NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Former Dallas Cowboys star Troy Aikman offered his own theory as to why there have been a number of early-season injuries in the NFL in recent years.
The Pro Football Hall of Famer said he believed the NFL’s rules to help players avoid injuries may actually be the cause of them.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
Troy Aikman arrives on the red carpet for the 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on August 5, 2023. (Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports)
On Friday’s “Rodeo Time Podcast,” Aikman fondly recalled holding two-a-day practices in Wichita Falls, Texas, where the Cowboys would hold training camp in the summer. He suggested that while players aren’t as “loaded” as they were in the 1980s and ’90s during camps, they may not be as prepared for the toll their bodies take at the start of the season.
“I think they only wear pads one day a week or once a day, and they have a tour, and then, I don’t know how you interpret everything, but it’s pretty player-friendly and favorable,” Aikman said. “And to a large extent, whenever they negotiate the collective bargaining agreement, the owners tend to always win financially. And then the players say, ‘Well, okay, then we won’t practice as long or we won’t practice as often.’ So, they tend to get concessions as to how much time they actually spend in the facility.
SUPER BOWL CHAMPION BRYCE HUFF RETIRES FROM NFL AT AGE 27
Troy Aikman before the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium on December 4, 2023. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA TODAY Sports)
“I think the only ones who don’t have a say in those negotiations are the coaches. They have to wait until the dust settles and say, ‘Okay, how often do we hire them?’ But part of that is we also see a lot of the reasons why I think we see so many injuries, especially early in the year. There are a lot of soft tissue injuries, a lot of muscle pulls and things of that nature in players, they just can’t train like we did before, they can’t harden their bodies as easily. “It’s not like they’re not training hard and everything, but it’s different training alone than being on the football field practicing football moves.”
Aikman made it clear that he favored making changes in the name of player safety, but was concerned they could do more harm than good for some.
Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, JJ McCarthy of the Minnesota Vikings, Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers and Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens were among the quarterbacks who missed time early last season.
Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson throws during team warmups before an NFL preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
Player safety will once again be in the spotlight as the NFL is reportedly eyeing a Thanksgiving Eve game with the possibility of expanding to an 18-game schedule in the future.
