Sports360AZ
I’ve covered numerous Redskins training camps, and broadcasted from them, when I lived back in Maryland, but covering Cardinals camp has been a GRIND, but it’s been a good grind.
When I’m standing on the sidelines at practice, and I’m shooting the players and they’re doing their thing, I sometimes think, “This is a cool gig I’ve got,” and it really is.
I’ve been here for four days, and the impression I got from this Cardinals team is that they’re hungry and ready to step to the next level.
Brad and I caught up with Darnell Dockett today, after the team’s morning walkthrough, and he said he wants to win this year “by any means necessary.”
That’s exactly what you want to hear from Dockett if you’re a Cardinals fan, or one of his teammates, or if you’re head coach Ken Whisenhunt.
Dockett is a very infectious guy. Infectious in the fact that his words and his actions tend to rub off on everyone around him in the locker room, which, over time, puts them at his playing level by default, because Darnell is that kind of guy.
This team is full of born leaders other than Dockett (Fitzgerald, Peterson, Wilson, Campbell and Acho to name a few). I’ve seen these guys, and a bunch of other players, punch it hard this week, and for me, that’s a good sign, because it shows that they’re serious about what they have to do to play in New Orleans, LA, in February.
The physical aspect of football is very important no doubt. If you can’t crack your opponent in the mouth and make him get out of your way, then you’re not going to win many games in this league.
To me, the mental part of the game is just as important, if not more important than the physical, because if you’ve got 53 players on a team, whose minds are in perfect alignment, there’s no force on this earth that can keep them from a world championship.
This Cardinals team showed me that they have the potential to be that team I just described. It’s going to take a lot more practices, some roster trimming and this team will have to go through more wars on the green together, but we saw what this team is capable of, as they made that 7-2 push late last season.
That was last season. It’s time for the 2012 Cardinals to make some new history and new memories.
