CAMP: TE Michael Allan's Rookie Blog

Aug 01, 2007, 1:46:47 PM

Rookie TE Michael Allan, a 2007 seventh-round draft choice from Whitworth College, chronicles his NFL adventures on kcchiefs.com.

August 1, 2007

When I was asked by the Chiefs to put together an internet blog about my experiences at camp I was excited and ready for the opportunity to reach out to the great fans of one of the NFL’s greatest and most historic franchises. I wanted to take this first entry to briefly compare my recent experiences with those of the past 4 years of my life spent at little ole’ Whitworth College in Spokane, WA; a division 3, non-scholarship school. Let me preface this article however with a statement; I loved Whitworth and all that it ever gave me and taught me and never would I trade those moments for anything.

Now fans, let me tell you about how night and day the differences are, as far as I can tell, between D-3 and the NFL.

Let’s start with equipment: At Whitworth we were given a t-shirt, pair of shorts, and a baseball cap our freshmen year. We had to buy our own shoes, gloves, undershirts, wristbands, etc. Anything extra was out of our own pocket. We bought our team travel sweats and really could only find team gear at the school’s bookstore just like any other student.

The first day of mini-camps in with the Chiefs I was given a brand new pair of shoes and had endless supply it seems of gloves and wristbands. Any and all equipment is simply taken care of by the team. How cool is that? It certainly saved me some money and more importantly foot aches as I wore the same pair of shoes my last two years… and not for superstitious reasons. Hats, shirts, travel polos, etc. all provided by the team.

Next up comes the facilities. Whitworth is a fantastic place but is not necessarily sports-oriented. The money comes from tuitions, not ticket sales. The Pine Bowl, in which we spent our Saturday afternoons was a beautiful field though the stands held a mere 3,000 at best which included overflow seating into the surrounding grass banks. The grass was said to be the best on the west though the rest of the stadium was nothing more than a high school-sized facility. The weight room sat below a basketball gym that sounded as if it were going to collapse with each dribble of the ball and our field house had a rubber surface and made indoor practices nearly impossible.

Now take those surroundings and move on to Arrowhead. Do I even need to talk about how amazing that place is? 79,000 people can fit in there? Are you kidding me? Arrowhead is nothing but the best and nothing but the opposite of the Pine Bowl. And the facilities where we get to workout are absolutely amazing… and air-conditioned. Plus we have a bubble with a 60-yard turf field inside eliminating those annoying rainy days and bitter cold practice days we will be facing come playoff time.

Moving on to camp I wanted to shift my focus to transportation. At Whitworth we simply bussed everywhere. And I mean everywhere. If we were not playing 2+ states away, we were on a bus for anywhere from 4 to 9 hours. The buses where “nice” though. Television screens that skipped and got fuzzy with every highway bump and in most cases a seat to yourself only if you had some sort of seniority with the team; something I was fortunate enough to have my last two years. When we did fly however we fought through security at 5 a.m. and flew on a regular plane with regular passengers. Though I must say we took a Disneyland trip or two when we played our California rivals. Though it was on our own dollar, the times were unforgettable and made the travel worth it.

First day of camp in KC on the other hand we traveled with about 5 buses and I swear I could have sprawled out across 2 or 3 seats if I so desired. We then hopped on a charter plane that rivaled the dormitories I lived in for 2 years at Whitworth. This thing was huge. Not to mention we had our own gate and security took at most 2 minutes to get through. Once on the plane we had free reign on a number of snacks ranging from fruit and cookies to a roasted chicken lunch with ice cream bars for dessert; it sure beat salted peanuts and a shot of water.

All of this change and I haven’t even started on football. At the D-3 level we never expected to receive such treatment and while the NFL is a completely different level, I saw no surprise in the faces of those who came from division 1 schools. Chartered flights, full meals, free gear and top-notch facilities was just something that they always had. It’s a change; a change I am excited to make and I cannot thank fans like you enough for making all of this possible.

I am looking forward to continuing to write this blog and I hope it finds you all in high spirits about the upcoming year. I will continue to touch base and keep you all posted on my rookie journey. Next time we will talk some football and some training camp!

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