LATROBE, Pa. – With the pristine, manicured fields, it sure looked like training camp. And the numbers on the thermometer screamed that it felt like training camp. But once the Steelers took the field for the first of 15 practices open to the public this summer, it seemed to be much more like minicamp.

But that's the way the NFL works these days. The Steelers alumni who stop by campus every year to keep up with their former team are happy to regale fans with stories of how it "used to be tougher" when they were players, but the current rules mandate that a series of acclimation days take place before the pads can go on and the hitting begins.

Thursday's session was the first of four practices in helmets that will be followed by a mandatory day off, with the first practice in pads then sc

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