Thursday, August 16, 2007

Special St. louis Rams Scrimmage




The following post is from my neighbor who had ticket to the special St. louis Rams Scrimmage on Wed. August 15th.

The practice was closed to public. However, the Rams (the and NFL) are big supporters of the United Way. Thus, they had a special VIP sections set up for United Way Board members and their families for this practice session only. I am a United Way Board Member so I was able to get tickets. There were actually 3 VIP tents. One for players families, one for their sales staff and one for United Way. Each tent had a large cooling fan and tables and chairs plus a small bleacher section. The practice facility has three adjacent football fields. The tents were located between the main office building and the football fields. There was only about 50 feet between the building and the end zones. That is where the tents were set up. The viewing area was separated from the end zone by a railing. Most people just stood at the railing to watch practice.

They had snacks and beverages available for all visitors plus some basic souvenirs - magnets with the schedule and stuff like that. It was hot but, in the shade, it was not too bad. By 7:30 PM the 3-story office complex blocked the sun from the viewing area and about half of the practice area.

There were about 50 - 60 visitors there.

They have 99 players on their roster. So with players, coaches, trainers, etc., there were about 130 people on the field. After some basic streaching excercises, the first hour was spend on drills. There were about 6 or 7 groups working on different phases of the game. Defensive backs were doing footwork and coverage drills, kickers and holders were working on their snaps, punters and kickers were punting and kicking to each other, offensive linemen were going through half-speed blocking assignments, receivers were going through route drills with the QBs, etc. They spent some time working on punt and kick-off coverage. So there was a lot of activities ongoing on simultaneously on all three fields.

The practice was fairly well scripted. A buzzer went off about every 15 minutes and each groups went on to a different drill. Some of the drills included full offense line and back field against a defensive line - they were working on timing and assignments. However, I assume becasue of the heat, they were not in pads so their was no contact.

We did not stay until the end do to the heat.




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