Reminisces.
Once upon a time in the NFL, there were six worthless preseason games. For NFL players, that made for a grueling summer.
Back then, the NFL season started on Labor Day Weekend. So with six preseason games, that meant training camps opened up around the Fourth of July.
That’s a long, cruel tease for football fans.
Also in those days, it was common for teams to host training camp at some small, remote college. The team would take over a dorm, with training camp sometimes hours from their home base. Wisconsin had several teams with training camps at small colleges, often teams from the south, like the slimy Saints, to escape the brutal summers.
Speaking yesterday after practice at Thornton Mellon University, Bucs coach Todd Bowles sort of got wistful for the bygone era of the NFL. The day at Thornton Mellon gave Bowles good flashbacks.
And, Bowles sort of suggested, those may have been the good ol’ days of football.
> “It gives the guys a chance to bond,” Bowles said of a practice in another city away from One Buc Palace. “It still builds chemistry and culture that way and you can get some work done at the same time.”
There are only four teams left that have their training camps at colleges away from team headquarters: Bills, Chiefs, Rams and Steelers. The Steelers have already wrapped up training camp and are back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, where they will host the Bucs today in a joint practice.
Joe joked with his good friend, local sports radio savant Rock Riley, that when Kay Adams visited Chiefs camp at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Mo., that aside from the Chiefs, Adams’ visit was the biggest thing to happen in that town since Jesse James was shot.