This is a collection of notes from camp that are neither about player performance nor the coach's schemes.
Overheard
"Ndamokung Suh had more sacks than Alabama and Florida combined."
Quoted from a twenty-something guy that spent much of practice spouting these kinds of factoids. Suh had 12 sacks. Alabama: 32 Florida: 39
"Rule number one: Do not be too loyal to your favorite team."
The above person's father. The line produced an audible gasp from a diehard Seahawks sitting in the row in front of me.
"Losman? I don't like that name."
A fan first learning that J.P. Losman is the Seahawks backup quarterback. His sentiment may soon be shared.
"Who's that?"
"Mike Williams. He's the receiver."
"Who?"
"Mike Williams."
A wife attempting to explain who Mike Williams is to her confused husband.
"Babineaux? Oh, I've heard of him."
A flash of recognition strikes the faithful.
"That guy, he's working for ...San Francisco."
A fan commenting on me.
Details
- The buzz on the bus was all about how dedicated Lofa Tatupu was to signing autographs for fans on Saturday. This touches on my little blog post from yesterday. Some people pretend that sport is about the team and not the players, but for the majority of fans, this just isn't true. It's about the feel of the stadium and the fireworks and the refreshment and the entrance theme and the tailgaiting and, yes, the players. Tatupu has not played a quality season since 2007, but jerseys bearing his name were everywhere. Many people go to training camp for the brush with greatness, and when greatness is gracious, fans notice.
- People get excited when they see the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
- Pete Carroll runs practice differently than Jim Mora. Mora spread the players wide into rows and columns and had everyone do a stretching routine before practicing. Carroll is more lax, with players in two messy columns, and instead of stretching all at once, the players warm up a little, stretch a little, warm up a little, do some drills, and then repeat the process.
- There seems to be more of an emphasis on dynamic stretching and less of an emphasis on static stretching.
- One drill was conducted underneath a trampoline, presumably to improve the players' pad level.
- Carroll and Dan Quinn appear to have a rapport. I noticed easy conversation between the two. Quinn has the look of a future head coach.
- Carroll spends a lot of time throwing passes. It gets a huge ovation. At one point, he functioned as the quarterback in 11-on-11 drills. It was an utter waste of time for the receivers and defensive backs, and probably dangerous. Carroll is impressive for a coach, but consistently errant during drills. Attempting to catch and defend Carroll's passes created some awkward poses and clumsy looking play.
- It might have been misdirection. I only noticed too late that on the far field, Hasselbeck, Whitehurst and Losman were running drills.
- Another difference, and an unwelcome one, is that instead of spreading practice across the full field, it's mostly bunched towards the VMAC. Some practices occur in front of the hill and some occur way in the distance, but the left portion of the field is unused. Fans are allowed in an "L" shape along the front and left of the field, and without any action on the left, everyone was crowded onto the hill. It meant less to see and worse conditions for viewing.
A Running Tally of Player Jerseys Worn by Fans
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