ChiefsPlanet - Stvitek

POSTCARDS FROM NFL EUROPE

Mar 07, 2006, 9:33:29 AM

POSTKARTEN AUS EUROPA
Will Sviteks Tagebuch aus Europa
Prolog - Eintrag 1 - Eintrag 2 - Eintrag 3 - Eintrag 4 -
Transcription by Joachim Haas of the Frankfurt Galaxy

Prologue - Entry 1 - Entry 2 - Entry 3

My Photo Gallery

Entry 4
Monday, March 6, 2006

It’s Monday morning as I write this and I just finished my last-minute packing for the trip to Germany this afternoon. This is pretty much the last thing I need to do before catching the bus to the airport. We are taking a bus from Tampa to Orlando, then taking a straight flight from Orlando to Frankfurt, Germany. Our flight is scheduled to leave today around 3:30 p.m. and we won’t get to Frankfurt until about 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday. It’s a good thing I’ve got a lot of books to read on the airplane, because it’s probably more than a nine-hour flight.

When we travel with the Chiefs we always charter a plane through Delta. This time with the Frankfurt Galaxy we’re flying commercial. I don’t know yet if I’ll have a first-class seat or if I’m sitting in coach, but I’m a little nervous. It’s not that I’m pretentious or anything, but when you’re 6-foot-6 and 300 pounds the thought of a nine-hour flight in a small airplane seat sounds miserable. They told us they would try to take care of the bigger guys and at least give us an exit row or something. I sure hope so, otherwise it could be a long flight for me and the poor people who have to sit next to me.

It’s been a busy last couple days for me. I’ve been trying to get everything done here that I need to before leaving the country. So that means I needed to get all of my taxes done and make sure my bills were taken care of before leaving.

A couple people have joked about the fact that we’re now getting shipped out. I was thinking about that recently though and realized that I’m going overseas to play football, while many other men and women my age are getting shipped out for military service. I feel fortunate that I get to play a kid’s game, while so many others are putting their lives in danger for our country. I understand that it’s strikingly different.

This last week of training camp went kind of slow for me. I guess the major reason for the long week was that I sprained my knee last Saturday in a scrimmage and I haven’t been able to practice. During one of the plays another guy kind of rolled onto my knee awkwardly. I knew I tweaked it a little, but I didn’t think it was too bad. I actually finished the practice, but it got sore towards the end.

I had it looked at and they did some tests including an MRI. The results were negative thankfully. The coaches and the trainers want to be really cautious with me, so they gave me the week off to allow my knee to recover and let the swelling go down. Now my knee feels great though and I’ll be able to start practicing once we get to Germany. Everyone here has said that the bigger picture is just for me to be ready for the 10 regular season games and be healthy for when I return to Kansas City. So that’s the goal.

At the scrimmage this last week I almost felt like I was back in Kansas City because of all the familiar faces. I talked to both Shawn Barber and Tim Grunhard. Both are working as NFLEL assistant coaches down here. I saw Chiefs Vice President of Football Operations Lynn Stiles down here as well.

I rented a car over the weekend since we had a little time off. This was my first chance to really get a taste of Tampa. I made sure to get down the beach and enjoy the Florida sun for a little while. I couldn’t come to Florida and not go to the beach, right?

I also got some good meals and made sure to savor every bite since I’m not quite sure what to expect over in Europe. After eating with the team for three weeks a big burger I had at McDonald’s tasted like a Five-Star meal.

In addition to the food, I have a feeling I’m going to miss American TV. Some of my teammates and I have gotten kind of hooked on reality TV. We have spent many nights glued to “American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars”. It must be an amusing sight to see a bunch of big men huddled around a TV watching these shows.

My team had final cuts on Saturday, so the final roster is now in place. We had a lengthy meeting last night with the whole team and we’re all starting to get excited to get into the season and move to Europe.

They talked to us about what to expect and what things were going to be different overseas. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of my own impressions for you when I get there.

Until next time from Germany,

Will

-Grunhard has been in Tampa with the NFLE guys & is high on Stvitek, says he will be the starting RT for the Chiefs this season. (the depth chart(Chiefs) has him at LT Grunny?)