| | 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 weekday diary for ESPN.com.
Friday, Aug. 11
THIBODAUX, La. -- Yesterday we had our second lightning storm during practice. The first one, which was on Tuesday afternoon, only lasted about a half-hour, so we were able to resume practice. Yesterday's storm was worse. Lightning started to strike during our pre-stretch walk-through and coach Jim Haslett immediately sent us to the locker room to seek shelter. He has always told us that we will practice in the rain, but not lightning.
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We sat in the locker room for about 15 minutes waiting to see if the storm would pass or if we would head to the gym to get in a workout. Finally, Coach Haslett called everyone up and informed us that practice was called off, dinner at the cafeteria was optional (normally attendance is taken at all meals and we are fined for missing a meal), and curfew was at midnight. The team roared its approval. Minutes later when I was exiting the locker room, I saw Ricky Williams pulling out in his new Ferrari Medina to head for home. It takes most of us a little over an hour to make the trip to New Orleans, but from what I have heard about his new toy it might take him half that time.
A lot of players made the trek back to New Orleans to see their families. Since practice was called off at about 3 p.m. and curfew was not until midnight, many of the guys wanted to take advantage of the time off. For those of us who stayed in Thibodaux, a good meal out was in order. We went to a nice little place down the street called Flanigans. Toby Gowin and I brought our two rookie counterparts so they could buy us dinner. It is an NFL ritual for the rookies to take the veterans at their respective positions out to dinner during training camp. In the past, some positions like offensive line and defensive back have gotten limousines to make the affair nicer -- or maybe they were forced to. Who's to say? Since Toby and I are not the intimidating type we settled for a nice steak dinner and a ride in Toby's new Suburban.
Today we fly to Indianapolis to play the Colts. Although we are playing at Purdue University, which is just over an hour outside Indianapolis, we are staying at a hotel in downtown Indianapolis. This means we get to have an hour ride to the game and then another hour ride back to the airport after the game is over. One thing I will not miss about the preseason is getting home at 3 a.m. after every game.
Have a great weekend.
Material from kicking.com.
Visit Doug Brien's web site at http://www.kicking.com
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