Football coaches are notorious creatures of habit, mapping out schedules months if not years in advance.
But because of the irregular start to their regular season, Packers coach Mike McCarthy has mixed up his training camp schedule.
“There was a reaction to the scheduling, the format of training camp, based on the way our first four games of the regular season laid out,” McCarthy said. “The fact that we come out of the gate and play Sunday afternoon on national TV at home, then play Thursday night at home and then go away 11 days later on a Monday night, and then on a short week here at home - I wanted to make sure our players were challenged from the fact of the regularity is going to be a little up and down to start the season.”
After starting with a Sunday late-afternoon game in Week 1, the Packers follow with a Thursday night game, a Monday night game (which means in 11-day break) and then another late-afternoon Sunday start. Their first early Sunday game isn’t until Week 5, and that’s followed by a Sunday nighter the following week.
So they’ll respond by opening camp with a week of 8:15 a.m. practices, followed by a block of night practices, before alternating morning, afternoon and nights. In mid-August, they’ll settle into a routine of mid-day practices
It’s a little thing, but indicative of the level of detail these guys put into their workdays.