The NFL has launched a new off-season training camp for
current and former players, but this one is all about life after the gridiron
as the league expands its post-NFL career program.
According to the NFL, 23 players will take part in the first
NFL Sports Journalism and Communications boot camp, meant to help prepare them
for careers in radio, print or digital media. That will include covering mock
press conferences after a Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball game and
working on writing and radio presentation skills.
The League has already been running a broadcast boot camp
out of its NFL Films division -- the seventh annual installment is in June. The
sports journalism camp is a spinoff from that given the success of the
broadcast program, according to NFL spokesman Dan Masonson.
The four-day camp (May 13-16) will be held at Bowling Green
State University, hosted by the School of Media and Communications and the
Sport Management program there. It is only one of 10 post-football training
programs run by the league.
Among the players participating in the camp are
veteran free agent quarterback Charlie Batch, who won two Super Bowl rings as a
backup with the Steelers, and former Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch.
