Doug Marrone tells his players that he’s been slam dunking since they were in diapers
While training camp in Buffalo came to an end on Wednesday the high energy and good spirits of the Bills has just begun. So far we have seen a tremendous amount of change since Russ Brandon took over the day to day operations over at 1 Bills drive. Russ has been very crucial in getting the team tech savvy and giving all the players ipads for their playbooks, along with implementing gps tracking devices to monitor the players workloads. Between bringing this team into the digital era and a completely reworked coaching staff, this season should not be reminiscent of the last 13 years in Buffalo
Every single player seems to be working exceptionally hard this off-season but that does not mean it is all work and no play. The new coaching staff has verbally expressed that they want the players to have as much fun as possible, and they lead by example as both players and coaches seem to have formed quite a special bond with one another. They appear to genuinely like each other and interact as if they are all childhood friends.
Perhaps the best example of this would be Freddy Jackson slam dunking on head coach Doug Marrone at the final practice of training camp. I have to admit when i was first reading about it I was thinking “what do you mean he dunked on Marrone? were they playing basketball?”, but when you see the video found here and you hear Marrones explanation of how it went down, you start to realize that the relationship between everyone on this team is truly something special.
“They got me today. Stevie has the video, they dunked on me today,” was how Marrone explained it to the media. “I like going through the locker room. I don’t like getting dunked on.”
TJ Graham even had Marrone convinced that he was stealing things from St. John Fisher and the last thing he expected was to get dunked on by Freddy Jackson. Afterwards a slew of players came out of nowhere to jump around and act like Marrone just got served. Stevie Johnson of course took the video and I would not be the least bit surprised to find out he designed the whole play. Johnson also wore the number 17 at camp today as he and several other players switched jersey’s for the final practice of training camp.
It has thus far been a pleasant treat to follow the Bills this off-season and I am looking forward to how this team will entertain me going forward. I’m ready to shout, and I want the Bills to make me do it. Go Bills!