“We see the benefits (of intense tackling). We’ll continue to do what we do,” former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was in favor of live tackling during training camp when he said this back in 2017. Fast forward to now, and things have shifted in the Steel City. For starters, Mike McCarthy has replaced Tomlin, heading into his first training camp as the Steelers’ head coach. Another change in the training camp this season is that McCarthy isn’t allowing live tackling. And he just gave a pretty good reason behind this big change.

“I was fortunate enough to coach in the good ol days in the 90s… 15 days in a row, two-a-days in pads. I’d go to jail for doing that today,” McCarthy said, per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor.

McCarthy has been coaching in the NFL for over three decades now. So, it’s fair to say that the head coach wasn’t exaggerating when he compared the current NFL training camps to those of the 90s. Back in his early years of NFL coaching, it was common for teams to hold morning and afternoon practices in full pads, sometimes for several consecutive days.

Today’s NFL rules, however, prohibit that approach. Training camps now include strict limits on the number of padded practices, mandatory acclimation periods, and required recovery days. And the biggest reason is the 2011 NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement. Before it was signed, coaches had much more freedom to run grueling training camps.

However, the new agreement introduced sweeping player-safety rules that eliminated two-a-day padded practices, reduced offseason work, and sharply limited contact practices. The restrictions have become even tighter under the current CBA. Teams are now allowed only 16 padded practices during training camp, down from 28 under the previous agreement. At the same time, players must complete a five-day acclimation period before full-contact work begins.

In Mike McCarthy’s case, however, things are a little bit different. The Steelers’ head coach emphasized the use of GPS tracking technology to monitor every player’s workload and the physical stress placed on their bodies.

“We won’t do live tackling,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. “No, I’ve done live tackling in the past. . . . Every drill’s been evaluated. There’s a GPS component behind everything that we do. You know, there’s more stress that we need to apply to our training situations than just going the ground. The footwork’s the priority. It always will be about the feet and everything that we do whether tackling, blocking, you know, ball security, all those things. So the footwork component about it is important.”

At the same time, McCarthy emphasized that eliminating live tackling doesn’t mean the practices will be any less demanding. In fact, he made it clear that players will still be put through high-intensity situations during his first training camp. With that approach in place, McCarthy has officially begun his first camp in Pittsburgh, marking a noticeable shift in philosophy as the Steelers dial back the physical nature of training camp for the first time in nearly two decades.