Brown, White, Sayers, Taylor...Just to name a few

Last friday me and the rookies flew to Canton, Ohio to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the NFL's rookie orientation program. They flew us out there to learn of the history, create awareness of the ups and downs, and to have a good foundation to start our careers with.

Gale Sayers, Chicago Bear Hall of Famer from the late 60's, tagged along with us. Currently owner of a large computer manufacturing business, he has made impacts in and outside of the game. He's a man of few words, but to just be with him was an honor in itself.

It was long day, but it was well worth out time. Check it out:

Update

Currently we just finished mini camp. The veterans are here and you don't get as many opportunities now since the focus is on them. So I have to take advantage of every opportunity I get. We have training this week. So we'll spending more time "pumping-it-up".

On Friday we will be flying to Canton, Ohio to check out the Hall of Fame. Gale Sayers will tag along with us. So it should be quite an experience.

More Slide shows. Coming Soon

OTA's

Stands for Offseason Training Activity.

Right now I am residing in a hotel in Lake Forest, Illnois which in North of downtown Chicago. It's a suburb region far from the city.

We just started practice yesterday with all the veterans out there minus Brian Urlacher and Tommie Harris. Probably contract negociations. The veterans are cool. Nothing too crazy has happened to me. Or yet. I'm back to being a rookie again so I have to start from the bottom just like I did in high school and college.

We probably have the most relaxed camp out of anybody's since Coach Smith likes to keep our practices to a minimum to keep his guys healthy. That's one of the most important things at this level since you can potentially play 24 games in one season. Preseason (4), Season (16), Playoffs (4).

I've already falling in love with this city especially in the downtown area. It's amazing. Next time I will post pictures of our trip to a Cubs game and our tour of the city.

Soon I will be in San Diego to celebrate graduating from college and it will be wonderful to see family, friends and my beaitful lady.

See Yall later.

A certain city that starts with a "C" and ends with an "O" with "HICAG" in the middle

If you don't know already I was picked up as an undrafted free agent by the "Da Bears" so I will be making Chicago my new home for a while. Hopefully a long while.

I am back at home now. I woke not to long ago at about 1pm. Decided to sleep in a bit. I was bit tired from the weekend.

Everything in my opinion went well. It was overwhelmed at first and I had a some nervousness when I first got there. I believe all of us (Draftpicks, free agents, and tryout guys) had some butterflies about the whole thing. On the first day they told us to slow down and stop going so hard when we went against each other. They didn't want us hurting one another and also just wanted us to focus on what we were doing less then how hard we would do it.

I like the D line coach. He's a real country fellow from Mississippi. It was given hard time at first for being so quite the first couple of days. I was just trying to feel everything and get comfortable with how everything works. No it was because I was mumbling.

The weather up there was off and on. The first day of practice was inside there the indoor facility (http://www.kalwall.com/chicago.htm) because of the heavy rain, but warm temperatures. The next day was about 40 degrees, cold, wet, and raining. But it was still football kind of weather. So I fought through cramps and stiffness to get through practice. Lots of Gatorade and extra electrolyte packets.

On the first and second day they did a thorough physical with a chest X-ray, an eye examination, breathing test, a standard Dr.'s physical, EKG, dental, orthopedists exam, hearing test (like the one you do when your 6), and then they take your blood and urine and test that for anything on top of looking at your medical history. After that they take our weight and body fat in the Bod Pod (http://www.wheaton.edu/ahs/Facilities/BodPod.png). It's really hard to do the Bod Pod right the first time so it took me like 5 times to get it right. So they don't miss a beat.

The food was great. Much like cafeteria style but nonetheless great stuff.

Even in these first four days they were cramming a lot of information into our heads about everything from how to talk to media to the proper way to conduct ourselves in different places to how to club and rip on a pop up bag.

Yesterday we had chapel with Ray McElroy, the team chaplain. He's real passionate man who has used his platform as an NFL player to reach out many youth across the states (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGlVqHCrw5o).

Overall it was a very intense weekend and they didn't waist one minute of our time with practice and all the different meetings we had. But I look foward to continue training next week on the 16th when the whole team reports for training. So there will be more to come.

NFL News

So the latest as of today is that the Patriots just called me a couple of hours ago and let me know that they would be interested in picking me as a priority free agent for their outside rusher position. The same position that Mike Vrabel plays on their team .

I called Terry afterwards to let him know and he informed that the Green Bay Packers are interested as well. They emailed him to let him know. So I may recieve a call from them in the near future sometime before the draft.

So as of now...

Chicago: 6th or 7th rd to free agent
http://www.chicagobears.com/
Patriots: Priority free agent
http://www.patriots.com/
Green Bay: Shown interest
http://www.packers.com/

Nothing is ever promised or "written on paper" so don't get to excited until next Sunday when I should recieve word from these teams during the 6th or 7th round or soon there after.

Right now I continue to work and train the best I can. Where ever I end up I need to be ready for that opportunity.

THE INFERNO

While visiting Ashley and her family one night. We had a cordial gathering with some "could be better" Chinese food. Ashley's mom decided to get the fireplace going with a couple of Duraflames. Very proud of the inferno she created, she went outside to look and to her surprise flames and sparks raged from the chimney and danced across the roof.

With the utmost in mother urgency, she rushed inside. "Someone call 911," she said. Focused on the meal in front of me and and not knowing what was happening, I thought she was singing the Wyclef song, "...somebody call 911..." I quickly realized that the fire was a little out of the ordinary.

Ashley and her mom told us to vacate the premises as soon as possible. Ashley grabbed valuables and we all went outside and saw the fire display. I figured why let the house burn so I went inside to try and out the fire.

My Boy Scout expertise lacked the knowledge needed to extinguish a log doused in flammable chemicals so I read the log package figuring there would be some emergency instructions. While pondering over the small writing, Evan, Ashley's brother handed me an extinguisher. "Oh that should work." It pretty much put out the fire.

The whole Vallejo city fire department paraded onto the scene as you can see. After a thorough inspection as we waited outside in the cold brisk air, the boys in yellow made there exit. They had informed us that Duraflames aren't exactly the safest things to burn especially when you use more than one (http://www.duraflame.com/aa_faq/faq01.php) Check out Product Safety.

Well they say you only call 911 once or twice within a lifetime so that's one for Ashley's mom.

Getty March 14

While in San Diego. I rode with Ashley to LA so she could take care of dress business for a wedding. She planned a trip to the Getty Center. The famous art museum. I've driven by it many times on my way to the Bay, but never actually new what it was. I always thought it some exclusive celebrity club where Robin Leech greets you at the door.

We met up with her friend Tamra and her fiance. Quite a couple. Lots of character.

Enjoy my photos of excursion in the LA hills. There's nice view of beautiful traffic on the I-405.