personalized baby blanket: NFL Training Camps Get Started

Friday, July 21, 2006

By Jim Wyatt
Over 25% of the league's teams will have someone new starting at the quarterback this season. The New Starters: Chargers (Philip Rivers), Dolphins (Daunte Culpepper), Jets (Patrick Ramsey or maybe Chad Pennington), Lions (Jon Kitna or Josh McCown), Raiders (Aaron Brooks), Ravens (Steve McNair), Saints (Drew Brees) and Titans (Billy Volek).
When you head out to the various practice facilities remember the essentials: You'll need sunscreen, lot of water, a cushion to make your seating comfy and a Sharpie in order to have your favorite player sign the football you brought.
Fans wait with baited breath for
To see if Reggie Bush can shine in the NFL as he did in college.
To see what the fan reaction will be for Randy Moss as he returns home to Minnesota in the preseason's first Monday night game.
To see if a number of big name players can return after recovering from injuries - especially Big Ben, Drew Brees, Chad Pennington, Carson Palmer, Daunte Culpepper, Takeo Spikes, DeShaun Foster and Roman Oben. The Seattle Seahawks had 14 players that were unable to participate in the final mini-camp due to injuries or recovering from off-season surgeries.
Embarrassing Revelations From Past Training Camps:
Arizona Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin was asked who he thought was the laziest player on their team: "Fitz (Larry Fitzgerald) has to be the laziest. You don't ever see Fitz. He's always late to meetings, sleeping in meetings. Late to workouts. He brought a golf cart with him last year. It broke down every day. He ended up shipping it home after the first week."
Atlanta Falcons RB Warrick Dunn was asked about the most disgusting thing he'd ever seen in training camp. "T.J. Duckett threw up so much last year on the first day that he lost something like 15 lbs. His mouth was like a faucet. Worst hygiene? Nobody can top Warren Sapp, at least that's how it was when I played with him. He wanted to go out there and be as funky as possible so nobody would want to touch him."
Baltimore Ravens OLB Bart Scott: Worst roommate experience? Terrell Suggs. He is young and doesn't go to sleep. He stays up all night, either playing PlayStation, talking on the phone or watching old movies. Laziest player? Terrell Suggs. Let me repeat that. Terrell Suggs. He only gives what he has to give. There are no coverages, just blitzes."
Buffalo Bills LB Mario Haggan: "Worst hygiene? Angelo Crowell's feet. About two weeks into camp, you catch Angelo with a lot of foot spray because the skin on his feet starts peeling. One year we had to put up a sign marked 'Hazardous' around his locker."
Cincinnati Bengals DT John Thornton: "Strangest thing a player has brought to camp? Bryan Robinson brought this hyperbaric chamber. To watch him and his wife carry it from their van to our room…it looked like a big coffin. All the guys wanted to get in after about a week."
Cleveland Browns CB Daylon McCutcheon: "Worst hygiene? Brodney Pool has the nickname Dirty Pool. They say he doesn't take a lot of showers."
Houston Texans CB Dunta Robinson: "Most disgusting thing I've seen? I've seen a guy wear the same underwear every day."
Indianapolis Colts WR Aaron Moorehead: "Strangest thing brought to camp? It's (Dwight) Feeney getting steaks made for him every single day for every meal."
Jacksonville Jaguars MLB Mike Peterson: "Strangest thing brought to camp? One guy (who was married) brought his girlfriend to camp, let her stay in his room and even let her watch practice on the field."
Kansas City Chiefs RE Jared Allen: "Strangest thing brought to camp? I bring my blanket. I still have my personalized baby blanket from when I was little. You've got to be comfortable when you go to camp."
Miami Dolphins WLB Channing Crowder: "Most disgusting thing I've seen? Some guys pee down their leg out there practicing. Hell, I do it."
Minnesota Vikings CB Antoine Winfield: "Most memorable rookie hazing? We got a little carried away with shaving someone's head one day, and we got his eyebrows. You don't see many people walking around with no eyebrows."
New England Patriots Punter Josh Miller: "Most disgusting thing I've seen? I had a guy's tooth fall out when he asked me for an autograph. Just fell right out on the paper. He picked it up and said: 'Happens all the time.' I'm thinking, 'Not to me it doesn't'"
New Orleans Saints CB Fred Thomas: "Worst roommate experience? Waking up every morning and all you hear when you wake up out of your sleep are sounds from a porno. Loud, so everybody could hear it. Down the hall, some of the guys would say, 'Turn it down!'"
New York Giants G Rich Seubert: "Most disgusting thing I've seen? Worms under my pillow. Somebody thought that was a good prank."
New York Jets LG Pete Kendall: "Worst hygiene? I'll go days wearing the same shirt and shorts, four or five days in a row."
Oakland Raiders OLB Sam Williams: "Worst roommate experience? One time I woke up at 3 or 4 in the morning because I felt someone standing over me. I jumped up and was ready to fight when I discovered it was my roommate sleepwalking. He was getting ready to jump in my bed because he thought he was at home and his girlfriend was in bed. That was bizarre."
San Diego Chargers LT Roman Oben: "Strangest thing brought to camp? I brought a cat one year. I got it from my girlfriend; she was going to be out of town the first week of camp. They'd come and clean the rooms in the dorm, and I had to put up a sign that said, 'Do not let the cat out.'"
Seattle Seahawks RB Shaun Alexander: "Strangest thing brought to camp? Some guys bring stuff their girlfriends give them, like a stuffed animal and they try to hide them. I can't tell you names. It's a safety thing…my safety."
Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Chris Simms: "Laziest player? Joey Galloway. But it's different for a guy like that. He's a cheetah, and you can't run a cheetah like you would a long-distance horse every day, so they give him his time off."
Tennessee Titans TE Erron Kinney: "Most disgusting thing? We had a trainer one time that had a friendly bet with another trainer that he could drink a bottle of Gatorade (concentrate) and hold it down. It all came out. All of it. The only good thing about it is it smelled like Gatorade instead of puke."
Washington Redskins TE Chris Cooley: "Most disgusting thing I've seen? After every practice, we have a bug trough that's filled with cold water and ice. That gets pretty disgusting after five or six offensive lineman have been sitting in it."

What you can expected at this year's British Open at Hoylake
First of all don't go looking for a lake, there isn't any. Scores are certain to be mighty low. How low? Try record lows. The last time the Open Championship was held at the Royal Liverpool in 1967, there were 12 players that finished under par. That was the year Argentine Roberto De Vicenzo beat Jack Nicklaus by two shots. Locals are predicting the players will have to break par just to make the cut as this old time course meets up with the players of today hitting with all the advancements in equipment. Although Hoylake would appear formidable by the numbers - 7,258 yards (course length), it has quite a few doglegs which can be cut and the fairways are so hard balls in the fairway will get a lot more roll. In other words, if you are a straight hitter, you should be hitting most greens in two.
Humor in Sports
Reid Spencer: "On the Beatles' home golf course (Royal Liverpool), the gallery will oooh and aaah on great shots and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da on the lipped-out putts."