking and writing about football. That is the best news ever.

And by the way, my diet starts now.

[badboy]

I think I'll wait and see how it works out before commenting.

[gwallaia]

Whose idea was it to eliminate the two-a-days? The players or the owners?

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by gwallaia

Whose idea was it to eliminate the two-a-days? The players or the owners?

Players.

[GP]

It's the end of the world.

Might as well not even watch it anymore.

Geez, we've become accustomed to needing SOMETHING to ***** about, I guess.

[Pantherstang84]

I like what Sapp had to say about it on NFLN...

S-O-F-T SOFT!

[TexCanada]

How many did we (or other teams) normally have during a regular season week?

[toronto]

Originally Posted by TexCanada

How many did we (or other teams) normally have during a regular season week?

Not sure, but this is basically being hailed as the "Eric Mangini" rule. Apparantly the guy thought 2 a days in August were good times, so much that he ran them as well in December. Maybe thats why his teams always sucked?

[GP]

Originally Posted by Pantherstang84

I like what Sapp had to say about it on NFLN...

S-O-F-T SOFT!

Yeah, and if Warren Sapp was being truthful...he'd be down with it (if he was playing right now).

Sometimes people say things that make them look better than they are.

This is probably one of those times.

Unless we're to believe that Warren Sapp's always spectacular physique was a result of him constantly working out. Right?

[Marcus]

Originally Posted by GP

It's the end of the world.

Might as well not even watch it anymore.

Geez, we've become accustomed to needing SOMETHING to ***** about, I guess.

Funny how the MASTER of BITCHING about EVERYTHING says this is something not worth bitching about.

This issue isn't going away. And you'll find that out in the coming weeks.

[steelbtexan]

Originally Posted by GP

It's the end of the world.

Might as well not even watch it anymore.

Geez, we've become accustomed to needing SOMETHING to ***** about, I guess.

In the next decade college football will have a playoff system and will overtake the NFL as the #1 sport in this country, It is more true to the way the game is supposed to be played.

Goddell is in the process of ruining the sport. The destruction he is causing wont be seen or the next decade. But it's gong to happen.

[GP]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Funny how the MASTER of BITCHING about EVERYTHING says this is something not worth bitching about.

This issue isn't going away. And you'll find that out in the coming weeks.

Ooooo! Yes sir!

My calendar is marked, Marcus.

Should I start preparing emergency supplies? Flashlight, canned goods, fresh water. Need a radio, too. Is our shadow NFL government ready to take over when the apocalypse occurs?

LOL.

You guys have a hard-on for this issue, that's for sure. The mighty NFL: Undone by fewer practices in pads/helmet. Because Marcus says so.

[b0ng]

I don't get why fans are upset that 2-a-days are going bye bye, especially here. I don't think the Texans have done real 2-a-days since Kubiak has been here.

Especially a guy who went to medical school for years and years and probably knows all about how grueling a career in the NFL can be on the human body.

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by steelbtexan

In the next decade college football will have a playoff system and will overtake the NFL as the #1 sport in this country, It is more true to the way the game is supposed to be played.

Goddell is in the process of ruining the sport. The destruction he is causing wont be seen or the next decade. But it's gong to happen.

Lack of a playoff system is one of the primary reasons why I do not watch college ball on a regular basis. I absolutely hate the way that they determine a champion.

So yeah, I'd become a regular fan if they installed playoffs, and it might even end up like you outline. The NFL thinks it is too big to fail, but so did MLB just a couple of decades ago.

This is the part of CnD's article that really stood out for me:

Originally Posted by Article

Under the terms of a new agreement, teams will be required to conduct only one full-contact practice a week during the regular season.

I'm sorta' "meh" on the two-a-days issue, simply because over half of the teams in the NFL do not do them.

However, just one full contact practice a week in regular season??? This is bizarroworld stuff right here.

[Thorn]

I predict a sloppy and injury filled season. I also hope I'm wrong.