National Football League

NFL stresses player safety to teams

Published Jul. 28, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Alex Marvez

The NFL has taken steps to try to ensure player health isn’t compromised by the eagerness of teams to resume on-field work.

FOXSports.com has learned the league conducted two mandatory conference calls with team officials Wednesday night to discuss new health-and-safety guidelines. The NFL also wanted to remind franchises to be cognizant of practice workload during training camps that are opening over the next four days.

Even though most players stayed physically active, they were prohibited from participating in team-run offseason workouts throughout the league’s four-month-plus lockout. Players were first allowed to return to team headquarters on Tuesday after the league resolved its labor issues with the NFL Players Association.

“Some guys are maybe coming in overweight or not in the same shape they would have been in a structured environment,” Jaguars general manager Gene Smith told FOXSports.com. “It’s real important early in camp to monitor the heat and practice situations with your players.”

Minnesota Vikings tackle Korey Stringer died from heat-related causes in 2001. Such deaths also occur at the high school and college levels each year because of overheating and improper hydration.

Dr. Douglas Casa, the chief scientist at the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut, and Dr. Margaret Kolka, former head of the Army’s environmental medicine division, spoke to the teams Wednesday about preventative measures and warning signs to monitor.

“They said the percentages show 90 to 94 percent of the serious problems usually occurs in the first three or four days,” said Smith, whose team opened camp Thursday in 85-degree heat and a heat index of 99 degrees. “A lot of guys are not going to be in regular playing shape like they normally would have been at this point (of the year).”

Some NFL head coaches are still juggling their training-camp schedules to account for rule changes in the new collective bargaining agreement. Among them are much greater restrictions on contact, two-a-day practices and the implementation of one mandatory off day for each seven-day period. The in-season practice guidelines were radically changed, as well.

The league also reviewed its revamped concussion protocol on the call with physicians Hunt Batjer and Richard Ellenbogen, who are co-chairs of the NFL’s head, neck and spine committee.

“From a concussion standpoint, it was stressed, ‘When in doubt, keep them out,’ ” Smith said, referring to players who might get “dinged” during practices. “That’s important. How the practices have been reworked is certainly going to help from a concussion standpoint.”

The NFL required head coaches and general managers (or a proxy in case of a scheduling conflict) to listen on one call and held a separate one with athletic trainers and team doctors. This was a first in Roger Goodell’s five-year tenure as NFL commissioner. The NFL Players Association also had a representative monitoring the calls.

NFL team strength coaches, who were hired to train players to help prevent football injuries, were not on either call.

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