Fireworks over Kemah
We've reached the home stretch in the NFL off-season and finally, training camp is less than a month away.
Rookie signings should begin to ramp up significantly next week as teams try to get everyone under contract before camp starts.
In the spirit of a countdown to the new season, I thought I'd throw down a few key dates for the upcoming weeks as we try to get past this unusual early-summer heat wave and focus on the upcoming season.
June 28-July 1: NFL Rookie Symposium, Palm Beach Gardens, FL -- If you didn't read about the colorful ending to the symposium and the unfortunate player who dozed off during Cris Carter's closing presentation, read this.
July 13: Free training camp tickets are available to the public at Wingstop locations in the greater Houston area. Only five training camp sessions are open to the public. I'm not sure how the other teams do it, other than the Dolphins having 21 open practices and the Seahawks having fourteen. But it's unfortunate that the Texans don't have more open practices than just the opening week of camp. In past years there were eight open sessions and they were spread over three weeks of camp. The demand is there - along with a pretty nice observation and activity area for fans that was built specifically for open practices. So why such limited options for fans attending camp? I thought community relations was one of the reasons the training center was built here in the first place. I realize there are no two-a-days this year and they need to 'get their work in,' but I get the sense that open practices are an inconvenience to Texans management and the coaching staff.
July 15 (3 p.m. CDT) : Deadline for NFL teams to sign franchise players to multi-year deals. After 3 pm on the 15th, the Texans will only be able to sign Dunta Robinson to a one year deal. He's gone in 2010 anyway so it's not like it matters.
July 20 (week of): The Texans will start to ship season tickets - it usually takes 4-5 days for them all to be sent out.
'End of July:' Texans single game tickets go on sale. The exact date should be announced next week, so stay tuned.
July 26: Texans rookies report for training camp
July 31: Training camp begins
After that, it's game on.
Comments
I to am puzzled about the limited access to TC
that the fans have this year ? Easily my favorite single TC experience was several years ago when the Denver Broncos were in town and fans got to attend an intersquad scrimmage between the Texans & Broncos. Honestly that was better than a regular season game for me 'cause we got to have 50 yard seats right on the sidelines. And with the NOLA Saints in town this year during TC and a scrimmage scheduled between them and the Texans, I was expecting a similar experience but I guess not. That's disappointing. I dunno, how tough would it be to crash Texan security at one of those TC sessions ?
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