Over-weight might be cause for Norman Hand’s death

According to recent reports, over-weight could be one of the major reasons for the death of Norman Hand, who used to play for the New Orleans Saints and died on Friday at age 37. The direct casue of death was hypertensive cardiovascular disease, which is usually linked with overweight.

During his ten-year tenure with the National Football League, Hand played mostly as a defensive tackle. He had his best time while wearing the Saints jersey from 2000 to 2002 and contributed a lot in Saints’ first playoff win in 2000 season. His other seven seasons were split with the Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks and the New York Giants. He quitted from NFL in 2004 and played in another football league in 2008 but played no more football since 2009.

Hand had been struggling with weight issue during his pro football career and has been continuing with the struggle after the retirement. Overweight has caused Hand to have a history of high blood pressure, which led to the hypertension. It’s really pitiful for such a young man to pass away in this way, and Hand’s family wishes fans with similar weight problem could pay attention to their own health to avoid Hand’s tragedy.

Six veterans will be in Saints’ rookie camp

Rookie camp is not necessarily only for rookies to have their first practice with their new team, but also for some veterans to try their chance of getting a new job. With that idea in mind, we will understand why six veterans will appear in the New Orleans Saints’ so-called “rookie camp”.

The six veterans include former Indianapolis Colts running back Chad Simpson, former New England Patriots offensive tackle Wesley Britt, former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Derrick Hamilton, free agents tight end Jamarko Simmons, cornerback Travonti Johnson and cornerback Pete Ittersagen.

Simpson and Britt are perhaps the most featuring among the veterans. Spending the last two seasons with the Colts, Saints’ opponent for Super Bowl XLIV title, Simpson was formerly an undrafted free agent from Morgan State and played mostly on special teams. For the few games he played on game field, he had totally 30 career carries for 147 yards and three touchdowns. As for Britt, who played for the Patriots from 2006 to 2008, he was a fifth-round pick in 2005 NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers, but did not stay there for long as the Chargers released him before the 2005 regular season.

The two could also be the most experienced among the 40 tryout players, who are going to fill the Saints rookie minicamp, so they may be also the most likely to put on real Saints jerseys after the camp is over.

Saints have good chance to win season opener over Vikings

It has been scheduled that the New Orleans Saints will play the 2010 season opener against the Minnesota Vikings. The two former competitors for 2009 NFC championship will meet again on Sept. 9 this year and many people have started their betting for which team to win the first game of the regular season.

The NFC title game last year ended overtime with the Saints’ 31-28 victory over the Vikings after Brett Favre unfortunately threw an interception. With the season opener a home game of the Saints, the defending champion team will have more advantages than the visiting team. What’s more, the Saints still have their starting quarterback Drew Brees in the No.9 Saints jersey, while the Vikings are still waiting for a decision from 40-year-old Favre, who started the Vikings’ last game against the Saints. You may argue that Favre did not lead Vikings to win Saints, so without him the Vikings could have better chance to win over Saints. Well, widely recognized fact is that without Favre, the Vikings could have lost the last game much earlier.

However, there is no need for Vikings fans to feel frustrated when there is still four months away from the season opener. The Saints also have their weak points, and one of them is the defense. The Saints finished their choices in 2010 NFL draft with addition of more offensive weapons but few defensive boosters. They may be more aggressive with stronger offense than before, but they could still allow as many goals in as they did last season, or even more since the challenging team will come with more powerful offense.

Real reason for TE Shockey to workout with Saints

The New Orleans Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey has made it clear that he will spend most of the offseason with the team in preparation for the 2010 season. Although he did the same thing during last offseason, his first since leaving the New York Giants to put on Saints jersey, it’s still out of expectation that he would like to take part in voluntary offseason workout programs.

It is out of expectation because Shockey used to have a reputation of skipping offseason workout when he was playing with the New York Giants. Shockey playfully explained that he did not like practicing with the Giants because he hated the weather in New York, while the weather in New Orleans is good for practicing.

"You know, it's hard working out in New York when it's cold outside and you have to work indoors. It's great weather here, and I have no excuse not to be here,” Shockey told Triplett. "We work all the time. Today we worked on routes with Drew (Brees) and everything. So I'm here a lot of the time. And if I'm not here it's for a good reason."

However, weather is definitely not the real reason for Shockey to change his habit. At age of 30 and heading into his ninth NFL season, he needs to practice a lot so that he can keep in the best condition for real game. He needs to make sure that he will begin the new season in good health and tries best to avoid missing games again.