He led me back to the locker room, taking me to the back corner and showing me a locker that had a large white piece of medical tape above it, with the name Stevens wrote in black marker. He informed me, for the time being, this would be my locker until final cuts were made. He handed me a lock and key, told me to get dressed and meet him out on the practice field. I opened the locker to find it stocked full of shorts, tee shirts, mesh jerseys, socks, and shoes. I dressed quickly and made my way out to the field. Once there I was greeted by most of the coaching staff, along with several of the other recent draft choices. I was taken aside by Coach Reed, who instructed me to go with one of the trainers and work out with one of the special automated football throwing machines. I was directed to line up about twenty five yards down from the machine, face it and be ready to catch the ball. The trainer would hold up the ball to me, then insert it between the tires seconds later. I'm not sure how fast the machine was set on, but the ball got to me before I was ready. I dropped the first two passes before I was able to get my hands in time for the next ball. After about ten minutes, I was catching just about everything that was being fired at me.
He then yelled he was turning the machine up, to get ready. The ball was almost a blur as it shot out of the machine. My hands were not positioned properly and I felt the point of the ball sting my thumb severely. One of the wide receiver coaches came over and gave me a few pointers on hand position, which really made catching the ball a lot easier. I'm guessing all in all, I fielded close to two hundred balls before I was asked to move back to the field. For the next hour, I was instructed on route running, proper foot planting to make cuts, how to set screens for other receivers and so on. After four hours or so, we were told to hit the showers. Before we were excused for the day, we were each given a current play book, which if lost would mean dire consequences to our future with the team. We were told to be back in the morning at the same time.
I drove straight back to the hotel, got comfortable, opened the play book and became to study it. I immediately was overwhelmed by the wording and terminology of the complex system. Each position on the offense had a name, each direction has its own terminology, both the depth and width of the field had its own nomenclature. Each formation had at least a dozen possible check off in case an audible was called, I knew I had some serious work to do.
Over the next few days, I repeated most of the same drills over and over, some of the terminology being thrown at us little by little. I continued to do well at some things, but have problems with others. My route running was getting better, but I had a hard time adjusting to a ball that was not thrown well. This as I was to learn was a key to becoming a great receiver.
Finally the first camp opened, the first league sanctioned practice, where both veterans and rookies were in attendance. I would be the third tight end in rotation, we had a veteran pro bowl starter and a very good backup. If I were to get any playing time early, it would definitely be on special teams. I guess we were maybe an hour into practice when I got my first opportunity to line up with the starters. We were running some goal line offense, the ball was placed on the ten yard line. Our quarterback Josh Henson, was another all pro, having won two championships in his first six years in the league. He was considered one of the best touch passers in the league. I leaned over in the huddle to listen to the first call of the series.
"Double Slot Right, X Fade Right, Jet Left, 62 Combo on Three."Josh barked out.
I Immediately knew I was X, and I would run a lazy fade route into the corner after the slot receiver would cut in front of me attempting to screen my man out. If the play worked well, it should be a touchdown. Before we broke the huddle, Josh looked up at me and told me if I were covered, he would throw to my back shoulder, which was basically the sideline. I nodded, like I really knew what he was talking about. We lined up, I listened for the cadence. As I looked up, I saw the strong safety creep up almost to the line of scrimmage, a possible indication he would have me one on one. The ball was snapped and I broke out of my stance quickly. The slot receiver did a fair job of picking my man, I cut off his back and ran for the corner of the end zone, the strong safety just steps behind me. Josh quickly made up his mind, lofting the ball for the rear pylon. As the ball approached me, I realized it had been indeed thrown over my back shoulder to the sidelines. I basically came to a stop, planted my foot, opened my body up and turned in the opposite direction. By now the safety had recovered, and was right on top of me. I once again planted my foot and jumped high in the air trying to attack the ball at its highest peak, knowing the six foot safety could not play at that height. My timing was perfect, I snatched the ball out of mid-air, pulled it in as I fell backwards out of bounds. Several players applauded the efforts, including a few coaches. However the coach on the end line immediately signaled I had come down out of bounds.
"Stevens, all of that effort for nothing son, you have to fucking know where the end lines are rookie.", he growled, "Get your ass back in the huddle numb nuts."
I trotted back to the huddle and leaned over ready for the next play. I guess Josh noticed the dejected look on my face. He slapped my knee, getting my attention.
"Hey Rook, let it go, that was a big league catch and adjustment, you were in an altitude no one here can get to. Great catch, you keep doing that, I'll keep throwing at you.", he snapped.
True to his word, I was thrown at least another dozen balls while I was with the first unit, I managed to snag all but two of them. As we trotted off the field, Josh ran by me, patting me on the ass.
"We are gonna do good things rookie, with your height, we can play this game at a new level. Hang in there baby.", he said.
I was immediately excited, an all pro quarterback giving me some praise this early in the season. I trotted off the field and made my way to my locker. My exuberance was short- lived however as our starting tight end and eight year veteran, Billy Huber walked up to me.
"If you think I'm going to let a defensive end take my spot, you got another thing coming rookie. Stay the fuck out of my way or else.", he growled.
"I'm not trying to take your job Billy, just try to do whatever I can to help the team.", I answered calmly.
"Fuck you Rookie, stay out of my way.", he scolded, turned and walked away.
This was new to me, I had never experienced down right dislike between team mates before. I undressed slowly, showered then left for the hotel. That night I decided to call Courtney, just to see how everything was back home. I called her cell, she answered on the third ring.
"Hey Court, how are you ?", I asked.
"Briannnnnnnn, hey, I'm doing ok, I'm glad you called.", she said cheerfully.
We talked for close to an hour, she brought me up to speed on things back home, I relayed much of what was happening here to her. She had been working a lot, her Dad had been delegating more and more of the workload her way. She was working ten to twelve hours a day, sometimes half a day on Saturday. I told her that I would have a break at the end of mini camp, for close to five weeks before training camp started, I would probably fly home for at least a week or two. She said she would look forward to that, it would be nice to see me again.
After the meeting the following morning, I was summoned to the equipment manager's office. We went over all of my gear, he made size adjustments, we talked about the different shoes that were available, then he offered me my choice of numbers. The only numbers that would be available to me would be either 81, 84, or 89.
I had always worn number 99, but in the NFL a tight end could not have that number, thus it was a mute point. I thought for a few minutes then it struck me. My Dad's number in high school had been 8, he had been a quarterback, I had two 9's in my number. So I decided on number 89, which was a combination of both of our numbers. He informed me from now on, all gear issued to me would have the number 89 on it somewhere.
We finished mini camp eight days later, I was really exhausted, the pace was extremely hectic. I spent three hours a day in the weight room, three to four hours on the practice field, then another four on the playbook at night. I checked in with Coach Reed as I left the practice facility for the break.
"Brian, I will be honest. We are really pleased with the progress you have made, you're further along than anyone hoped at this point. In fact, if we lost our starter right now, I would have to give you consideration to step in and play.", he said.
"Thanks Coach, I appreciate the confidence you have in me.", I replied.
"What are your plans for the break ?", he asked.
"I was going to go home, relax a bit, not much else though.", I answered.
"Brian, I hate to ask you this, but I would like you to stay here for another two to three weeks and work out with the backup quarterbacks. I think it would do you a world of good. It would still leave you two weeks to go home afterwards.", he urged.
"No problem Coach, I'll do whatever it takes.", I answered quickly.