The Pittsburgh Steelers reported for training camp on Wednesday at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. The team underwent the traditional first-day conditioning test and will begin practicing in earnest Thursday. The Steelers have a long history of having one of the most demanding training camps in the NFL heading back to the days of Chuck Noll.
Like his predecessor Noll, Mike Tomlin is known for running a physically challenging training camp. The infamous "Oklahoma drill" has been replaced by the running backs versus linebackers drill known as "backs on backers." It is usually an early highlight of every training camp. Last season, it was the first signal that Jaylen Warren was a special player.
Tomlin met with the press after the conditioning test on Wednesday and took questions. The Steelers head coach handles the media in a way that few others, if any, have ever done in the history of the NFL. Tomlin did bristle at one of the questions about a Brian Baldinger report that Pittsburgh’s Organized Team Activities (OTAs) were the most physical he had seen in his visits to NFL facilities.
“I don’t know what you are talking about in terms of physical OTA’s,” Tomlin said emphatically. “I have no idea what you are talking about. I have no idea what Baldy is talking about.”
Tomlin might have been smiling through his denial, but the mere suggestion tears open a very real scar on the franchise. In 1978, the late John Clayton was only 24 years old, and he was assigned to cover the Steelers for the Pittsburgh Press. News about training camps and practices was disseminated by the beat writers assigned to the team in the days before social media.
Steelers Beat Writer John Clayton Made His Bones As An NFL Insider By Exposing Shouldergate In 1978
Despite being new to the job, Clayton broke a story that Noll and the Steelers were conducting secret practices in full pads. Even in the wild and woolly days of 1978, that activity was not permitted outside of agreed-upon parameters by the NFL. The Shouldergate controversy ultimately cost the Steelers a third-round draft pick in 1979 thanks to Clayton’s reporting that the team had thumbed their collective noses at the league rules.
Clayton went on to an impressive career as an NFL insider. The longtime ESPN correspondent did not endear himself to the city of Pittsburgh, but he did break a relevant story that was unfortunately true. The Steelers broke the rules and paid the price. They also won the next two Super Bowls against the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams, but the ends don't justify the means in Pittsburgh.
The NFL has changed a lot since 1978, and a secret practice in full pads is almost unthinkable in 2023. The suggestion by Baldinger from NFL Network was probably not meant to suggest that the Steelers were violating the current CBA. Tomlin for his part was not taking any chances with the information and moved quickly to correct the perception.
“The physical component of team development here [training camp] is critical,” Tomlin clarified. “That is a component of our game. We spend a lot of time teaching and learning in the spring and in these settings.”
The NFL under the guise of the Player Safety Initiatives has legislated limited contact in practice sessions including training camps. The detailed research that the Pittsburgh medical community has conducted has been very influential in helping to shape those policies. Tomlin is well aware of the restrictions and knows how damaging a misinterpreted observation by a reporter could be to his team.
"There is a component of this game that you can’t get away from and that’s the physicality component," Tomlin concludes. "Environments such as these are our first opportunities to display skills or an appetite in that area. I have no idea what you are talking about as far as Spring."
Football is a brutal game, no matter how hard the NFL tries to change it. Athletes today are bigger, stronger and faster than they were even 10 years ago. Helmet technology is finally improving, but concussions and injuries are still a part of the game. Tomlin's Steelers play at the current boundaries set by the NFL, but they embrace the brutal part of the game.
Steelers fans enjoy physicality above all. A punishing five-yard run or a bone-crunching tackle is what the fan base wants to see on Sundays. Any other criticism of Tomlin aside, he has embraced Steelers football in a way that few coaches would in the modern era. It begs the question if the fans would really want it any other way.
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