Arizona Cardinals: Training camp necessary evil
By Scott Allen
The Arizona Cardinals have been in camp for almost four weeks already thanks to the early start
The Arizona Cardinals extra week of practice leading up to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on August 3rd certainly has helped this team get extra preparation for the 2017 season. It also can be draining after awhile.
Don’t tell everyone with the Cardinals that. Not everyone is down on the extra work. Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer said “practice is fun.”
He recognizes the fact he sees the same guys on defense day in and day out. He’d rather do that however than face double teams.
Because of the longer preseason, even as the @AZCardinals near their 3rd exhibition they're grinding through the dog days of training camp. pic.twitter.com/sOYxuvyRsG
— Bally Sports Arizona (@BALLYSPORTSAZ) August 16, 2017
A point he brought up makes a lot of sense. In his press conference Wednesday he said they still have a lot of work to do. If recent comments by Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians are any indication, that seems to be a shared sentiment.
It could be worse. This team gets to stay in a hotel for a month. Not as nice as being in your own bed every night but it beats the old dorms at Northern Arizona University.
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They practice once a day now. Back in the 80’s and 90’s it was two-a-day’s everyday with a day off here and there.
When I had the privilege of working for the Cardinals, camp in Flagstaff was a far cry from what it is now. The dorms were old and hardly even resemble the modern dorm rooms you see today.
Its not that it was bad but now teams are smarter. They take better care of players. They eat better, sleep better and hopefully makes for a better team on the field.
There has been talk of reducing preseason games. This year, the Cardinals play five of them. Many believe four is too many. Someday we may see three. For now, it is what it is.
As Palmer said though, practice is needed. Despite all the work put in already, clearly by Arians’ assessment of the receivers shows that it is a good thing the Cardinals are still over three weeks away from week one of the 2017 NFL season.