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TXBRONC
08-28-2009, 09:10 AM
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_13220804

With age comes Broncos wisdom
With cuts on the horizon, the team's veterans offer sage advice on what it takes to make the final roster
By Jeff Legwold
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/28/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 08/28/2009 02:02:42 AM MDT


Research suggests Oscar Wilde never went through two-a-days, never simmered inside a helmet beneath the summer sun.

But he of the mighty pen once offered: "Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

Training camps come and training camps go in the march of football time. With the first roster cuts coming by Tuesday, those who have survived many of them say mistakes are fine. It's repeating the same mistakes that doom you to be history.

"What have I learned? What advice would I give to somebody coming to their first couple camps?" Broncos wide receiver Brandon Stokley said. "Keep your mouth shut and work. That simple, especially if you're a young guy. The best way to gain respect is don't say anything and just work."

This is Stokley's 11th NFL season. The 33-year-old has been to training camps with three teams. In his first, with Baltimore in 1999, Stokley said he was simply trying to survive the roster cuts, trying to get from one day to the next. He played in two games that season, after making the Ravens' 53-man roster, before he dislocated his shoulder and missed the rest of the season.

"As you go on, you learn that it's important to know what training camp's purpose is, and that's to get better, and if you kind of blow that to the side, you start slower than you should," Stokley said. "And you're young, and you start slow, that's tough to deal with sometimes."

Broncos center Casey Wiegmann has seen the most birthdays of any player on the team's roster. At 36, and having not missed a game since 2001, he knows a few things about getting from here to there in an NFL preseason.

He said he has learned to be flexible, to deal with what comes. If a coach wants to put the players in full gear and hit in back-to-back practices, as Dick Vermeil once did with the Kansas City Chiefs, then wrap your mind around the idea, no matter how difficult that may be.

"You don't necessarily have to be thrilled about it, but you get used to it, you handle it," Wiegmann said. "A lot of it is mental. If you expect it's going to be easy or sort of get yourself convinced it's one way, you're always fighting it. Get yourself ready and just get through it. It's physical, but it's also mental."

Cornerback Andre Goodman, who turned 31 earlier this month, said the players who prepare the best physically have the best chance to survive.

Goodman was drafted by the Detroit Lions, but said it was a piece of advice from current Miami Dolphins executive vice president Bill Parcells when he signed there in 2006 that has made the difference.

"It was pretty simple," he said. " 'Take care of your body, you'll play a long time,' and I've changed my diet, my workouts, everything. Because if you get hurt in camp because you weren't ready to be here, you pull something, you're not giving yourself a chance. So that's what I would tell guys."

Champ Bailey, an eight-time Pro Bowl selection, said young players need to forget how to count. Those who worry about how many plays they got in each drill, how many mistakes they made each day or how many players remain at their position often struggle. It goes beyond having enough talent to make the cut.

"You can't worry every day about this and that," Bailey said. "Simplify it. Know what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it and the rest takes care of itself."

There is no magic to it, not much luck involved. And even players relatively new to it all know the first rule.

"I just don't open my mouth too much," said kicker Matt Prater, in his third season. "For me, just keep my mouth shut most of the time and keep kicking. They decide, and we play, so don't make it easy for them to decide on somebody else."

Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com

Simple Jaded
08-28-2009, 02:58 PM
If a player wants to make the Broncos final 53, they might want to try making the Patriots final 53 first.......

claymore
08-28-2009, 03:01 PM
If a player wants to make the Broncos final 53, they might want to try making the Patriots final 53 first.......

Oh my!

Buff
08-28-2009, 03:28 PM
If a player wants to make the Broncos final 53, they might want to try making the Patriots final 53 first.......

Troll.

CoachChaz
08-28-2009, 03:32 PM
I think it's interesting. Sporano takes players to Miami with him and makes the playoffs, but when another first year coach takes players from his former playoff team he's ridiculed.

Simple Jaded
08-28-2009, 04:21 PM
I think it's interesting. Sporano takes players to Miami with him and makes the playoffs, but when another first year coach takes players from his former playoff team he's ridiculed.

I'm not so sure that Sporano took anybody anywhere, I think that would be Bill Parcells.......ya know, the guy that's actually proven that he knows which former players to take, as apposed to just taking players that his former team was getting rid of anyway simply for the sake of taking players from his former team.......

NightTrainLayne
08-28-2009, 04:24 PM
I'm not so sure that Sporano took anybody anywhere, I think that would be Bill Parcells.......ya know, the guy that's actually proven that he knows which former players to take, as apposed to just taking players that his former team was getting rid of anyway simply for the sake of taking players from his former team.......

So. . .what point are you trying to make? Parcells took players from his old teams ever time he moved, and he had a pretty successful career.

Simple Jaded
08-28-2009, 04:36 PM
So. . .what point are you trying to make? Parcells took players from his old teams ever time he moved, and he had a pretty successful career.

I'm pointing out the difference between the man I'm "ridiculing" and the man that has proven that he knows what he's doing, I'm also pointing out the difference between the types of former players that the two are targeting.

On one side you have a personnel guy taking players/coaches that you can take seriously, on the other side you have a rookie HC/GM appears to be bringing in players for no other reason than to surround himself with with as many players from his former team as he can.

To be honest, the more former Patriots he brings in at this late stage the more I think he could be struggling with credibility among the players.......