I'm saying this because 20+ years ago, practices had breaks in between the different stages of practice. Now, the moment a stage ends, a horn blows and players are walking immediately to the next stage. Long ago, the coaches and players could take their time in between stages and the players got a pseudo break in between them. Also, there were fewer positional practices occurring simultaneously compared to now so a lot of times the players were getting breaks while standing and watching other players practice for longer periods of time. The window is smaller now so teams make the most of it by having more coaches on the staff and performing more simultaneous practices within the practice while reducing downtime between the stages.
I never said anything about contact being the cause, so not sure why you are arguing that point. What I'm saying is that with fewer and shorter practices, coaches are pushing players harder (not making the practices harder, pushing them harder to do more overall) during practices than in the past.
What's worse on your body? A one-mile run 6 days per week or a three-mile run 2 days per week? Your body would be more likely to develop an injury, and not necessarily directly, from the 3-mile run than you would the one-mile run. The reason I say "not necessarily directly" is because the 3-mile run on one day may create weaknesses or strains in muscles that do not recover before the next day you run, so you may not get injured on that day, but rather it may make you susceptible to injuries in a following practice as your weak or sore muscles fail to protect your ligaments and bones or your other muscles compensate for the weakened muscles causing them to become strained and your body prone to injury.
No need to apologize, I don't mind a different opinion. That said, I never said NFL practices were more "intense" though you keep saying that. I mentioned growing up my practices were more intense the next time when practices were cancelled, but as I pointed out in my last point, that was just an example of cause-and-effect, not a direct comment on NFL practices as they are nothing alike. Perhaps you should re-read what I wrote.
There's no doubt practices are easier than they were in the past, but easier does not equate to safer. There is much less contact, especially contact beyond the line these days. That is just as much a decision of the owners and coaches though as it is the NFLPA. However, when you have fewer practices, teams are going to get more out of those practices as that's just common sense. The more time you have to do something, the less rushed and organized (efficient) you are going to be with what you do. The less time you have, the more focused and efficient you will be.
