There's excitement, on the one hand, sprinkled in with a healthy dose of dread.

Once that first day arrives, it's on to a seemingly endless succession of practices, meetings, profuse sweating and aching body parts.

"Man, once you've been in the league awhile, the novelty wears off," said Green, a nine-year vet. "In a hurry. You're excited to be around the guys again; sure. It's just everything else that goes with it that you can live without. You can't wait for the season to start."

Banged up, bruised and broken body parts long since have healed by the arrival of training camp in late July each year.

Memories of games won and lost, tackles made and missed, balls caught and dropped, have been replaced by new memories of vacations to exotic places, peaceful days around the house and jaunts around the golf course.

Just as they take ROOT, coaches are in players' faces, barking orders, asking them to memorize a thick playbook, wanting to know how badly they want to be here.

Right away, players are in full pads, banging into each other, falling to the ground and yearning for the relative comfort that was the offseason.

Increasingly, this activity is done out of the public eye. The Raiders are one of a growing number of NFL teams that keep their training camps closed to fans. The 49ers used to open all their practices. They now open only a select few days to fans.

Football players used to view training camp as a vital part of the season. That six weeks or more afforded them the necessary time to shed the extra weight they gained during the offseason, awaken the muscles that lay dormant and hone their Football skills.

That's no longer the case in an era when players don't need an offseason job to make ends meet. Million-dollar contracts are there for the taking.

As a result, players work out year-round, they watch their diet and participate in organized team activities and coordinated lifting routines at teams' year-round facility.

"I don't mind training camp too much," Raiders cornerback Stanford Routt said. "It might be hard for some, but I pride myself on working out harder away from the team than I do during camp. It does get monotonous, though, no doubt."

Players typically practice twice a day for at least a week during camp before coaches reward them with a day off, or at least a reduction in the intensity. Meetings with position coaches, coordinators and the entire team, as well as group meals and video-watching sessions, account for much time between practices.

By day's end, there isn't much time or energy left for players to enjoy the abundant food and myriad sightseeing opportunities at their disposal in the heart of the Napa Valley.

"All I want to do is sleep," center Jake Grove said. "Tomorrow comes sooner than you expect, and it gets harder and harder to deal with as camp wears on and your body breaks down. It's not as luxurious as it sounds, that's for sure."

Contact Steve Corkran at scorkran@bayareanewsgroup.com