Training Camp Report 08/14

Fitzharvard

Training Camp Report 08/14

So yesterday was my best day yet at training camp…which also means I watched the least amount of practice.

Shortly after practice started I got a tour of the facility…through the offices, meeting rooms, weight room (empty except for Laurinaitis who was on a bike). So jealous of the interns I saw roaming the halls. Why didn’t I think of that 25 years ago? Many great photos of the Rams all time greats lining the walls. They actually tried to quiz me by covering up the name plates on the pictures, but I’d name them rapid fire like an eye chart before they could even walk up to them.

The cubicles look just like the office scenes from the ESPN commercials. Bobble heads, pictures, trophies, a life size cardboard cut out of Chris Long’s head halfway peering into someone’s cube like Kilroy. One of the offices had a gigantic Les Snead fat head on the wall….just his head. Didn’t catch the name on the office. Wondering if it’s Snead’s.

Les has the best job in the world. Tooling around in his visor, tee shirt and cargo shorts….perfect hair dangling down over his visor. He looks like he just rode a wave, not built a football team.

Ran into Jim Hanifan for the first time in a couple years. Made me a little sad. He’s aged since the last time I saw him. Walked slower and a little hunched over. Had to sit on the armrest of the couch while we chatted. I reminded him of the night we had chatted in New York a few years back. He said that was a long time ago…it was…2008 season. And he added “We got our asses kicked didn’t we?”. Yep…47-3 by the Brett Favre led New York Jets.

Michael Sam from what I hear has been a complete non-story from a distraction point of view. The other players have absolutely no issue with him and from what I saw he seemed fully integrated with his teammates. However, the Rams receive hate calls and mail. I was told that he had a pretty tough life…one of 8 kids. He witnessed a brother die from a gunshot wound. A sister died as well. Another brother has been missing since 1998 and two are in prison. He is estranged from his mother because she is a Jehovah’s Witness and doesn’t approve of his…playing football. He is the first person in his family to attend college.

Regarding practice…

Players were in shoulder pads and shorts.

They practiced a lot of running plays, which because there is no tackling in professional football practice any more, makes every RB look like Eric Dickerson. Really hard to gauge who looks good because they all pop through the scrum like a champ. We were lucky enough to have most of the offense plays coming directly at us. Zac Stacy definitely is the lead dog and he looks fast and strong. Tre Mason popped through a hole with authority for what would’ve been a big gain even if they were tackling. That’s the good news…The bad news is it was against the Rams defense. So not sure if that’s a glass half full or half empty observation. One thing I can say is they were handing the ball to Austin A LOT. And to his credit he’s not afraid to run it right up the gut. I hope they keep those plays in the playbook when the season starts. I saw Pead get zero carries…or get in on offense at all. Not sure if that’s solely because of his hand. He was dressed and he was participating in KOR drills. It also looked like he was limping at one point…although slightly.

Bradford, as I mentioned previously, was underwhelming. Very inaccurate. Over threw a wide open Jared Cook deep because he didn’t put any air under the ball. Missed Quick in the back of the end zone during a two minute drill because he led him out of bounds. To Quick’s credit he made a nice one handed catch, but unfortunately he was a yard out of the end zone. Bradford overshot someone else too (can’t remember who) and was picked by McCleod.

I thought Brian Quick looked pretty good. Caught the ball with authority. Hope he can do that when the real games start.

Chris Givens was pretty invisible. The only time I noticed him was when he was standing on the sidelines directly in front of me chatting with the other WRs.

Greg Williams is the only coach you can hear coaching…and you can hear him no matter where he is on the field. Not always a good thing if you have your kids with you if you know what I mean.

Also saw Trumaine Johnson pull up lame at one point. Not sure if it’s the same leg that he previously hurt but he did some stretching on the side and was back on the field after.

TJ Moe hurt a finger or a wrist going down to catch a low pass and got some attention from the trainer but didn’t look too bothered by the end of practice.

Rhaney was down for the count and had to be helped onto the cart and driven off the field. But initial reports are that it’s not that serious. At least that was the news I was hearing before I went to bed. Not sure if the MRI turned up anything worse since then.

I asked Michael Brockers if he was going to be good to go for week one and he said essentially hell yeah…this is just precautionary. He said he was actually going to play next week against Cleveland.

Laurinaitis was walking around freely without a boot so he must be getting close as well.

The hotel we’re staying at isn’t far from Ferguson. Have seen many, many flashing lights and heard wailing sirens…but so far no molotov cocktails.