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The New Orleans Saints haven't been taking any chances with the extreme temperatures out at their practice facility on Airline Drive, moving the two afternoon sessions thus far into their climate-controlled indoor facility. When they have practiced outside in the near-100 degree heat, the team has been taking frequent water breaks to avoid dehydration.

"You don't want players to overheat, " Coach Sean Payton said after Saturday's afternoon session. "If you watch during the course of one of our outside practices, we'll take about five different breaks. On this schedule, it calls for one, but I think if you use some common sense and even if it gets to where you're breaking just one period to hydrate, I think you want to make sure the core body temperature doesn't get too high. That might mean we cut out some reps and break out a little bit more."

With temperatures this severe, monitoring the weight of individual players can be an effective tool for reducing risk.

"It wouldn't be unusual for a big guy to lose five pounds and then that evening he's eating and hydrating," Payton said. "I think you weigh them in at the beginning of the day and you weigh them in at the end of the day. We record it and if we get a big jump, we'll make note of it and make sure the player sees it. But it is something we pay attention to and our philosophy is just slowing down the tempo and not cutting down the reps and we'll have six or seven water breaks between periods."

When asked to describe how hot conditions were on the field, tailback Pierre Thomas gave an appropriate answer.

"If you have a sauna at your house, go sit in there for about two hours and make sure the temperature is about 120 (degrees)."

New Orleans Saints taking precautions to deal with heat | NOLA.com