Haley’s Heart Of Gold

Coach Haley often takes a lot of flack for his rather, ahem, passionate sideline demeanor. He as known as a no nonsense, in your face kind of guy on the practice field as well.

Today, however, he decided to reward the hard work the players have been putting in by canceling the last OTA of the offseason program.

The players showed up for their usual strength and conditioning training and were then sent home until training camp kicks off on July 30th.

"“I cut it short because of the progress we made this weekend, the fact that some of it was going to be review and as much as these guys have put in here over the last few months, I thought it was worth giving something back to them which I think they appreciated, at least from what I could tell,” Haley said."

This was a smart move by Haley. The team has totally bought in to his program. Everyone, even Brian Waters and Mike Vrabel attended every single OTA practice voluntary or otherwise. The only holdout was Jarrad Page and at this point, it looks like Page may not even play football this season.

Rewarding the hard work the players put in is a nice way for Haley to show he appreciates them and is not just a drill sergeant.

The next test will be how the players keep in shape for the next 6 weeks. Upon their arrival at training camp, Haley will put them through a conditioning test to make sure they kept working on their condition over the break. Players who fail the test are not allowed to practice. It is important everyone shows up ready to go so the team can continue to move forward instead of trying to play catch up.

So far, so good.