Throughout 2012 Russell Athletic Atlanta Falcons Training Camp, left tackle Will Svitek will document his journey and give fans a look at the inner workings of camp from his perspective. From what it's like to be immersed in football 24 hours a day to the lighter side of camp behind the scenes, you'll get to hear about all the things that go on at training camp that fans don't get access to. Today, Svitek enjoys his day off until things go awry on the way to the spa, and he takes a moment to share his gratitude to the military.
Hey, Falcons fans. We're about midway through camp and things are going well here in Flowery Branch.
We had a day off recently and everyone spends it differently. Some guys just stay at home and relax with their families. The rookies are like little high school juniors. They went to see three movies that day. I don't have the energy to do that anymore.
On my day off, I like to take care of my body and get a massage and hang in the cold tub.
Funny story, though. My car was being delivered from California and it didn't get here until a few days ago. I didn't have a car on my day off, which isn't a big deal during training camp because you're on campus the whole time.
But I had a massage scheduled that day and the massage place I go to is pretty close to where I live, and I figured on my day off it'd be a good idea to get my feet going and walk there to get my massage.
As soon as I started the walk, I knew it was a bad idea. You know how when you're driving in your car, a place doesn't seem like it's all that far away? When you're in the middle of training camp and you have a day off, it's 95 degrees outside and the sun is blaring down on you, walking is a bad, bad decision.
It took me forever to get there, and once I got there I was completely drenched in sweat. It was kind of embarrassing when I walked in for the massage because I was just soaked.
The whole time I was cursing to myself about how bad of an idea it was to walk. The day before, it sounded like a good idea. With it being a day off for everyone, I didn't want to call my teammates and bug them for a ride, but the day after, everyone got a kick out of the story. I got a lot of, "Why didn't you call me?" questions.
But I knew good and well that no one wanted me to call them on my day off for a ride. I live within a couple miles radius of everyone on the team. We all live close to each other. I was hoping I'd be walking and one of my teammates, or even a fan out there who's reading my blog, would pick me up.
No such luck.
In the last blog, I mentioned rookie having to sing in the meeting room in front of the team. His song of choice was "Call Me, Maybe." The rook did a good job with it.
When you do that, you have to go up there and get into it. He did. He had a dance routine and everything.
It's one of those things where it's a good break from camp and football. Like I mentioned in my first blog, everything is hilarious during camp, but now that song is catchy and entertaining.
We all got into it. It might actually be the official theme song of the Falcons line. We've been looking at all the different renditions on YouTube when we get a free moment.
Guys are just looking for a release and some pep, and that song just does that for us. One of my teammates was going to make it as a ringtone, but I'm not going to name names for the protection of his reputation.
On a more serious note, Wednesday morning after practice presented the opportunity to meet with 100 military members from every branch as they were our guests at camp. I love working with the military. It's an important cause to me.
These guys sacrifice so much for us and it feels good when I get the chance to give back to them. After practice, I stopped by to talk to them all a little bit and try to express my gratitude for everything they do.
It was great to stop and meet with them, chat a little bit and focus on being thankful for a few moments.
Until next time, fans, make sure to tweet me questions and things you want to hear about @WillSvitek.
And thanks to everyone who has been reading along, especially the people who sent me the bean bag chair after reading my post about getting off our feet!
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