Practicing in the cold depends on the field
By Pete Dougherty pdougher@greenbaypressgazette.com December 5, 2008
If Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy decides he wants to go outside for practice in the late-season winter weather next year, he might have a soft enough field to do it.
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McCarthy has said hed prefer to have his team practice outside once a week in November and December before cold-weather games, but it hasnt been able to do so over the past two weeks because the Clarke Hinkle practice field is frozen. The hardened grass surface would unnecessarily beat up players bodies and is slick enough to expose them to greater injury risk.
But the Packers are considering putting heating coils under one of their practice fields during the upcoming offseason.
If the coach wants to practice outside, we want to be able to make that happen, said Mark Murphy, the teams president and CEO.
Murphy said neither McCarthy nor General Manager Ted Thompson has approached him about heating a practice field this season, but its something the team is considering, in part because its torn out the Ray Nitschke practice field. This spring, the Nitschke field will be put it back in, still on the east side of The Don Hutson Center but closer to the building.
The new practice field is designed for use in training camp, but if McCarthy and Thompson want heating coils under a field, it would be cheaper to do it there rather than to tear up the Hinkle field to install coils.
Murphy said he will discuss the issue with Thompson and McCarthy in the offseason, when the team will have a couple of months to determine whether to add the coils to the new Nitschke field or to the Hinkle field along South Oneida Street.
Though the FieldTurf on the old Nitschke field has been removed, the new surface wont be installed until this spring. Muprhy said the team will consider many options, including heating only a part of one of the two 150-yard practice fields.
Murphy said he doesnt know whether McCarthy feels strongly about going outside in the winter.
I dont have a real sense of it, he said. Well look at different options.
In his first two seasons as coach, McCarthy could have practice outside more often in the cold weather because the FieldTurf on the Nitschke field stayed soft, though he didnt go outside much last season. This year, hes had equipment manager Red Batty test the field the last two weeks, and Batty has determined its too frozen.
When McCarthy has taken the team outside in the winter in the past, its usually only for 11-on-11 drills. The rest of practice, such as the jog-through and individual drills, are done in The Hutson Center.
Id like to be outside once a week, McCarthy said this week.
Coaches have differing philosophies on the value of working outside in the week before a cold-weather game. It became an issue for the Packers last year, because they had two games in especially bitter conditions, and lost both after practicing inside all week. The first was at Chicago, where the wind chill was minus-18 at kickoff, and the Packers played terribly in a 35-7 loss. The second was in the NFC championship game at Lambeau Field, where the wind chill was minus-23 in the Packers 23-20 loss to the New York Giants.
Some coaches and players think working outside better acclimates them to playing in the cold, whereas others say it makes little if any difference.
Mike Holmgren, whose Packers teams were 53-10 at Lambeau Field in the 1990s, placed such a premium on getting quality work done that his teams rarely went outside in the winter, usually only once or twice in the second half of the season. He thought that living in the cold weather acclimated players to it.
Former coach Mike Sherman was more inclined to take practice outside in the winter. One player recalled being outside for much of the second half of Shermans last season in 2004.
McCarthy appears to fall more into the Holmgren camp, though hed like to practice outside for 11-on-11 drills more than he has recently.
The first year, we used Nitschke Field, McCarthy said. We would go inside, do the preliminary work, do the early parts of practice, and then go out for the team (11-on-11) drills. That would be the plan when we do get to go outside. We did not use Nitschke last year, for other reasons. Our goal would be to get back to that format that I used the first year. Thats how I would prefer to do the practice structure this time of year.
Receiver Donald Driver said he prefers to go outside at least once a week in the winter.
I think the quality of the work was the same (inside and out), he said. Its more focusing, catching the ball, running routes, getting your footing, because you get used to it being out there. We used to love going out there. When it was cold we used to say, Lets go outside, because well bundle up, just like we would do for a game.
Defensive end Aaron Kampman said it didnt matter to him, though he seemed to prefer to work inside.
We live in it, Kampman said. Its a mind-set. We understand cold weather is part of it. You just go and do it.