No Joint Workouts For Titans -- Or Any Other Team

Commissioner orders teams to conduct training camp at their primary facilities, stay apart.

Not long ago, Mike Vrabel said he would like to conduct joint training camp workouts this summer with one, “if not two” other teams.

How about none?

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, NFL teams have been ordered to conduct camps at their regular training facilities and joint workouts have been barred, according to a memo obtained by SI senior NFL writer Albert Breer.

“Based on the medical assessment of current risk factors, we have determined that two adjustments to the planning for 2020 training camps should be made and communicated to all clubs today,” the memo, issued Tuesday, said in part. “… The NFLPA was strongly in favor of these two decisions, which were made to limit exposure risks by avoiding the need for clubs to clean and maintain two facilities, by limiting the need for players and club staff to travel to another location (sometimes located a considerable distance from the home facility), and by limiting travel and contact between players on different clubs in the context of joint practices.

“These steps are being taken for the 2020 preseason to address the current conditions and are not expected to be in place in 2021.”

The Titans moved into their current training facility following their 1999 training camp. They have conducted every subsequent camp there with the exception of 2006, when they went to Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., less than an hour away.

Tennessee also has routinely hosted other teams for joint workouts, including Tampa Bay in 2018 and New England in 2019. In both cases, the combined training sessions served as a precursor to a preseason contest. The Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons and the then-St. Louis Rams conducted joint practices with the Titans in Nashville.

“When the NFL gives us a direction, then we’re going to try to follow it the best we can,” Vrabel said three weeks ago. “This is a serious time and it’s a sensitive time. I’m going to focus on what I can control with our football team. And then when we get some direction from the league, we will always do right by the players.”