PATROBE, PA — The dorm rooms lack air conditioning. mattresses filled with horsehair. Every day for seven days a week, there are two padded practices with live hitting.
Craig Wolfley, a 66-year-old former offensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers, recalls his training camp experience at Saint Vincent College in the 1980s, under the great coach Chuck Noll, as a “completely different environment.” The Steelers worked in pads twice a day, first in the morning to work on the running game and then in the afternoon to concentrate on the throwing game.
“They didn’t even dry off your pants and jerseys (between practices),” Wolfley recalled. “It was just sweated up until finally you put (five bucks) in the ball boys’ hands and they would throw it in the dryer for a few minutes before practice.”
After all the demanding, six-week camps he attended as a player, Wolfley, who is currently a radio analyst for the Steelers, quipped that he might have a degree from Saint Vincent. However, he did hear the veterans, such as Andy Russell, speak of the long, nine-week camps that they endured in the 1960s and 1970s, which left them with physical scars and tried their resolve.
“You came together as a team because it was blood, sweat and tears the whole training camp,” Wolfley said. “Chuck Noll training camp was never about making the team. It was about always surviving the moment.”
Long, strenuous days filled with hitting were the standard for generations of football players, from Pee Wee through high school, college, and the professional ranks. You got tougher the more you struck. That was the thought, at least.
But times change, and so too has the way teams prepare for the season.
There is less of a need to bring sportsmen into shape during the preseason because they now exercise year-round. Simultaneously, the 2011 CBA’s regulations abolished two-a-day practices. There has also been a significant reduction in the physicality. These days, it is typically an accident when you witness a ball carrier or receiver being tackled to the ground in an NFL training camp.
“I don’t know how many NFL teams are full-on tackling,” Steelers quarterback Justin Fields said. “It’s got other be under three, if they are.”
Fields’ comment caused us to reflect. During camp, how many teams participate in live tackling? The Athletic ran an informal poll and 24 out of 32 beat writers, or 75% of the league, responded that the team they cover either very rarely or never tackles players to the ground. Sometimes during practice, but usually just for brief intervals, players from the second or third teams who are on the fringes of the roster, four teams tackle. Three teams—the Chiefs under Andy Reid, the Dolphins under Mike McDaniel, and the Lions under Dan Campbell—tackle frequently.
The Steelers under Mike Tomlin are certainly an anomaly. Like Fields, veteran linebacker Elandon Roberts was initially surprised when he came in Latrobe for a three-week destination camp the previous season.
“I was kind of like, dang, we’re really tackling in camp,” said Roberts, who spent four years with the Patriots and three with the Dolphins before joining the Steelers. “I was cool with it, but I wasn’t expecting it.”
The Steelers frequently participate in periods of full, live tackling on a normal day in pads. Every session starts with an exercise known as “Seven Shots,” which consists of seven opportunities from the 2-yard line. These drills are frequently full-tilt, resulting in tackles to the ground for starters like Najee Harris or important rotation guys like Jaylen Warren. The Steelers still believe that live tackling is beneficial in many other 11-on-11 situations, like as goal-line and short-yardage drills. The Steelers have also held intense backs-on-backs drills twice throughout training camp, in which fast-moving collisions mimic actual pass-protection scenarios.
#Steelers backs vs. backers drill gets chippy at Friday night lights practice! 👀🍿
— Steelers Update (@SteelersUpdate1) August 3, 2024
Elandon Roberts vs Jaylen Warren 😱
Patrick Queen vs Najee Harris 💪
🎥: @sltphoto/Instagram pic.twitter.com/CskOe8px1Q
The Steelers have already finished what is probably the league’s most physically demanding training camp as they pack up and vacate their dorm rooms at Saint Vincent on Wednesday.
“You can’t box without sparring,” Tomlin said. “We play an intense game, competitive game, and I’m not doing these guys justice if I don’t create an environment that is reflective of what’s waiting on us.”
At 34 years old, Tomlin became the youngest head coach in NFL history in 2007. He took over a roster loaded with veterans, many of whom had shared the Lombardi Trophy with Bill Cowher in 2005.
Tomlin established the tone and, in a sense, declared that there was a new sheriff in town during his first training camp in Latrobe. Cowher’s team was no longer this one.
“He came in and he wanted to set an example and establish his own toughness,” said former Steelers lineman Max Starks, who played three seasons for Cowher and six years under Tomlin. “He didn’t want anybody to seek comfort. We hit every day we could possibly hit, all the way until Week 13 of the regular season, which was unheard of.”
However, more is not always better over an extended season. It was a veteran-heavy squad, and the beating had its effect. The Steelers lost three of their final four regular-season games before losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the wild-card round of the playoffs, capping a 9-3 start.
“He got the appropriate result,” Starks said. “We’re out in the first round of the playoffs, because he had to learn the veteran-ness of this team and understand that we can we can go light in the week and go kill it on the weekends at games.”
Mike Tomlin, right, with Ben Roethlisberger at the coach’s first training camp with the Steelers in 2007. (Joseph Sargent / Icon SMI / Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
Starks witnessed Tomlin adjust his style and learn from his experiences during their time together. Even while the Steelers were still hitting hard in practice, Tomlin learned to manage the veterans by giving them days off. As predicted, the Steelers finished 12-4 in Tomlin’s second season after winning six of their final seven games. They won the team’s sixth Lombardi Trophy by riding that momentum.
“He’s not too prideful with taking a step back or (saying), ‘Hey, you know, I can get better at this,’” Starks said. “And that’s why you see the sustained success model that he’s created. It was too hard in the beginning. OK, now pull it back.”
At 52 years old and in his 17th season as a head coach, Tomlin has gone from being the league’s youngest coach to having the longest tenure in the NFL. It seems like ages ago when he attended his first training camp in Latrobe.
“Man, that was a different time,” Tomlin said. “That was medieval times.”
Even the two oldest players currently on the Steelers roster, Cameron Heyward and Russell Wilson, both 35, have never taken part in an NFL two-a-day program. In 2011, Heyward’s first season in the league and a year before Wilson was selected, the method was outlawed by the new CBA. (The NCAA finally gave up and discontinued two-a-day contact practices in 2017.)
Without a doubt, Tomlin’s philosophy has changed somewhat over time. Padded practices have been significantly reduced this season in accordance with the CBA. If Tomlin insists on the Steelers wearing protection during the season, it is usually to highlight the lack of physicality on Sundays. Tomlin will hold out veterans like Heyward, T.J. Watt, and Minkah Fitzpatrick early in camp in order to shield them from one another.
In an effort to create hardship, Tomlin would also purposefully arrange training camp drills for the hottest part of the day. Since then, he has modified his strategy to practice earlier in the morning when it is cooler, working with a new strength and conditioning team.
However, both the players and the coach still firmly believe that Latrobe benefits from having game-like scenarios.
“Just how we do Seven Shots, I don’t think anybody else in the country does that,” Fields said. “The parameters of how practice is ran and just the intensity out of everybody, it’s very competitive out here. And you wouldn’t want it any other way.”
The physicality of camp serves as a valuable assessment tool in addition to preparing starters for the upcoming season. Warren joined the team as an undrafted rookie running back with a junior college stop on his résumé two seasons ago. His pad-popping style caught the coaches’ attention during an early backs on ‘backers practice, which helped him secure a roster berth. He is currently among the greatest pass-protecting backs in the league.
“I love it,” Warren said when asked about the environment Tomlin creates. “Although the days get hard, I love what it brings and what it creates.”
Many players have been talking about physicality a lot lately, especially in this camp. The new offensive coordinator for the Steelers, Arthur Smith, is well-known for his run-heavy, tight-end-friendly systems. When Smith was hired, he made it clear that he wants to have the most violent offense in the league. The practice field has also adopted that buzzword.
“Whether that’s being part of the run game or getting yards after the catch, he wants all 11 to be physical,” wide receiver Van Jefferson said. “He wants to be a physical offense. He’s instilled that in us from Day 1.”
When the season finally begins, what will it all mean? Football coaches frequently remark that there is no instruction manual for managing a squad. Although there is no definitive answer on the appropriate amount of hitting (or excessive striking), the Steelers feel that by adopting a more physical style, they have started to forge the kind of identity that will see them through the season.
“Other teams, they know what it is when they play the Steelers,” Warren said. “You can see what we built here.”
(Top photo: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)
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