Steve Silverman

A big part of pro football used to be about surviving the dog days of training camp. Not just the heat and the brutal weather conditions, but the double-sessions that included hitting in the morning and the late afternoon. Guys who were not in football shape — nearly everyone — were put through the ringer so they could be at their best when the season started.

That era has been dead and gone a long time and the game is far worse because of it. Football has become a year-round business. Minicamps, offseason workouts and organized training activities have ensured that players don’t let themselves get too far out of shape after the regular season ends. As a result, when players come to training camp, it’s just a matter of not getting injured.

For the most part, players don’t have to prove anything in training camp anymore. The final 5 to 8 players on the 53-man roster usually make the team based on their performance in training camp. But the rest of the team just goes through the motions. A few drills and a relatively small number of hitting sessions don’t tell the coaches what they really need to know before the start of the season: Who can play the game?

This has nothing to do with a player’s past accomplishments or reputation. Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, training camp was the place to show the coaching staff that you could play. It was not about what you had done or past accomplishments. Awards, Pro Bowl teams or even Super Bowl championships often meant little.

Chuck Noll was the head coach of the Steelers from 1969 through 1991 and he led the Steelers to four Super Bowl titles and his teams are always in the discussion when the topic is the top NFL teams of all-time. He may have had all-time great players like Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris and Mel Blount on his team but he never backed off in training camp. “How could I?” he told me in an interview prior to being enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1993. “I knew what a player had done the year before. It might have been good enough to get us into the playoffs and it might have been good enough to get us in the Super Bowl. But that was last year. The last thing I wanted to do was get caught believing in last year. I wanted to see for myself that a player was still good enough.”

Sure there was resentment of Noll by his players and he knew it. But he didn’t care. “My job was to put the best team on the field,” he explained. “How could I possibly do that if the players didn’t have to push themselves to be their best?”

NFL 2008: Season preview Curran: Eagles will soar to Super Bowl title Bold predictions for all 32 teams Curran: Don't expect repeat feat from Giants   Mad Dog: Dallas NFC's best  |  Vote Novacek's picks for Week 1 winners   Video: Chargers will reach Super Bowl XLIII Pats still explosive  |  Rams, Bills may surprise Curran: Winning mix? Depth and special stars THE NFL'S COACHING EVOLUTION No experience necessary for coaching hires Holmgren, Dungy unsure what 'future holds' Coaching in NFL isn't what it used to be Images: Coach's game faces  |  Hotseat Special feature: Ranking the NFL's coaches

Fast forward to 2008 and there’s not a coach in football who would follow Noll’s example. They can’t because in the era of free agency and contracts that pay in the tens of millions, nobody wants to lose a player for the season in training camp or a preseason game. Coaches are frustrated because they go into the season somewhat blindly but there’s nothing they can do about it.

“You can’t try to win games in preseason,” said Cowboy coach Wade Phillips. “That’s not what it’s about. You can’t judge your team. You can judge individual players but not your team.”

Phillips’ remarks are somewhat ironic because he has always been known for running an easy training camp. The HBO Hard Knocks series documents the lack of hitting going on in the Cowboys’ training camp and it was the same last year. Phillips had also served as head coach of the Broncos (1993-94) and the Bills (1998-2000) and his camps were relative vacation spots.

Phillips’ frustration came boiling over after the Cowboys lost their first two preseason games this season and he was unhappy that he couldn’t push his team more in preseason games and practice in order to find out who could play and who was just living off reputation.

Phillips and the other 31 head coaches in the NFL are faced with the same handicap. They get their players to work on their conditioning, their strength and their skills on almost a 12-month basis every year. The skill-development and weight training help a player prepare, but what’s the point of the workouts if the players aren’t hitting and tackling? That’s like sending a world-class chef to the market to buy ingredients and the factory to check out the latest in facilities but not asking them to cook. It’s the hitting that separates football players from bodybuilders. If they aren’t going to hit, they might as well stay home in the offseason.

Special feature Preseason All-NFL Team A look at the top players at each position heading into 2008. NBCSports.com

Nobody wants to see their players get injured in training camp or a preseason game, especially a superstar. Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath missed the first 10 games of the 1971 season because he had surgery on his left knee when he tried to make a tackle on a fumble return in a preseason a game against the Lions. The idea of losing a player to such an injury in the preseason was regrettable 37 years ago — just as it would be today — but at least players played the game.

In today’s NFL, it’s a series or two for starters in the first preseason game, perhaps a quarter or more in the second game and a half in the third preseason game. The fourth game? No way. Brett Favre begged Jets coach Eric Mangini to let him play in the Jets' preseason finale after his rather abbreviated training camp and the request was denied. Could Favre use the work to help him get used to the Jets’ system and prepare for the opener against the Dolphins? Of course. But there was no way the Jets were about to take the risk.

You don’t have to be a Brett Favre in order to sit out in the preseason. Teams look at their players as investments and commodities. They don’t want to dissipate those investments before the games start to count.

Here’s an idea: Don’t play your starters during the season either. Keep them on the sidelines so they don’t get hurt. Let the backups play. That way you’ll never see a superstar get hurt again.

MORE FROM NFL

NFL Section Front

Brady vs. Manning — who has the edge? Cimini: Patriots-Colts greatest NFL rivalry of 2000s   Slideshow: Peyton vs. Brady through the years   Video: Playing 'what if?' with Peyton's career PFT: Davis reportedly looking to fire Cable with cause Eagles-Bears matchup will remain Sunday night game PFT: Rest of league is catching up to Broncos PFT: Tomlinson hints at retiring after this season PFT: Ex-Packer Brown rips McCArthy PFT: Browns' Mangini knew about Quinn's incentives NFL Section Front   Add NFL headlines to your news reader: