On the Field for Practice – 12/19

A rainy, rainy Friday practice, although at least this time the weather forecast says that practicing in the rain might help prepare for Sunday’s conditions. As usual with Friday practices, it was mostly special teams and red zone stuff today. The pass catchers started off a bit rocky with a bunch of drops, probably because [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/18

Well, this is a first for me. For some reason, afternoon practice was moved up today and combined with the morning it’s-not-a-walkthrough. This has happened before for specific reasons — weather alerts and holidays, for example — but this is the first time I’ve seen the routine disrupted for no specific reason. Some players speculated [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/17

I really didn’t know what to expect from today’s practice. Part of me expected to go out and find the guys listlessly shuffling around the practice field, another part thought they might be unusually fired up and loose with nothing to lose. The truth, as it tends to be, fell somewhere between the two. It [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/12

Today was the first day that I think the wind could easily be described as “biting,” and it was really blowing out there, everybody’s windpants snapping in the breeze. I looked to see if I could get a picture of the goalpost flags whipping around, but instead the whole goalposts were rocking back and forth. [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/11

The weather made everything unusual today, including the practice schedule. The typical afternoon practice was moved up by several hours and nailed to the end of what would ordinarily be a shorter morning practice. “Players love that,” Coach Zorn said afterward. “It’s a longer practice, but it’s just one time.” At this point, I worry [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/10

A strangely warm, damp winter’s day on the practice fields. The fields themselves were in good shape — they were presumably covered during the actual rain — but it was wet enough out that the spaces between the fields were a soggy mess. Hey, look! It’s Clinton Portis at practice. He told the media he [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/5

The rain that I predicted yesterday wore itself out last night, leaving today clear, windy, and cold for a Friday practice. I think if I had to pick the person who stood out most at practice today, it would be Rocky McIntosh. He was all over the place, covering the running back coming out of [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/4

One of those days today, overcast enough to make you bundle up before you go out, but not actually cold. I have very little formal knowledge of meteorology, but it sure seems to me that whenever this happens, it’s pouring rain or sleeting within 24 hours. I look forward to tomorrow’s practice. Another day of [...]

On the Field for Practice – 12/3

The first December day of practice, crisp and cool. If there was a mood or tenor to practice today, I’d have to characterize it as relief. One of the nice things about the weekly routine of football is that it offers a clear definition of when to stop thinking about last week and start thinking [...]

On the Field for Practice – 11/28

Well, it may be the day after Thanksgiving, but it’s still just a Friday here. Any confusion about that was eliminated when I got down to the practice fields to find — you guessed it — Jim Zorn throwing balls to route-running quarterbacks. And it still hasn’t gotten old to me. Colt Brennan‘s father was [...]