By far the most common question we get about training camp is what the process is for autographs. A lot of folks travel quite a distance to see the Chiefs practice and want to time it perfectly so that they can get autographs from the players they want or their kids want.
Here's what Chiefs COO Mark Donovan told Bob Fescoe of 610 Sports this morning about autographs at camp:
"After every single morning practice, a specific position group will actually ring the field and sign autographs," Donovan said. The Chiefs haven't determined the schedule for that yet and Donovan did caution that the schedule would be very subject to change with workout schedules and all of that.
Here's the cool part of this:
"We're going to pick, at random, kids out of the crowd each day and they'll be able to carry the helmets and shoulder pads of the players from that autograph group to the locker room," he said.
Pretty cool to be a kid carrying Matt Cassel's shoulder pads, no? As Fescoe said, they'll be treating the kids like rookies. Let's just hope they don't tie any of those kids to the goal post.
The Chiefs are of course encouraging as many fans as possible to come out and watch practices to feel "part of the team", Donovan says.
"People need to realize that the players feed off of that," he said. "Training camp will be impacted by the fans interaction. I think that its just a fantastic opportunity for any fan, any age to get out there and be part of this team as its being formed."
"The fact that our fans can see our players and our team up close and personal for free any day of the week -- 24 practices over the next 22 days starting next Friday -- is going to be very exciting for our team and great for our fans," Donovan continued. "We've had the benefit of learning from what other teams had done. I came from Philadelphia where we had 110,000 or 120,000 fans every year. You understand what you need to make training camp an interactive fan experience."