IRVING, Texas -- As part of the settlement between the NFL owners and players, two-a-day practices as football players have known them for years have been all but eliminated in a move to improve safety.
After 13 seasons in the NFL, Dallas Cowboys linebacker Keith Brooking wonders if the pounding has taken a toll on him.
"Training camp, if anybody tells you they love it they're lying," Brooking said Monday on "Galloway & Company" on ESPN103.3 radio. "But it's the time of the year to where you have to do those things and it's going to be good for us in the end. I think for them to limit it like they did can be a good thing, especially for the numbers and injuries and things like that. Even long term, I think there's some truth in what they're saying. I'm telling you my memory's worse than it was six or seven years ago. I don't know if that's a coincidence or not."
During the regular season, teams will be limited to one padded practice a week for the first 11 weeks and three in the final six. In the playoffs, teams can have only one padded practice.
Brooking, 35, said contact in training camp is "a necessary evil," but that limiting the amount of contact could be a good thing. He does not want to see the rules go overboard considering the physical nature of the sport.
When asked if he was scared about his memory loss Brooking said, "I don't know. To be honest with you I wouldn't do anything different than I did. I enjoyed every moment of it. If they told me that before I ever strapped it on the first time, I would've strapped it on."
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