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Dolphins News: Training Camp Starts
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Dolphins News: Training Camp Starts
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*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Jul 21, 1998: -- Training Camp Starts --

** Guard Randy Wheeler Seriously Injured in Car Wreck

Dolphins backup guard Randy Wheeler was seriously injured yesterday when the car he was driving flipped over on I-95 in Stuart, Florida. Wheeler was driving to Florida from South Carolina to report to Dolphins training camp, which opens today.

Wheeler reportedly suffered a spinal injury in the accident and was taken to Martin Memorial Hospital. He is currently in serious but stable condition and was transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for long term care.

The cause of the accident is unknown at this time, but apparently Wheeler swerved off the road onto the median, where his car rolled over and hit a tree around 2 PM yesterday afternoon. Preliminary reports indicate that alcohol and drugs were not a factor in this accident.

** Training Camp Opens

The Dolphins summer Training Camp officially opens today when the rookies and selected veterans will report to the Dolphins Training facility at Nova University in Davie, Florida. All of the rookies that have signed are expected to report to camp, along with certain selected veterans.

Most of the veterans who are scheduled to report are either recovering from serious injuries or learning a new position. Among the veterans expected to be on hand today are WR Yatil Green, LB Larry Izzo and WR Jerris McPhail.

Today, the training camp will consist mostly of team meetings and there will be no practices sessions on the field. Starting tomorrow, the Dolphins will practice twice a day until August 11th and then will taper down to one practice per day.

Most practice sessions will be open to the public. A schedule and directions on how to get to the Dolphins practice facility are available by following the first link in my "Related Links" section below and from the Dolphins Endzone website.

** More Players Agree to Contracts

Second round draft pick Patrick Surtain has reportedly signed a 4 year deal with the team yesterday for about $2.4 million according to the Sun-Sentinel. That deal includes an $800,000 signing bonus.

Also agreeing to terms yesterday was linebacker Brad Jackson, one of two Dolphins' third round draft picks who agreed to a 3 year deal for undisclosed terms. Those terms are probably in the $1 million dollar range, which would include a $300,000 to $400,000 signing bonus.

And last but certainly not least, Linebacker Larry Izzo, who was an exclusive rights free agent, has agreed to a one year deal for the league minimum of $198,000.

While not having finalized deals yet, draft picks WR Larry Shannon and DE Kenny Mixon are both expected to close their deals today for contracts of 3 and 4 years, respectively.

Quarterback John Dutton is the only draft pick that remains a question mark in the signing department, but because he is a late round draft pick, it should not prove too difficult to sign him in the next couple of days.

Other players who are playing without contracts include Guard Jeff Buckey, receiver Kirby Dar Dar, linebacker Anthony Harris, kicker Olindo Mare and safety Shawn Wooden. All of these players are exclusive rights free agents and have been tendered the required qualifying offers by the Dolphins, but are looking for longer term, higher paying deals.

However, all of these players will probably report and practice with the team and will likely accept the Dolphins' minimum contract offers. Since the Dolphins have exclusive rights to their contracts, they have very little choice in the matter.

On the other hand, it now appears that agent Drew Rosenhaus is prepared to hold Tim Bowens out of camp rather than have him play for the Dolphins' minimum tendered offer of $2.8 million. Rosenhaus believes that Bowens is in the top tier of defensive tackles in the league and is therefore justified in getting a long term contract worth $5 million per year.

The Dolphins have only offered Bowens a contract in the $3 million per year range and it appears that they are not willing to budge significantly from that position.

My Comments:

Randy Wheeler played very well in NFL Europe this year and had an outside chance of really competing for the starting left guard job. Now he must fight for his own health and well being in the hospital against a spinal cord injury.

To me, a spinal cord injury is about as frightening an injury as you can sustain. And to a guy like Randy Wheeler, who's life is built on his physical abilities, it must be extra hard to not know whether or not you will even be able to walk again, let alone play football.

As I said above, he is now at Jackson Memorial Hospital in South Florida and that is probably the best medical center in that part of the state, so he is in good hands.

You might want to take a moment today and think about Wheeler's situation and offer whatever form of encouragement (be it prayer or meditation or "positive energy") to him that you can. He'll need all the help he can get.

I'm sure he will also appreciate your words in a letter or a card or whatever method you care to send them. I'll try and get a more concrete address for you, but Randy Wheeler at Jackson Memorial Hospital (Attn: Neurology Ward) in Miami will probably get there.

On to more pleasant matters....

With training camp opening today, it appears that all of the really important rookies have signed, with the exception of Kenny Mixon. And, if rumors are to be believed, he will sign today or tomorrow and miss little or no practice time.

My plans for training camp coverage are the same this year as they have been in the past, with one notable exception. I will post daily training camp reports from now until the end of August, when the final cuts are made.

For those reports, I rely heavily on what the Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post and Dolphins Endzone report, but because those reports are freely available to all, that isn't what makes my reports unique.

The thing that makes my reports different than all others is my "Eyewitness Reports" section. This section is devoted to reports that fellow Dolphins fans email me about what they've seen at training camp. It can contain anything that those fans see and/or hear at training camp.

In other words, I need your input. If you attend any of the Dolphins' practice sessions, take a few moments and write down your observations. Then email them to me and I'll include them in my report, identifying you as the author and giving you full credit.

Normally, I include the reports verbatim, without any editing, except for spell-checking. If you don't want credit or don't want your email address given out, that's fine with me - just let me know with your email.

This year, however, in addition to others' eyewitness accounts, I will be spending 2 whole weeks in South Florida during the first 2 weeks in August. During that time, I will be attending every practice session that I can get to and will be providing you with my own "eyewitness reports". This will be a first for me and I'm very excited about it.

I also hope to go to the Tampa Bay exhibition game on Thursday, August 13th, so watch out for me there!

Tonight, I will be writing up a full preview of training camp and it will be posted before tomorrow morning. Also, I will devote a full section of my website to the Training Camp Reports, so stop by and see what you can see. I will also post a training camp roster shortly.

And after all that, I only have one other thing to say - It's about time!

Related Info:


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Curt Fennell, curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
     
   

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Curt Fennell
curt@phins.com
DOLFAN in New England