“I think it’s good to have the fans out there,” Fangio said. “The history of the NFL, you had to go to college campuses back in the day because [team] facilities didn’t look like this. When I first went to the Saints in the mid-80s, we had an 80-yard grass field. We had no cafeteria. Guys would go to a greasy deli for lunch right across the street.

“So you were forced to go to small college campuses to have your two-a-days because they had a cafeteria, because they had classrooms and because they had dorms to sleep in. A byproduct of that was fans would come and watch.

“I think one of the things - small thing - that has driven the NFL to it being the most popular sport in the country is that you let people come and watch practice, people that maybe can’t afford to go to the games and maybe get an autograph from a player, maybe a player shakes their hand or throws them a sweatband or a glove.

“You do that with a young person, you got a fan for life and football has a fan for life. There’s more to be gained out of that than any advertising slogan or any commercial that you put on TV.

“So I think it’s a good thing and I’ll embrace it, the players will embrace it. I wish there could be more [fans] here. But I think about half or less of the NFL teams now don’t go to college campuses and don’t have the wherewithal to have people at their facilities to watch practices, and I think it’s a little bit of a negative.”