With things generally looking up on the new CBA labor front, I hate to be Debbie Downer… but my best guess is a Lehigh Training Camp open to the Eagles fan public is already lost… and Undrafted Free Agents will remain in the limbo of a “Lost 2011” year…
Cherish this photo scene of 2010’s Training Camp at Lehigh… it may very well be as close to a memory or a dream you will have of interacting with Eagles players and coaching personnel at an open training camp setting until the summer of 2012…
You may think the NFL has an “agreement in principle” with the labor negotiators representing the players… but that is not enough to open Training Camp at Lehigh.
This fact of life was driven home to me by Stan White, former NFL linebacker, currently an attorney, high school football coach, and radio analyst for the Baltimore Ravens…
Stan told me: “It may take many weeks for the two sides to get it all down in writing… and there’s still the possibility that a bunch of owners may pull the rug out on the current negotiations, which happened to us while I was a player rep in the ’70’s, just to see if they could panic us and break us down…”
“Either way, I don’t see the Big Deal getting done in writing in time to open traditional Training Camps around the league…”
No sooner did I get off the line with Stan White, when I heard an announcement on the WBAL-AM radio feed:
“The Baltimore Ravens have pulled the plug on their traditional Training Camp at McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College) in Westminster, Maryland… This will be the first time in 16 years the Ravens have not held an open training camp… They will instead train at their team facility in Owings Mills, and all practice sessions will be closed to the public…”
My first reaction was: this does not bode well for Lehigh.
It’s sad. I’ve attended both the training camps of the Eagles and the Ravens for many years. It is a sheer joy to get up close to the ropes and mingle with the players and the coaches and the operational staff members. It is like a community festival in many ways. It is absolutely a joy to witness young kids brought in by the busloads grabbing their chance to get behind the ropes at the end of practice and score autographs and a personal moment with their heroes.
I will also miss the random and completely personal one-on-one’s you can get with the players…usually at the end of morning practice…when you can just listen to guys talk with each other and establish some credibility with them by just being a quiet observer. They totally get it when you are down by the ropes…but don’t yell at them. Just observe…
Better yet, if you book a room for a few days, or live close enough to the training site to hang around after hours, you’ll get a chance to run into a player or three at a local restaurant or bar…just sharing the same space in a public room… and you’d be surprised at how willing some of them are to include you in the conversation.
As long as you don’t act like a jerk…
It’s usually a magical time in the life of fans and players…but it’s being taken away by the litigative delays.
Local merchants in Bethlehem, Pa. will feel it, too, as revenue dollars they counted upon quickly evaporate into the litigative fog…
Hotels, motels, restaurants, corporate sponsors, day-workers, cab-drivers, concession operators….forget about it.
Baltimore was the first to drop the other shoe on NFL Training Camp yesterday. You should hear the moaning and wailing among the merchants of Westminster, a town virtualy the same size and similar remote location as Bethlehem. The Ravens drew over 120,000 fans and tourists to their traditional TC venue last summer. The local Best Western was booked exclusively by the team for its players and staff in 2010. Now all of that local economy is up in smoke.
I fear the same fate for Bethlehem and Lehigh University.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, the undrafted free agents out there are getting the shaft, too… Unless something gets put down in writing soon on a new CBA, the Class of 2011 Undrafted FA’s will be known simply as “The Lost Boys”…
This is a crueler fate than losing traditional fan-interactive Training Camp…
This is a group of very good players who for some God-only-knows reason did not get picked in the 2011 Draft. This group of “Lost Boys” includes:
TIER ONE (My personal bias picks):
- Pat Devlin, QB, Delaware
- Darvin Adams, WR, Auburn
- Scott Tolzien, QB, Wisconsin
- Brandon Bair, DE, Oregon
- Terrence Tolliver, WR, LSU
- Ian Williams, DL, Notre Dame
- Kris O’Dowd, C, USC
- Chris L. Rucker, CB, Michigan State
- Henry Hynoski, FB, Pitt
- Jerrod Johnson, QB, Texas A&M
- Josh Bynes, LB, Auburn
- Damik Scafe, DL, Boston College
TIER TWO (My personal bias picks):
- Anthony Walters, S, Delaware
- Jake Kirkpatrick, C, TCU
- Kendric Burney, CB, North Carolina
- Mike Hartline, QB, Kentucky
- Mario Fannin, RB, Auburn
- Mark Herzlich, LB, Boston College
- Zach Hurd, G, Connecticut
- Blake Bolles, QB, NW Missouri State
- Marc Schiechl, DE, University of Colorado-Mines
- Joe Lefeged, S, Rutgers
- Preston Dial, FB, Alabama
It would be a sad waste of a year’s development time if these guys had to wait until the Spring of 2012 to even step foot upon a professional training facility. But much like traditional Training Camps closing to fans, this is where the collateral damage fallout is headed.
Andy Reid’s final take:
“We’ve got schedules set up,” Reid said. “If we have to practice (at the NovaCare Center in South Philadelphia), we practice here. If we have to practice at Lehigh, we practice at Lehigh. Everything is taken care of. We’ve got a good plan for both. I guess the changes (from Lehigh to NovaCare) would happen with the marketing department and the opportunity for the fans to see the team at that time, which is a shame.”
Any camp at NovaCare would be closed to fans due to legal restrictions put on the site when the Eagles built their complex there.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
