Troy Aikman thinks easier training camps lead to more early-season injuries

Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman likes some of the ways the NFL has made the game safer than it was when he was playing. But he thinks one rule change designed to reduce wear and tear on players' bodies may actually cause some injuries.

Aikman, the color commentator for Monday Night Football who has also served as an advisor to the Dolphins, said on the Rodeo Time Podcast that when he was playing, training camp was much more physically demanding than it is now.

"Wichita Falls is the hottest place on earth," Aikman said of the Cowboys' training camp location at the end of his career. "Back then you did two-a-days in that kind of heat, day after day after day, two practices a day in full pads. Now the restrictions, probably for the better, players aren't as taxed as they were."

But Aikman added that there's a tradeoff: Players aren't as physically prepared at the start of the season.

“I think they only wear pads one day a week or one time a day, and they have a walk-through, and then after, I don’t know how it all reads, but it’s pretty player-friendly and favorable,” Aikman said. “And a lot of it, whenever they negotiate the CBA, the owners tend to always win on the financial side of things. And then the players say, ‘Well, all right, then we’re not gonna practice as long, or we’re not gonna practice as often.’ So, then they tend to get concessions when it comes to how much time they’re actually at facilities. I think the only ones who don’t have a voice in those negotiations are the coaches. They kind of have to wait till the dust settles and say, ‘All right, just how often do we get them?’ But some of it is that we see too is a lot of the reasons I think that we see so many injuries, especially early in the year. A lot of soft tissue injuries, a lot of muscle pulls, and things of that nature is the players, they're just not able to train the way that we once did, they're not able to callous their bodies as easily. Not that they're not training hard and all that, but it's different training on your own as opposed to being on the football field practicing football movements.”

Aikman made clear that he's not opposed to changing rules to promote safety, but he does think those rules can go too far.

"Player safety is great. As a former quarterback, I do like that they protect quarterbacks," Aikman said. "With that said, the objective for a defense is to hit the quarterback and affect the quarterback and sometimes I think we're asking a lot from these defensive players, to try to navigate 300-pound offensive linemen and then not graze the helmet of the quarterback."

And it's asking a lot of players not to really go full-contact until Week One.