| | By Doug Brien
Special to ESPN.com
Editor's note: What is life in an NFL training camp like? Kicker Doug Brien takes you inside the camp of the New Orleans Saints with his daily diary for ESPN.com.
Monday, July 17
|  | | Top pick Darren Howard does an agility drill Monday. |
THIBODAUX, La. -- Every other day we have two practices a day. We have a practice at 9 a.m. and at 7 p.m. Having one
of our practices at night is a brilliant idea. In the
past our "double-days" consisted of a 9 a.m. and a 3
p.m. practice, like most teams. Fortunately, our
coaches had the idea to take advantage of the lights
in Nicholls State's stadium and beat the heat. When
we went out for our first night practice it was
heaven. I later heard that the heat index was still
105 degrees, but it was a cool 105. About a
half-hour into practice the sun set over the west
side of the stadium and the temperature became
very comfortable. In fact, it was so nice that I heard
a number of players fantasizing about one five-hour
practice starting at 7 p.m. I am going to go out on a
limb and say "I don't think so."
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I saw one of our linebackers, K.D. Williams, suffering from heat exhaustion in the training room following practice. He lay on a table reeling in pain as his body continued to convulse from the constant cramping throughout his body. ” |
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I never thought the day would come when I would
prefer a double-day to a one-a-day schedule. I will
have to give it a few days of thought before I
officially come to that conclusion, but so far I would
take our double-days with early morning practices
and late evening practices over our full-padded 3 p.m.
practice. Our practice yesterday at 3 p.m. was
scorching. The heat index topped out at 115 degrees
and we were out there for about two-and-a-half
hours. I was not feeling too great after doing a field
goal period and then a kick-off period shortly there
after. I can only imagine how the other guys who
have to run around for two hours straight must have
felt -- especially the defense in their black jerseys.
Actually I did get a pretty good feel for how they felt
when I saw one of our linebackers, K.D. Williams,
suffering from heat exhaustion in the training room
following practice. He lay on a table reeling in pain as
his body continued to convulse from the constant
cramping throughout his body; it was not a pretty
site. The trainers packed his chest and armpits with
bags of ice and pumped his veins full of salt water
with an IV.
If you are a Saints fan, please pray for some cooler
weather to pass through southeast Louisiana over
the next few day or weeks.
Material from kicking.com.
Visit Doug Brien's web site at http://www.kicking.com
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ALSO SEE
Doug's diary: Learning camp rules
NFL Training Camp 2000
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