Joe Schoen is a nervous wreck — it's tough being a first-year general manager.
Long ago, training camp in the NFL was more about getting players in shape than preparing for the opening game. Then players had offseason jobs and didn’t have the time or the facilities to properly train their bodies … which meant six weeks of two padded practices a day with full contact, paying no attention to the heat index, many conditioning drills and few (if any) water breaks. Watch any old training camp films and notice the players drinking water from a bucket with a soup ladle – oh, the good old’ times. Camp was an endurance test of the mind, body and spirit for players and coaches. Today, the dynamics have changed for the better, as training camp is a slight blip on the NFL scheduling radar. It starts, and ends before the practice field grass has been slightly worn. In less than 20 days, every NFL team won’t be in camp practice mode.
When a change occurs in one area, the ripple effects create further changes. However, there is a huge tight rope each team must walk. How do coaches get their team ready to face 17 grueling opponents and remain healthy? Football requires “physical practice” (all due respect to 76ers legend Allen Iverson and his rant) and practice means contact, not full-scale tackling of the running backs or hitting the quarterbacks, but enough to evaluate the players required to play the game with a high level of physicality. And for a first-time general manager, knowing what the job entails and what it doesn’t is the greatest challenge.
Schoen, the New York Giants new general manager, echoed his concerns recently to the New York Post. Schoen said regarding training camp, “It’s always very stressful for me. You’re watching the football but you also want to make sure you have enough bodies that you can practice and you want enough competition where guys have to put their best foot forward. It’s a delicate balance between guys getting enough work in and being ready to play and contact, and also keeping everybody healthy.”