Great piccy for all you NY haters out there!!!!!

Good news from the NFL guys today.

They met privately last week and appear to be looking towards completing a deal by the end of the month :lux:

And I got a slight tingle down my spine reading the list of Patriots who have turned up for the practice today. Brady, Welker, Branch, Faulk, McCourty, most of the Rookies. Over 40 and not due to start for half hour. Promising :lux:

http://yfrog.com/h0w55kgj

And this is how close the media are getting to them.

Yeah just saw that, who knows how many other secret meetings they've been having!! Yeah it's good that the guys are together but not sure it's a massive deal at this point. Moe important to get the deal done so we can have some coaches down there.

Hopefully they won't get chewed up like the Panthers players were. Jordan Gross and Travelle Wharton paid out of their own pocket to set up a practise session, paying for a cop to guard the gate of the place they hired. They wanted to keep it private to protect the privacy of the players who couldn't or didn't want to make it for whatever reason, and so on, and also to make the most of the short window of opportunity they had time wise (lots of players had flown in out of state). I think about 50 players turned up, in the end.

Cue a load of journos getting the hump and writing pissy articles for the past couple of days.

They practiced yesterday with Brady.

They've been working in a smaller group for weeks with Mayo leading it

Are there any meeting dates set for more discussions or is all communication stopped?

They are having informal meetings now. And sounds promising.

About time ...

I really hope this is true and there is a light at the end of the tunnel now.

Hoping that the ESPN guys know what's going on :)

Pats had 47 at their workout today.

Eagles had... 2. Kafka and Maclin. Gotta give respect to Maclin for turning up. Kafka should be there throwing to himself since he's the backup. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/i...ef=twitter.com

Eagles fav's to sign Plaxico

The majority of our lot have been training in New Jersey that's probably why they only saw 2 people.

I love Maclin, think he's a very good pro and actually turns up at the big games and does well (unlike D-Jax). Kafka should be solid as well.

Fingers crossed the lockout will be over soon.

They were in NJ...

Oh.

My understanding was that this was the first team more than a handful of our lot had got together. I'm not saying it's not nice, but in terms of genuine productivity there's no replacement for a full practise session with the coaches out there. This was more of a group meet up than a football training session for me. How much can they do? Good that the rookies were there I guess.

The sessions mean nothing other than a bit of teamwork and some connectivity for Brady/Hoyer/Mallett with the Receivers that they would normally have in Passing Camp.

But, they were doing 7 on 7s, so they're getting something decent out of it anyway. Even if it's just warming up together.

Mayo had had camps with about 20 or so there previously

I had heard that Mallet had been doing lots of reps with the WRs. Idk if Brady's taking it easy due to his leg or if he's just trying to get the kid involved but might be a sign that he's going to jump straight into the no. 2 slot.

Contemplating a trip to Dallas in early 2013. If anyone has any knowledge of the area, please let me know thoughts and suggestions.