LA Rams News: Team faces unique challenges in training camp

Media access

The NFL training camps serve two purposes. Of course, the primary reason that all 32 NFL teams have training camp is to train the roster to perform in the upcoming NFL season. But there is a secondary, and subtle, reason for training camp. It allows the NFL to flirt with fans over the upcoming season.  Which players fall in as starters for the upcoming season, and who falls into the team’s active roster? All the while, sportswriters share the daily drama of training camp.

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Without actual football news, the wave of new information about new unfamiliar players is a great appetizer to the multitude who eagerly await the start of the new NFL season. Reporters crowd the sidelines and snap images and videos constantly, sharing a constant stream of the new day’s news and impressions.  Matched with liberal access to players and coaches throughout the sessions is a unique and effective strategy.  NFL teams need fan interest to sell merchandise, tickets, and advertising. Media feeds that interest, much like an opening act at a concert warms up the crowd.

New restrictions for 2020

The shift from real-time direct access to virtual access may be a temporary change to prevent unnecessary risks of spreading COVID-19. Or this could be the beginning of new limits to media access to coaches and athletes. With the necessity to restrict direct access in 2020, will the need to restrict access simply disappear in 2021? Or will this simply initiate waves of restrictions both in media and fan access to coaches and athletes?  Will NFL events such as the NFL Scouting Combine or NFL Draft take on a massive public attendance event in the future? Or will health, safety, and other concerns be weighed more heavily?

2020 may be a unique challenge for the LA Rams training camp sessions. It likely will not be the only time the Rams face similar challenges. This could simply be the turning point to a new way of doing things, much like the arrival of the automobile or television changed American culture permanently. How the LA Rams navigate these new challenges that face the team in 2020 lays the groundwork to how successful the team will be for years to come. It begins in 2020, but it won’t end here. The NFL is inventing new ways of doing things.  The young coaching staff for the LA Rams likely a good choice to set the bar for the Rams for years to come.