PITTSBURGH — The differences that I saw at the UMPC Rooney Sports Complex over the weekend, training camp in 2020 vs. training camp in 2021, were obvious. The coaches weren’t in masks. Both observation decks were filled with media. Players moved freely from drill to drill, scouts were dotting the sidelines, and the end of practice wasn’t a quiet march to get re-masked and back in the office.
Things aren’t completely normal, of course, otherwise I’d be in Latrobe rather than on Pittsburgh’s South Side and wouldn’t have a Kinexon tracking device in my pocket. But it is so much closer than it was in 2021.