Cardinals Training Camp

Every summer, the Arizona Cardinals NFL team begins its training in Flagstaff. Their camp began last weekend amid great hoopla and anticipation. The first thing we did when we got there is go to see "Big Red," the Cardinals mascot. We were actually the last people to get a personal "meet and greet" with the big bird because it was kind of warm and Big Red needed a break.

There were a few booths selling souvenirs ($95 for a Matt Leinert jersey) and water ($2 for a bottle). There were also several very crowded kids' activities for which the parent had to sign a waiver, but nobody said anything about that until the kids had stood in line for 5 minutes!


After a turn on the "jumpy thing" there, Annie and I decided to leave the male world of football and go for a walk on campus. Michael has filled me in on what happened after we left.


The Cardinals are a perennially terrible team, And Tim says not like the "lovable losers," the Cubs. Michael tells me they found out why the team is so bad. Apparently the quarterbacks were doing a drill where they were trying to hit a trashcan with a football. The starting quarterback, Matt Leinert, was unable to hit it. Ever. During the drill, one unsuspecting player was hit in the nose while he was stretching about 10 feet away from the trashcan, and an assistant coach was hit in the shoulder -- although, to be fair, the ball ricocheted off the rim of the trashcan in that incident.

Oh, well. Another losing year, I guess.