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Few things sound less appealing to me than sprinting a football field dozens of times, with each of those runs having to come in under a certain amount of seconds (not minutes, mind you). That's why the players make the big bucks though.
In the annual Training Camp Kickoff, the first storylines of the first part of the season revolve around who's able to complete the required conditioning drill and who isn't.
The Steelers look to have multiple players not participating in the drill this year. Likely missing it due to torn ACLs at the end of the 2011 season are LT Max Starks, NT Casey Hampton and RB Rashard Mendenhall. Anyone else not participating would probably be newsworthy, and there always seems to be a player or two who will fall short.
We don't have to look back very far to see Hampton's failed conditioning run. In head coach Mike Tomlin's first season, Hampton reported to camp and subsequently failed the test, leading to his placement on the preseason PUP list, meaning he's not on the active roster, but can be placed back on it as soon as he's able.
This has little impact to how training camp will play out, but it does give LT Mike Adams, NT Steve McLendon and RB Isaac Redman looks with the first team units right away. LT Trai Essex, rookie NT Alameda Ta'amu and a slew of other running backs could see some time with the first-stringers as well.
And who knows? Maybe there will be a few more added to the list by the end of today.