Other OTA articles

[motife]

http://www.packers.com/news/stories/2006/05/31/1/

Approximately 40 fans looked on as the Green Bay Packers took to Clarke Hinkle Field Wednesday for the first of 14 organized team activities.

"I thought the tempo was excellent," Head Coach Mike McCarthy said. "If you watch the clock, we're finishing each period with more than two minutes left. So I'm very pleased with the tempo.

"We're trying to get better as a football team. This is the third time that we've been able to practice the concepts and the different plays that we were practicing today and I thought we accomplished that. With our young guys, you're starting to see a comfort level in their play. We didn't see any pre-snap penalties. The ball wasn't on the ground. I thought it was a lot cleaner than it was in the second mini-camp, so I definitely think we made a step in the right direction today."

The Packers will hold two more practices this week before taking the weekend off. All practices, weather permitting, will be held on Clarke Hinkle Field and are free and open to the public.

[motife]

While Brett Favre and a number of other veterans participated in the first of the voluntary practices, the defense was without a handful of veterans, including defensive backs Al Harris, Charles Woodson, Ahmad Carroll and Mark Roman.
“We had a great work day as a group,” new head coach Mike McCarthy said. “There were a number of guys missing for personal matters, but I thought we got better as a football team today.”

The Packers reviewed plays that were installed in the first two off-season mini-camps earlier this month. McCarthy said he was pleased with the tempo of practice and the players’ retention of the plays.
McCarthy said he and his staff will begin installing new plays on Monday, June 5. The Packers will practice again on Thursday and Friday of this week, then resume next week with four practices, which are conducted without pads.

For the most part, many of the veterans on the roster have been in Green Bay since the team's off-season workout program began on March 20. Fullback William Henderson, and defensive linemen Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and Aaron Kampman are a few of the veterans that spend the majority of the off-season, if not all, in Green Bay.

“I think it makes for consistency,” said veteran fullback William Henderson. “I think having guys come in and spend this much time together before training camp is going to ease us into that training camp atmosphere, so guys come into camp knowing the offense, knowing the defense and being ready to go ahead to hone in on their skills and master things than trying to learn on the fly. Consistency and repetition should make for a better team going into the season.”

Some of the veterans who did not participate in practice today will be on the field tomorrow or next week. McCarthy said that Roman will be at practice on Thursday. Woodson, signed to a multi-year contract this off-season, is out of the country and will participate in practices next week, McCarthy said. Harris reportedly is unhappy with his current contract and plans to skip all of the practices. He also did not participate in the second mini-camp, May 19-21. McCarthy said that he has not spoken with Harris about his contract situation.

“A lot of veterans that missed are because of personal situations," McCarthy said. "We had a number of things come up. Another thing, too, is the schedule. Anytime you have a new coach who puts in a new program, you’re going to have scheduling issues. Every team has different issues, and one of ours is communication. We need to do a better job of communicating to one another. I think they’re doing a better job of that. As we move forward and install our off-season program, obviously, I’m looking for better participation. … The goal is 100 percent.”

[motife]

GREEN BAY, Wis. Green Bay Packers rookie receiver Cory Rodgers apologized today for his arrest on gun charges over the weekend.

Speaking to reporters after the team's organized team activity workout, the fourth-round draft pick, said he made a mistake and will have to live with that.

The former Texas Christian University player was arrested along with two T-C-U players in Fort Worth on Friday and charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and discharging a firearm.

Police said Rodgers fired into the air from a parking lot outside a bar. The T-C-U players told police the gun was fired to scare a group of men who were throwing beer bottles because Rodgers refused to give them an autograph.

Packers coach Mike McCarthy has talked to Rodgers about the incident and said the entire team needed to learn from it.

[motife]

Green Bay Packers rookie cornerback Will Blackmon, a fourth-round draft choice out of Boston College, didn’t participate in the first day of organized team activities Wednesday because of a broken bone in his foot, coach Mike McCarthy said.

Blackmon suffered the injury at the last Packers minicamp in mid-May and had surgery on the foot, according to McCarthy, who added that he hopes Blackmon will be ready for the start of training camp in late July.

• Quarterback Brett Favre, who didn’t attend the last minicamp, participated in practice on Wednesday, which was held outdoors on Clarke Hinkle Field. Favre is expected to participate in 10 of the 14 organized team activities.

[Anti-Polar Bear]

Harris will show up when he have to, when training camp commences. A wise man named "tank" once said mini camps and ota are merely mini-me activities for rookies and ted thompson's new playboys.

(o! How vividly do I recall, at this time of the year last year, thompson's new playboys were Arturo Freeman, who used to fuck thompson, Earl Little, ODwyer, Klemm and Ray Thompson, haven forbids Ray Thompson from having a different last name as Ted Thompson, otherwise they wouldve fucked too)

Harris will be ready in week 1.

[HarveyWallbangers]

40 fans? Are you kidding? I'm very disappointed.