October 21, 2009
What’s up Fathead – remember we were talking about missing the bus? Well, missing the bus or the plane is not an option; you will be fined, seriously. It hasn’t happened to any one this year yet, but I’ve heard stories of guys in the past who missed the plane and actually drove to the city and stadium rather than be left behind. I don’t know what happens in that case but I can guarantee there was a fine involved. Again this is a business and away games are business travel.
There are about 5 buses that take us to the airport and everybody wants to find a regular bus they like to travel on. I’ve made bus 4 my bus even though I don’t sit in the same seat every time. We have our own check in procedure away from the normal security gate which just makes it easier when you’re moving such a large group like the Eagles. The plane is roomy enough so you pretty much chose your window or aisle seat, depending on your preference. No one has to sit three to a row. Everyone has the space they need to get comfortable.
In-flight game plan
I don’t have a set routine when I travel to an away game. It depends on the mood I’m in. Sometimes I’ll pop a movie into the laptop and will probably fall asleep on it. I might listen to music on the iPod and just relax during the flight.
Upon landing, we get on the buses that are waiting for us and go right to the hotel for a quick check-in. You have a little down time, so if you had family that traveled to the game, you can visit with them for a little while. First a team dinner and then its right to Special Teams meetings that start at 8pm, Position meetings start at 8:30pm, Team meeting starts at 9pm. It’s not about sitting around doing nothing – it’s time to go to work. You have to go in and review the things you’re expected to know regarding tomorrow’s game. After that it’s 11pm curfew – in your room for the night, trying to get a good night sleep. I sleep pretty well on the road, no tossing and turning. It’s cool because you get to pick who you room with so you’re probably rooming with someone you hit camp with. Most times its rookies and rookies, 2nd year and 2nd year, vets and vets – you know? LeSean McCoy is my roommate so it’s real cool both of us being in our 1st year and all.
October 6, 2009
I get to relax a little during our bye week so I can talk a little before I study the play book a little. Fathead’s wants today’s subject to be Away games…
When preparing for away games, 1st and foremost you have to remember, this is a business trip and not a road trip with the guys. This isn’t us just going out to have fun. A lot of people think we fly in the week before to get ready for an away game but you basically work at home where you’re familiar and then you travel into that opposing city the day before if the schedule allows.
On the Saturday, we have what we call a mock game, which is basically a walk-thru where we go over everyone’s assignments and cover certain plays we want to look at again. We do adjustment stuff like that. Then we usually have a few hours before we have to head to the airport. So you get a chance to go home, see the family and change. We don’t have to wear suits but we have to dress up so you go and grab your stuff.
The funniest thing about these away trips is the rookies – don’t laugh – have to get Popeye’s Chicken for their various position groups…that’s just the way it is and you have to plan accordingly for the food run. Coming back without the Popeye’s is not a good thing either but being late is much worse so you have to definitely know where you’re getting the food from. We’d rather be early with cold chicken than be late missing the bus with a bunch of hot steaming Popeye’s! Don’t know about you but I’m kind of hungry – finish this on later in the week – speaking of missing the bus! I’m out!
September 29, 2009
Fathead wanted me to talk about some of the Fun Stuff and gadgets I like…My cell phone is what I definitely have to have. I’m barely on Facebook and not a Twitter person.
As far as pranks and stuff, we rookies haven’t really had to put up with any pranks by the veterans. The only thing I have to do is buy Popeye’s Chicken before every road game for the veterans. That’s the biggest thing so I guess I can handle that one. At least we didn’t have to do a Rookie Show like some of the other teams have to do.
Music…you know I’m listening to Lil Wayne or T.I on the iPod. They are in heavy rotation right now. TI’s Motivation is probably one of my favorite songs of all time. I listen to a little bit of everything but I like stuff that really has some meaning – songs that move me, old school or new it don’t matter. Phil Collin’s “In the Air Tonight” is one of my favorites too. I got a few of them that would surprise you.
My comforts of home are basically my room. That is my sanctuary but the rest of my house is more homey. I got a lot of family – I have a lot of family that comes up every week so I didn’t go with the whole bachelor pad thing. The rest of the house is more built for family. Well got to get ready for practice tomorrow. Hit you back Friday.
September 25, 2009
Hey Fathead – hope you got some rest because we still got the 2nd half of the practice to go. In a 2 a day the 2nd practice we’d go 10-10-10. That’s when offense gets 10 plays vs. the scout team, defense gets 10 plays vs. the scout team and you do that 3 times or we go with special teams practice so the 2nd practice might be all special teams and we work on 3 special teams for about an hour.
My pre-camp work ethic was pretty intense, I feel like I was in pretty good shape before training camp but I can tell you right now, anybody who tells you they knew what to expect or they knew what they were going to be up against as a rookie coming into the NFL is not being straight with you. It Is Grueling!!
It wasn’t about trying to anticipate what to expect or having any idea what I was up against, but I was just trying to prepare myself like I never had before and I still got there and felt like my legs were run into the ground. You cannot prepare for what they throw at you at this level of the game. It’s just something that you just have to experience and go through it and then you can see how you’re supposed to do things.
After the 1st couple of days I kind of had it down. I had some pretty good practices – it just all comes down to the mental side of things. You get good repetitions and a chance to see the talent you’re up against and once you learn the speed of the game, it starts to click. But it’s mental – believing that you can do it – knowing that you can do it because it’s you’re natural ability that got you here in the 1st place. So once you get the mental side down you then your natural ability has a chance to show.
Another important part of my routine is that I look at my play book at home for an hour at the end of the day – Everyday! As far as preparing for a game I keep it pretty loose, one day I can be listening to music and the next studying plays – but that’s just my process – one day I’ll be all hyped up – jumping around and next I will be just quietly sitting at my locker deep in thought. It depends on my frame of mind.
Facing off…there are a few teams I’m looking forward to playing. Obviously we play in one of the toughest divisions in Football. The situation that I have in Philly is one I could not have asked for a better situation. There are a couple of receivers that went ahead of me in the draft this past year and we play both of those teams so I’m looking forward to playing them. I’m just happy I’m playing with the Eagles and have to face those teams. Time to get my game face on, see you next week.
September 23, 2009
What’s up Fathead Nation. I’m blogging for Fathead and they just told me my Fathead image is ready and up on Fathead.com. That’s pretty cool. My agent tells me I’m going up on their wall of fame in their office once my image was ready. If I had my choice of how my Fathead will look, I think it’s got to be laying out for a ball or on my way to scoring a touchdown – one of those shots where you can see that I’m tracking the ball all the way.
Fathead wanted me to blog about what Training Camp was like. So
my alarm clock goes off at 6:30 and basically you get up and go down to breakfast. You have to drive down to breakfast because it’s not that close. Breakfast for me varied with what my day required; one day it may be bacon and eggs or maybe a bowl of cereal and some fruit. As far as breakfast goes I’m not the type of guy who has a set routine – it’s whatever the body requires for the day and what I’m feeling.
So once we’re through with breakfast, we have to drive to the stadium for practice. What I do from there normally depends on how my body feels – I might start off in the hot-tub or do some warm packs on my hamstrings to loosen them up, depending on how much I ran the previous day. So you do that early prep and then you get out of there, take your shower and then go down to the training room – get your ankles taped and then go back into the locker room, suit up and hit the practice field. That is pretty much the pre-practice part of my day.
For practice itself every day I go out about 10 – 15 minutes early to get a little special teams work in before practice actually starts. But basically, the rookies get right in there with the vets – you are no longer a rookie as far as what is expected of you. You are expected to know everything the vets know. So practice starts and you break down into your individual groups. We’d go over some receiver work and in training camp because we had so much stuff to do and so much to cover – every unit would go in set’s of 1’s 2’s and 3’s.
The individual period of practice are usually pretty short, so a lot of the individual work-out we went straight to team work-outs, like going against the defenses we had 2 periods of teams and then right after teams we’d go to one on one drills with the defense, then we’d start team drills again and depending on what day it was we’d go to a special teams period, on either punt return work or kick return work and this is all in the first practice before lunch. We get a lot done before lunch time.
You look exhausted so I’m gonna stop here! More later…
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