With NFL players not allowed to use team facilities during the ongoing lockout, Saints QB Drew Brees worked with Tulane AD Rick Dickson to “arrange the use of the school's athletic facilities and training staff,” according to Mike Triplett of the NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE. Yesterday, a “total of 37 players worked out, and many more are expected to join in the coming weeks.” Brees is “footing some of the bill, paying Tulane's staff and setting up some of the younger players with lodging” (New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE, 5/4). In Dallas, Gerry Fraley notes Cowboys QB Tony Romo organized a private workout for his teammates yesterday. Romo said that “roughly 40 players were in attendance.” Romo: “I think as we continue to do this going forward, it will help us improve tremendously this off-season" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/4). In L.A., Sam Farmer notes “more than a dozen members” of the Jets are "participating in an informal passing camp" in Mission Viejo, Calif., this week, organized by QB Mark Sanchez. He has “nicknamed the sessions ‘Jets West,’ complete with a logo featuring a Jet flying between the Manhattan skyline on one side and palm trees on the other” (L.A. TIMES, 5/4).
NOT REPORTING FOR DUTY: In Jacksonville, Tania Ganguli noted Jaguars DE Jeremy Mincey was the “only player who showed up” at the team's practice facility last Tuesday on the day after U.S. District Judge Susan Nelson lifted the lockout. Most Jaguars players said that they “weren't going to the stadium until someone from the team called them about it.” Some of the players “doubted the facilities were really open -- and those doubts were well founded.” Mincey “spent about one minute in the lobby of the building and wasn't allowed past it, then left.” Jaguars CB and player rep Rashean Mathis said, "We don't want a media frenzy that we got turned away from our organization. We know when it's time for us the coaches will be more than anxious to get us out there.” Mathis said that the players “were doing their own workouts with their position groups in the mean time” (JACKSONVILLE.com, 5/2).
