Ryan & I made a friendly wager on the results of Super Bowl XLI and happily…I WON! Per our bet, Ryan had to pay to send me to a clinic run at the Colts practice facility for women who want to learn the basics of football.Last night my friends Libby and Laura joined me for four workshops hosted by Colts players, alumni and an NFL official.
Former tight end, Geneo Riley, lead an interactive session on th
e practice field that covered; terminology regarding the offense & defense and line-ups. The best part was watching a lady in her 90’s play the role of Marvin Harrison beautifully! They gave us laminated cards (aka cheat sheets) with details & pictures of all the positions and their responsibilities. Libby & Laura even got “drafted” to play mock defense!THEN we met with alumni wide receiver, Darvell Huffman, who covered the breakdown of teams within the two conferences, how schedules are created and the importance of the bye week. He basically told us that a group of men decide all those things over mai tais in a warm location somewhere every year. Hmmm….
THEN we met with Colt’s practice QB #9, Josh Betts, and Defensive Back #33, Melvin Bullitt. They were SUPPOSED to cover general team information: the roster (who makes up the team, how many players in each position, etc), other members of the team & their roles (practice squad, IR, PUP, etc) and game day info (uniforms, coin tosses, scoring, etc). They did talk a fair amount about the practice squad, who dresses for the game, and their uniforms. They also answered questions about how jersey numbers are chosen/given, if they like wearing the tight pants, how they stay motivated when they know they’ll most likely sit on the bench all year, and what actually goes on under a pile. Apparently there IS a lot of pinching, biting, pulling and kicking. Darvell said that whatever you can do to get someone to let the ball go, you’ll do it. He said his coach offered the guys $1,000 to whoever could turn over the ball to him. They were funny guys and gave us a good insight into life as a player in the NFL.Finally, we returned to the practice field to meet with NFL official, Mark Baltz. He has been in
with the NFL for 19 years and is the head linesman. Libby, Laura and I got to get on the field and pretend to be officials…I was the “back judge”! I can’t imagine how scary it’d be to see an offensive line rushing towards you!The questions to Mark Baltz were pretty funny. They included questions about if the yellow “flag” would hurt if it hit you and general confusion about the fact that not every player tackles another player every play! J
There were people from all over the state and even one from Minnesota. There were younger girls that looked very athletic, girls my age that were dressed super cute (possibly wanting to meet players?) and LOTS of older women (60s-90s). Most everyone wore Colts gear and I think that everyone enjoyed it. I know I did!
