the fun of watching in person

Last summer, the youngster and I went to a night scrimmage at Alltel during training camp. I'll remember it as the night I became a Chad Owens fan. We watched, and the youngster asked me, "Who's the real little guy?" There was one guy, lined up at wide receiver, who was noticably shorter than everyone else, especially if he lined up in the vicinity of Matt Jones.

"That's Chad Owens. They drafted him to catch punts, but he was a receiver at Hawaii, and they think he could be one here."

The guy was phenomenal. He was quick. He caught everything thrown his way. He was the little engine that could. Then came the regular season and his debut in Indianapolis as the punt return guy, where he muffed...I wanna say...five of them. It was pretty ugly. Out came the hook. He was buried in the practice squad the rest of the season, never to be mentioned again...until now.

Tonight is this year's version of that scrimmage. Chad is once again in the mix, and I'm hoping the little guy pulls it together. Matt Jones won't play, nursing a sprained ankle. Byron is supposed to be looking leaner, meaner and better (and maybe a little less like Gary Coleman), and we might have someone who can play corner (one of the many Williams's) opposite Mathis. The youngster and I will be in the stands, with a buddy of his spending the night...or that's the plan. We'll see what happens, but I'm getting excited.