With apologies to Jimmy Buffet:
“Living on away takes, watching the sun bake,
All of those Who Dats tired of oil,
Feeling my sweat pool, no place to get cool,
The smell of bald heads beginning to boil…
Melting away again in Tom Bensonville…
Searching for my lost tablets of salt…
Some people say there’s a game to be played…
But right now, I could sure use a malt…
In 2006, Sean Payton weather in Jackson, Mississippi meant not having a single practice rained out. So, is it any coincidence that in 2010 as he tries to set the tone to defend a Super Bowl championship that training camp opens to the hottest weekend of the summer?
After an hour in the unrelenting morning sun, that’s not a helmet on your head…that’s a crockpot. But they also suffer who sit and watch as the fans seem to have it just as bad as the players.
“As hot as it is for us, it’s pretty hot to sit in those bleachers for two hours,” commented Payton after the first practice open to the public. “But it’s good to see them. You pull up here in the morning and see a line of people here before you are and it’s pretty impressive.”
For those fans, the sun delivers a ‘remember me’ shot. As Kramer once said on an episode of Seinfeld, while he was sitting in one, “It feels like a sauna in here.” But at least in a sauna, you sit around wearing just a towel. Try that at Saints camp and you’ll be watching the game with Newell Normand.
One the sidelines a lot of reporters ask, “What’s your number?” They aren’t asking for a prediction on the coming season, they’re comparing SPF numbers on their sunscreen.
In 2006, in Jackson, there was no air-conditioned, inside, alternative to beat the heat like the team has at its facility in Metairie. This year the Saints used it as soon as the second practice of camp.
In 2006 it was about breaking the team down before a rookie coach could build it up. In 2010 it’s about not breaking down a team coming off a Super Bowl win, a team that won’t perceive moving inside as a sign of coaching weakness, but of coaching compassion and recognition.
“It’s going to be a tough camp,” said Payton. “Every camp is different and I think as you go back to that camp in 2006, maybe theres other goals in mind your first year.”
Payton now trusts his gut and his gum to help him decide when to practice indoors.
“It’s when your gum starts melting in your pocket,” he said. Payton is of course known to rarely be without his gum.
A long season looms ahead. Soon the Saints will go from the frying pan of training camp to the fire of the regular season.
But, as the weather cools, the Saints hope to stay hot because they occasionally chose to avoid the heat, rather than combat it. Insuring all Who Dats have a pleasant Christmas vacation.
