Exceedingly Mundane

We had a busy, but fun, weekend. Lot of football going on around here!

This is the third year in a row that our favorite football team, the New Orleans Saints, have held their summer training camp here in our town (last year’s entry, with pictures, is here). We love that it is so close by. I have a good time going with Tim – because he loves football and loves to watch them practice, play, run drills, anything. I have a good time because I get to take my camera and take pictures 🙂

As I’ve stated in years past, I really feel for these guys. It’s probably as hot here this time of year as it is in New Orleans. They’re outside, in jerseys and football pants or shorts, and sometimes pads and almost always helmets, and they’ve got to be so hot. This year, they’ve added a “cooling tent” for the players, so they can cool down on their breaks and bring their core body temperature down. So, that’s a good thing. And they definitely keep them hydrated. The water boys stay busy running around, bringing them all water and Gatorade. They definitely need it – our high today is supposed to be 102º, with a heat index of near 110º. Yikes!

I’ve posted pictures before, and I’ll post a few on the extended page. We went twice this weekend, to both practices on Saturday. The morning practice was bearable because there was a slight breeze. The afternoon practice was hot and I got a little sunburn on my face, not bad. We left before it was over, because they were on the far side of the field from us and with all of the assistants, coaches, camera people, water boys, players not participating, etc all standing on the “sidelines”, they block our view of what they are doing. And I can’t get very good shots! We had fun though, and we are going to try to go again before they break camp. We’re looking forward – as always – to the preseason and then the regular season games. We’re big football fans here. Tim has been all of his life, and I’ve learned to really love football over the years. It’s something we really enjoy doing together 🙂

Are you ready for some football?!!!!!

Click on the extended entry for pictures of some of our favorite sweaty football players!

I’ll start off with a couple of my favorite pictures. I took a lot, so I had a hard time picking which ones to blog about. These are a couple of my favorites though:

I caught a nice moment off to the side at the end of the morning practice. Our QB, Drew Brees, chatting with new TE Jeremy Shockey. Let’s hope they develop a good rapport!

And at the afternoon practice, Drew Brees walked by our RB Deuce McAllister – I was so glad I caught it with my camera!

My favorite Saints fan of them all, Tim!

From the morning practice, all three quarterbacks talking. #9 Drew Brees, and backups #11 Mark Brunell and #3 Tyler Palko

Getting some water, #12, our favorite WR, Marques Colston (it looks better at full size, you can see the water squirting in his mouth!)

Then, Colston catching a pass:

O-line versus D-line:

Kicker and Punter – Martin Gramatica and Steve Weatherford:

Newcomers, but not rookies, Johnathon Vilma and Jeremy Shockey:

We have high hopes for our rookie WR, Adrian Arrington:

After his second major knee surgery in three years, our RB Deuce McAllister sat out the morning practice. We were glad to see him dressed and running some in the afternoon practice:

Drew Brees and Reggie Bush:

Reggie Bush, #25, running after making a catch:

We had a couple of notable visitors. Peter King of Sports Illustrated stopped by. We think he was on his way to visit Favre in Hattiesburg after checking out our training camp. Sunday, we read online some quotes that he made of Favre from his home in MS on Saturday evening:

Only notable because we’d never seen them at training camp before. They probably come every year, but this was our first time seeing them ride by, like royalty or something, LOL! Owners Tom Benson and Rita Benson LeBlanc: