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Chicago: Young Bears build future
Posted: Friday August 06, 1999 11:57 AM
This is the sixth in a series of postcards Sports Illustrated's Peter King will e-mail from his annual NFL training-camp tour. Thursday, Aug. 5 TEAM: Chicago Bears SITE : The University of Wisconsin-Platteville, a rural campus in southwestern Wisconsin which holds two bits of appeal. One, it's about 75 minutes away from Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, and two, it's one of the last real classic everything-on-campus, self-contained training camps where coaches have the full attention of the players at all times. PLAYER I SAW WHOM I REALLY LIKED: RB Curtis Enis , who, despite having a separated shoulder that should have kept him idle until at least Monday, ran routes and took handoffs and stayed after practice so he could spend more time working and sweating with rookie QB and anointed starter Cade McNown . "I want him to know I've got his back and he can count on me," Enis said, his head a faucet of sweat after practice. My gut tells me Enis makes it all the way back from the reconstructive knee surgery he had last year. THE FOOD: Solid mid-America fare: Grilled turkey burger on wheat roll, steamed cauliflower, tomato soup with mixed green salad and Italian dressing, followed by vanilla frozen yogurt and a slab of Wisconsin cantaloupe, which I must say was the highlight of the meal. You can get pretty big on food like that lunch after lunch. Nothing special, just good and filling. Sat with McNown as he finished a yogurt cone that led the league in dripping through the hole in the bottom. Dear NFL Junkie: The great thing about training camp is seeing the future get built. Like this morning under an idyllic sky hard by the corn pastures in southwestern Wisconsin. This is where, at 8:45 this morning, McNown learned the simple process of handing off on running play after running play, working off to the side with quarterbacks coach John Shoop . Neat stuff. Shoop would tell McNown and the other quarterbacks what the run call was, then the quarterbacks, with backs behind them (Enis behind McNown), would follow up. "On the second sound," McNown said, turning back to Enis. "Thirty-seven open! Thirty-seven open! Set! HUTHUT!" He twirled around and handed to Enis, and Shoop said: "'Open' is implied," he said. "You don't have to say open." McNown nodded, filing it away. On another play, McNown asked Shoop about the mechanics of a deep handoff. "When I go back, I let the hand go and keep running, like on a wheel?" he asked. Shoop nodded. McNown filed that away, too. And in a scene you'll only see at training camp, at the end of the two-hour morning practice, McNown and Enis took off their pads and spent 14 minutes working on nothing but handoffs. Then McNown went to lift weights. Enis went to sweat for reporters for a while. I came to this camp expecting to yawn my way through it, because the Bears clearly are contending for little but fourth place in the NFC Central this year. But watching McNown and Enis, a storied franchise's two franchise players as the next century dawns, getting down and dirty on the details was one of the things I love about making these trips. Funny scene afterward. Enis came into the dining hall wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, looking a little bit like he was in prison garb. He compared himself to Bam Morris , the former Bears (and Chiefs, Ravens and Steelers) running back who wore one of these jumpsuits himself while he served 89 days in a Dallas, Texas prison for marijuana possession. Enis, by the way, was up to 260 pounds early this off-season. But he's a svelte 224 now. He'd better be in shape. McNown needs him desperately.
Check back soon for more Postcards from Camp. To send a question to
Peter King's King's NFL Mailbag, click
here.
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