A Special Twist on Training Camp

It's 6:00 a.m. Took me three alarms going off and six snooze buttons before I finally woke up. I wanted to get something new for the blog last night, but had nothing on my mind. I figured if I got up 20 minutes early I could have a new perspective, maybe looking forward to a new day and not looking back. Coffee calling my name was the only hope I had for dragging my ass out of bed this early and at least I can sit and gripe with the guys at the breakfast table about how I would run training camp different.

Today (7/29/08) is actually a big day for me. Before practice I think I'm gonna spend about 15 minutes in the ice tube, much better than the coffee for the mornings. I actually depend on the little routine I run through to prepare myself for practice, it will be close to the only time I will have to myself today. Morning practice is going to be the toughest part of the day to get through, although the team has gotten in a pretty good practice groove the mornings still seem to last a long time.

After practice I put together an event with the Redskins charitable foundation. I convinced the rest of the tight end group to join me. We invited 25 kids from the childrens hospital that could make it out to Redskins Park. We will get a chance to hang out with all the kids for a while, hopefully we can at least give them a fun morning. Before they leave I put together a bunch of duffel bags containing PSP's, games, hats, autographs, and some other cool stuff for them to take back to their rooms. I stole the idea from Drew Brees, but I thought it was way cool. By the way, for all the people buying jerseys, shirts and stuff, this is where the money is going. Everyone thought I was lying and taking in some extra cash, but don't worry, I'm putting it to good use so thanks for shopping at our store.

The Redskins will resume with an afternoon practice at 3:00 p.m. This practice has been named 10, 10, and 10. We really use the afternoon for special situations. One set of ten could be for blitz, one for third down, and so on. Every day has been different, but the way it goes is offense runs ten plays then defense runs ten plays. We will run a total of 60 plays. Not a bad way to have an afternoon practice.

I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but for the night I can say dinner and meet, meet, meet. Football can be like a never ending meeting! I will start thinking about getting back to sleep around 6:00, but it will happen closer to 11:30. Like I said, big day!