Steelers’ Mike Tomlin Announces Big Change For Training Camp

It’s back to the future for the Steelers.

Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin announced Thursday that when the team assembles next month for training camp, practices will take place in the afternoon, rather than the morning.

During training camp last year at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., Tomlin had the team practicing in the morning.

“It wasn’t hot enough last year, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said, according to Steelers.com’s Dale Lolley. “Heat aids in the development of physical conditioning. It makes it a more stressful environment, and that’s what we go to camp for. We go to camp to get better, and if it’s a little bit more miserable later in the day, man, that’s what we want.”

The 53-year-old coach discussed the change following the conclusion of the Steelers’ mandatory minicamp. Despite the much-anticipated arrival of quarterback Aaron Rodgers and linebacker T.J. Watt’s contract holdout, Tomlin sounded pleased with this week’s minicamp.

“This was a football-like environment,” Tomlin said, per Lolley. “When we get to Latrobe, it’s going to be a football environment. And so there’s a difference. We respect that this work has been good, but we measure the quality of this work, of how it tees us up for the real football journey that awaits.”

According to the Steelers, this will be the 58th year Pittsburgh holds training camp at Saint Vincent College.

Players report to training camp July 23 with the first open practice the next day. The annual “Friday Night Lights” practice will be on Aug. 1 at Latrobe Memorial Stadium.

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