08-05-2004, 09:59 AM
P.J.'s Big Adventure: Ready to get serious
By P.J. Fleck
Special to RedEye
August 3, 2004, 10:26 AM CDT
A day after I arrived at camp, I was by my locker on Saturday when one of our quality control guys came up and said, "Coach wants to see you."
I almost thought he was talking to me. I turned around and he was talking to Wendell Williams, one of our wide receivers, who I thought was pretty good.
Wendell kind of looked around, then he went upstairs. After that, we never saw Wendell again.
Right after Wendell left, they took his playbook out of his locker, cleaned it out, and I didn't see him after that. When a guy gets cut, they take them back to the hotel, and he leaves right away. Wendell was here for mini-camps but lasted two days of training camp. One day you're here, one day you're not.
I'll be honest. My first thought after that happened was, "I hope they don't come back down and get me."
It reminded me that this is a business. They can like you as a person, they can like you just as yourself. But if they don't want you around, they aren't going to have you around. It's a tough business, like any other.
You've got to be able to play football, and hopefully I'm going to be able to stay around a little longer and make this team.
So far I'm not getting a lot of reps, but I'm getting enough. You've got to make sure you take advantage of the reps you get. If I get eight reps in practice and I mess up four of them, that's 50 percent. By comparison, Brandon Lloyd probably gets 30 to 35 reps in practice.
It's been great to see the team become a team. Mini-camp is one thing, but once you get into training camp, the season really starts. Everybody starts playing for one another and they practice smart.
For example, I'll be going across the middle and Jeff Ulbrich, our middle linebacker, could take a huge shot at me but he doesn't, because I'm his teammate. We practice smart together. If we want to win as a football team, we need to keep everybody healthy. They all respect one another.
I always heard from my friends, "Man, you're going to get lit up across the middle."
But I haven't got lit up. Not yet anyway.
By P.J. Fleck
Special to RedEye
August 3, 2004, 10:26 AM CDT
A day after I arrived at camp, I was by my locker on Saturday when one of our quality control guys came up and said, "Coach wants to see you."
I almost thought he was talking to me. I turned around and he was talking to Wendell Williams, one of our wide receivers, who I thought was pretty good.
Wendell kind of looked around, then he went upstairs. After that, we never saw Wendell again.
Right after Wendell left, they took his playbook out of his locker, cleaned it out, and I didn't see him after that. When a guy gets cut, they take them back to the hotel, and he leaves right away. Wendell was here for mini-camps but lasted two days of training camp. One day you're here, one day you're not.
I'll be honest. My first thought after that happened was, "I hope they don't come back down and get me."
It reminded me that this is a business. They can like you as a person, they can like you just as yourself. But if they don't want you around, they aren't going to have you around. It's a tough business, like any other.
You've got to be able to play football, and hopefully I'm going to be able to stay around a little longer and make this team.
So far I'm not getting a lot of reps, but I'm getting enough. You've got to make sure you take advantage of the reps you get. If I get eight reps in practice and I mess up four of them, that's 50 percent. By comparison, Brandon Lloyd probably gets 30 to 35 reps in practice.
It's been great to see the team become a team. Mini-camp is one thing, but once you get into training camp, the season really starts. Everybody starts playing for one another and they practice smart.
For example, I'll be going across the middle and Jeff Ulbrich, our middle linebacker, could take a huge shot at me but he doesn't, because I'm his teammate. We practice smart together. If we want to win as a football team, we need to keep everybody healthy. They all respect one another.
I always heard from my friends, "Man, you're going to get lit up across the middle."
But I haven't got lit up. Not yet anyway.