With training camp a little more than a month away, Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser will spend the final weeks of the off-season examining 21 questions about the Indianapolis Colts entering 2010 . . .
No. 10: Will WR Reggie Wayne be in training camp?
We move today to the 10th part of this series examining 21 questions around the 2010 Indianapolis Colts, asking what this past weekend became an even more pressing question: Will WR Reggie Wayne be in training camp?
That likely won't be known until August 1, perhaps around noon.
That's because August 1 is the day the Colts are scheduled to report to training camp, with the first team meeting scheduled early that Sunday afternoon. Wayne typically is one of the last Colts to arrive, often doing so in dramatic, theatrical, theme-setting fashion, so it's reasonable to think if Wayne does report to camp on time it will have some drama and some theater.
But as of yet, it's uncertain if it will happen.
Wayne, a Pro Bowl selection the past four seasons and one of the NFL's elite No. 1 receivers, missed this past off-season's organized team activities, and while that's normal for Wayne – who typically works out at the University of Miami in the off-season – he also missed the team's mandatory June mini-camp.
That's not normal for Wayne, who in the past typically has attended mandatory work and who is one of the most respected players among teammates, coaches and front-office personnel.
But this off-season was different because Wayne, who has two years remaining on his contract, is trying to renegotiate that contract. He and DE Robert Mathis, also trying to renegotiate, missed mini-camp and OTAs, as did S Antoine Bethea. The Colts signed Bethea to a long-term deal in early June, but he was entering the final year of his contract and there is little indication of a similar extension coming this off-season for Wayne and Mathis, each of whom has two years remaining.
Wayne's situation became newsworthy Saturday when he spoke to the media before the Amp Harris & Reggie Wayne "Saving Our Youth" Celebrity Basketball Game at Conseco Fieldhouse.
“I want to be there on time but we're just going to do our part and let them do all the negotiations,” Wayne told the Indianapolis Star. “We done talked a little bit but it's just talk. That was it."
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