Players have limited time to make an impression

By Chris Bradford

LATROBE — Modern NFL training camps are, for lack of a better term, brutal. Always have, always will.

Doesn’t matter if players are wearing pads or not. Doesn’t matter if teams practice once a day or twice. Doesn’t matter if camp is held on a college campus – like the Steelers -- or some $100 million practice facility.

While training camps of yesteryear may have been more grueling affairs -- complete with dehydration and fainting -- it remains a difficult exercise to be sure. Just ask the Eagles or Ravens, who lost key players to injury on Saturday.

In fact, making an NFL roster out of training camp might be harder now that it’s ever been.

Under the rules of the new CBA, ending last season’s lockout, practices in pads are limited. Which, according to Steelers veteran wide receiver Plaxico Burress, means players must make the most of full-contact practices and preseason games.

“Time is limited on the football field now more than it used to be,” said Burress, whose first training camp was in 2000. “We used to practice two times a day. Guys aren’t going to get the reps that they’re used to but at the same time, when you get out there, you’ve got to have quality reps because the quantity isn’t going to be what you’re used to.”

READ MORE: http://www.timesonline.com/sports/steelers/players-have-limited-time-to-make-an-impression/article_3a154920-7f6c-5a61-b380-798fcc2bc9fb.html