REPORTING FROM ... THE AFC AND NFC NORTH TRAINING CAMPS

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"My name makes it easy to confuse me with the cover boy of ESPN's Fantasy Football Magazine, sadly."

During the first week of my Mag reporting on the AFC and NFC North training camps I visited five cities in five days without a single flight delay and had nothing but gorgeous postcard days. Crystal-clear low humidity in Cleveland and Detroit. Overcast and breezy in Baltimore and Kentucky (where the Bengals train). The worst day of the bunch was a sunshiny day in Latrobe (Steelers) that hovered around 90. I was being nitpicky. With five camps down and three to go, the scoreboard looked like this:

Me: 5, Mother Nature: 0

The second week was to begin with a visit to the Bears camp. I'd hop a 7:27am flight out of Baltimore/Washington International that was scheduled to land at O'Hare at 8:30. I'd then drive an hour-plus south to Bourbonnais, IL where the Bears were having a 10:30 practice at Olivet Nazarene University. Following practice, I'd grab the players I need to chat with for our NFL preview issue (Brian Urlacher, Adrian Peterson) and be on my merry way to Wrigley Field for some light baseball reporting and then an evening flight to Minnesota. At least that was the plan.

En route to O'Hare, the pilot tells us there are thunderstorms in the area and they're not letting any flights land and so we're in a holding pattern. We hold and we hold and we hold some more until eventually the pilot comes on again and tells us the gas tank is almost on E and we have to divert to Indianapolis and fuel up.

Me: 5, M.N.: 1

It's 11 am in Indianapolis and we're delayed again. I'm ready to abandon the plane and drive to Chicago but I can't because there are five planes stuck on the tarmac and only one set of deplaning stairs (I believe that's the technical term). I decide I'll have to hit Wrigley first then head down in time for the Bears team dinner afterward. After a three-hour drive to Wrigley and a quick chat with Jeff Samardzija and Daryle Ward, I'm on the road again—sitting in gridlocked traffic. Thanks to an accident on I-57 that has all lanes closed (mama said there'd be days like this) I miss dinner. I miss Urlacher. I miss Peterson. I miss everything.

Me: 5, M.N.: 2

By now I've pushed my flight to Minny to the following morning, knowing that my only shot at getting Urlacher and Peterson is immediately following the Bears evening session, which is slated to run from 7-9pm. As I wait patiently on the field I'm told, of course, that there's a tornado watch.

At about 8:00 the wind picks up, the temp drops about 15 degrees, and sirens start going off. Lightning starts striking with the frequency of a strobe.

Within a couple of minutes everyone—fans, coaches, players, media—has vanished from Ward Field. I'm obviously bummed that my interviews just went down the crapper, but I'm more concerned with the fact that all the sudden Mother Nature has loaded the bases. My three-run lead is looking quite precarious.

Luckily, Bears PR whiz Jim Christman whisks me away in a golf cart to the student union, where a campus security officer (and ONU senior) named Amanda informs us that the basement is the place to be. It's me and Jim and his PR staff, plus a couple dozen orange-shirted collegiate types masquerading as training camp security. Oh, and a ping-pong table.

Mother Nature has gone yard with sacks juiced. I'm now losing 6-5.

Though the "official" word has been for everyone to stay put, the hungry NFL athletes who are in the habit of grabbing Fourthmeal from the student union every night at 9:00 begin showing up one by one to eat. First Rex Grossman. Then CB Nathan Vasher. Then WR Mark Bradley. Then Chris Williams and fellow rookies WR Earl Bennett, RB Matt Forte, and TE Kellen Davis.

Over the next hour, I learn the following things:

1. Bennett, a third rounder out of Vandy, is a shockingly good ping-pong player.
2. PR chief Christman is even better, pounding Bennett into submission several times.
3. Out of uniform, Rex Grossman looks less like a quarterback than any quarterback I've seen and more like the guy who works behind your local deli counter.

I also learn that Adrian Peterson has one of the most severe stutters I've ever heard, which makes it all the more amazing that at 10:00, the Bears veteran running back braves the teeth of the storm to come down to the student union not to eat—because he'd already done that— but to spend 15 minutes giving a national magazine reporter (me) his first and only interview of the day. Thanks, Adrian!

I'd love to stay for the following morning's practice, but I'm scheduled to be in Vikings camp. So with Peterson in my pocket (I'll have to get Urlacher on the phone) and the storm dying down, I hop in my Kia Sportage and head to the Marriott O'Hare, where I promptly collapse in a heap.

If you're keeping score, I've just tied it up.

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