For the Eagles, not packing up and moving training camp this summer makes things easier.
Their players might find unique challenges, however.
The Eagles are having camp at their own facility this summer after spending the last 17 years at Lehigh University.
“I know that I have to deal with my daughters keeping me up at night now,” veteran receiver Jason Avant joked, via Mike Still of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I don’t know anything else but Lehigh, so I don’t know how comfortable I’ll be.”
Living at home might have its advantages, but it does create a new set of issues. The (shrinking) legion of teams that still go away to camp cite the absence of distractions. If you’re an hour away from wives and kids and the house and the bills, you can spend all day thinking about football. Football people think this is a good thing.
“I think it’s a comfort thing,” wideout Jeremy Maclin said. “There’s going to be an option for guys to stay at hotels if they want to. But guys want to see their family. After a hard day’s work, they want to go home to their family, see their kids and sleep in their own bed.”
That freedom works both ways, also, as it gives players more of an opportunity to screw up (or just not pay attention) in a familiar setting than if they were in a strange college campus away from their normal base.
Of course, that just gives new coach Chip Kelly one more way to weed out the guys he doesn’t want, as he tries to create a new program.