PALM BEACH, FLA. -- When the players report to training camp this year, they will go from the self-proclaimed Club Billick to Camp Harbaugh.
Or will it be Camp Hardball?
Unlike the more laid-back summer regimen instituted for years by former coach Brian Billick, John Harbaugh's training camp will be stricter and more physical.
Instead of having the freedom to go home at night, players will be required to stay with teammates at the team hotel, where there will be bed checks. And instead of contact practices once every other day, players will suit up in full pads every morning.
"Football is a contact sport," Harbaugh said at the NFL annual meetings, which ended yesterday. "You've got to practice blocking and tackling, finishing blocks. You best do that with pads."
This change of styles doesn't mean Harbaugh is going to be the biggest disciplinarian in the NFL or run the roughest training camp in the league.
Like Billick, Harbaugh wants to be smart with his players. There will be times when the older players - whom Harbaugh calls the "30-and-over club" - will have modified training schedules to save the wear and tear on their bodies.
Unlike Billick, Harbaugh plans to have some extended, hard-hitting scrimmages to get players more acclimated to game situations.
But Harbaugh's camp won't be the most physical in the NFL. It'll just resemble what many other teams do.
"I don't know if we're going to have a tougher camp per se," Harbaugh said. "We need to practice all the things that are going to come up in a game. You can't manufacture situations for every player in the preseason. We want to get [young cornerback] David Pittman in that situation where he's got to make that play on third-and-five, get a guy down and know where the sticks are at."
The other substantial change will come off the field.
Under Billick, the Ravens were one of the few teams to allow veteran players to go home at night after the first few days of camp. Billick thought they rested better there than at the team hotel.
Under Harbaugh, players will have to stay at the hotel, a change the new coach hopes will build camaraderie.
"I don't see any reason for guys to be driving home at night during training camp," Harbaugh said. "It's late at night and then they have to be back first thing in the morning. Maybe it's even a safety issue, but that's what training camp is, everybody there together. It's how you do training camp."
