Canal Street Chronicles: Fleur-di-Links 8.6.09

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reggie_bush Ok so I'm a YouTube fanatic....my YouTube video of the day is "Unforgivable"...type it in and watch it! Dude is hilarious!

therealJShock meetings till 10pm then some rest.... enjoy your night...

CPT23 Relaxing after a hard days work...it's a grind. Big thanks to our fans, the support is great! Hope ya'll are ready to rock the DOME! Who Dat

reggie_bush This is the time of the year when most football players are thinking, why didn't I stick with baseball? Training camp is a beast! Lol!    

Linkage

A promising start to camp gives Meachem confidence - NewOrleans.com

"This year they're going to get to see a first-round draft pick," Meachem promised. "The last two years, that's been somebody else."

-Robert Meachem

"I was just a guy that really didn't understand what I was out here to do," Meachem said. "You know you're a first-round draft pick and you're trying to make every play that you can. ... You're trying to figure out, 'How can I run this route to get open?' But then you run a route your way, and you're kind of taking away from somebody else getting open.

"You've got to understand how to run a route the way coach wanted you to run it so everybody can get open."

-Robert Meachem

"He's coming around," Brees said. "I'm really happy for him. I think he has worked extremely hard and we just have to keep finding the right opportunities for him."

-Drew Brees

"It's hard enough to play in this league when you're healthy," Colston said. "This training camp he's coming in feeling pretty healthy and you're seeing the result now. As far as talent goes, the sky's the limit for him. He can run all the routes, make all the plays."

-Marques Colston

Saints: Wednesday afternoon practice - NewOrleans.com

"Every day, we’re getting a little bit better," said Williams. "We’re still not playing with live bullets. We’ve only had one drill (in the first seven days of training camp) with live tackling."

-Gregg Williams

Scare over Bush’s knee is short-lived - New Orleans Saints - Sun Herald

"I iced it just as a precaution, so when I ice it, that means I’m just maintaining," Bush said between practices. "I’ve got to stay on top of it and treat it as if it was the first day I injured it."

-Reggie Bush

Kristian: STC Day 6 / Practice 2 - WWL

New Orleans Saints get visit from former Cleveland Browns VP Phil Savage - Times-Pic

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marques Colston ready to resume sure-handed role - Times-Pic

"Physically I'm feeling great. I'm able to get through practices, no problem, " Colston said. "I've been busting my butt since January to get to this point, and it feels good to finally be here healthy and not having any physical issues.

"My whole goal is to become a better receiver. I had a lot of drops last year. You know, whether or not I want to credit it to the injured thumb is a non-issue. I just want to go out and concentrate and just catch the ball a lot more consistently this year."

-Marques Colston

"I feel like I could throw it just about anywhere with him, and he's got a chance to catch it, " said Brees, who compared Colston to a great power forward in basketball. "It's because he has great body control. Most guys like that, you can look at and be like, 'I guarantee he's a good basketball player, ' which he is. Just the way they position their body down in the paint, or where they're used to shielding guys off, giving you a place to get them the ball.

"And then there just comes a confidence level with that, where I know that if he's one-on-one, there's not many times I'm not going to throw him the ball."

-Drew Brees

"Just look at Carolina (in Week 17) last year, " Brees said, recalling a pass that he threw high to get over the safety's head. "It ends up being one of those balls that is going to be a collision -- and I don't like to do that to guys -- but Marques jumps up there and snatches that ball, and this guy just kind of falls off of him. It was one of those throws that I don't know if there's anyone else on the team that could've made it, just because of its location.

"And obviously him being such a big body, he was able to take that shot while elevated and grabbing the ball and then he falls on his feet, keeps his balance and then runs 5 yards into the end zone."

-Drew Brees

"If you overplay him, Drew can throw it behind him. And if you don't, he can reach out and catch it in front of him, " said Johnson, who said teams have a hard time matching up against Colston. "One thing about Marques is when we put him in the slot, he is a mismatch on smaller DBs, and he's a big target for Drew. Then when they put a big guy on him, he'll just run right by him. So that's a hard combination.

"He's a weapon to help us control the middle of the field. And if teams don't keep him out of the middle of the field, boy, we've got something special going."

-Curtis Johnson, receivers coach

"I know when I first came here last year, I was frustrated many days when I'm thinking I have the perfect coverage. Then they throw it high at him, and I'm like, 'He can't catch it, ' and he comes down with it, " Gay said. "So as a DB, it's just tough on you, you just have to keep your confidence up when you cover somebody like that."

-Randall Gay

"For being big guys that you wouldn't think would be really quick, they have a suddenness to them, where it doesn't seem that they're really running, " Brees said. "They're just really fluid, and all of a sudden they just give you a little shake and it kind of freezes a defender or just stuns them enough to where then they can gain separation and get by the guy really quickly without the guy really knowing it. I call that 'suddenness.' "

-Drew Brees

"It was just a great opportunity to get together with him and just try to work some timing things out, " said Colston, who said he trained in Los Angeles for the first time this year because he wanted to mix up his practice routine a little bit. "It always seems that I come out the gates a little slow, " Colston said. "My goal is Week 1 to just explode out of the gates and carry that throughout the season."

-Marques Colston

 New Orleans Saints players have enough left at the end of practice to get into big shoving match - Times-Pic

"We've always got energy," Smith said. "In Jackson we could never get out of the heat, or it was bad weather we couldn't get out of that either.

"Here we have the option of going inside this beautiful facility where it's not too hot or not too cold and it's just like playing in the Superdome. It helps you improve."

-Will Smith

"Coach Payton has a great philosophy of taking the direct heat off of the players, and you can see how much it helps. "He also does a very good job of giving us coaches enough time to train these guys and to let them revitalize themselves. I think it's part of the reason we haven't had any injuries."

-Gregg Williams

Reggie Bush and the 'setback' that wasn't; Randall Gay out three-four days - Times-Pic

"I understand it (the publicity) comes with the territory," Bush said. "I was just kidding. "I'm great."

-Reggie Bush

New Orleans Saints fan disappointed in Black & Gold scrimmage shutout - Times-Pic

"I understand that they don't have enough room out here," Hardeman said while watching the Wednesday morning practice at the team training complex. "But they could have gone to Tad Gormley or maybe another high school stadium."

-Richard Hardeman, Saints fan

 New Orleans Saints training camp heating up - Times-Pic

PLAY OF THE DAY

During 7-on-7 goal line work in the morning, tight end Buck Ortega appeared to catch a pass from quarterback Drew Brees for a touchdown. But strong safety Roman Harper didn't gave up on the play and stripped the ball away as the two players fell to the ground.

New Orleans Saints quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi, grandson of the legendary Vince Lombardi, says working with Sean Payton and Drew Brees is a dream come true - Times-Pic

"I remember watching the Saints and being blown away at the creativity in the way Coach Payton went about business, " Lombardi said. "To me, none of the other offenses I looked at did more with formations to give the defense problems. And no quarterback filled the role of a coach on the field more effectively than Drew Brees.

"I remember thinking, if the day ever came and I had a choice to be involved, in any small way, with any offense in the league, the Saints would be No. 1. I'm sure Pete Carmichael would tell you the same thing. That's what makes it such a pleasure going to work every day."

-Joe Lombardi

"My dad wanted to be a coach, " Joe said. "But my grandfather said no. He told him, if you become a coach, I'm not going to pay for your college. I want you to be a lawyer. My dad became one, but he didn't like being a lawyer."

-Joe Lombardi

"All my dad told me was to weigh the hours a coach has to devote to coaching alongside the job of raising a family, " Joe said. "He wanted me to consider: How important was coaching football for a living? Considering what he went through with my grandfather, he understood the negatives as well as anyone."

-Joe Lombardi

"You go to work with your eyes and ears open, " he said. "If you don't learn something every day, it's your fault. Drew Brees is super smart and a super-hard worker, with an attention to detail that's beyond belief. Watching him work hand-and-hand with Coach Payton would be a clinic for any assistant."

-Joe Lombardi

"I grew up watching Jimmy Taylor running those power sweeps, "

-Joe Lombardi 

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This one just brings a tear to my eye...