Football Was Briefly Taken Away From Reggie Wayne, Now No. 87 Wants It Back

INDIANAPOLIS –For nearly a decade and a half, Reggie Wayne’s vacation in sunny Florida has ended near the end of July.

This signifies the start of a grind, with humid training camp practices awaiting a player that has called Indianapolis home since 2001.

Training camp days can drag and become draining with family members away, along with the regular season seemingly still too far away.

But that’s not the case for Wayne, especially as he enters his 14th NFL Training Camp at an age where nearly every NFL player has already hung up the cleats.

“I’m a little bit more hungrier now. I hear Coach Pagano talk about all the time having something taken away from you and there’s nothing you can do about it. It was taken away from me since October. So yeah, it will be different,” Wayne said on Wednesday upon reporting for duty to Anderson University.

“It kind of feels like I’m a rookie all over again. I’m just anxious to go out there and prove what I can do. It’ll be fun. I’m excited and hopefully you can see the Reggie of the rookie times.”

Ever since Wayne began giving updates on his ACL injury rehab, he has stated that he was well ahead of schedule.

He reassured that notion on Wednesday morning, after exiting a two-seater IndyCar for his entrance to training camp.

“I’ve been cleared, yes I have. I am ready to go,” Wayne said.

“So we’ll just see from that point on. Hopefully everything stays the course and I’ll be out there (Thursday).”

Wayne is a realist.

He knows that an initial training camp practice on July 24 pales in comparison to a Sunday night matchup in Denver on September 7.

Sure, he’s packed the boxing gloves to “duke it out” with Chuck Pagano trying to keep Wayne from rushing back too quickly, but the veteran wide receiver knows the head coach has the best interest of the Colts oldest skill player in mind.

“I have to be smart, listen to my body, not try to prove any points,” Wayne says.

“The main objective is to be out there for the first game. The one thing I do understand is (the Denver game is) a little bit something more serious I need to look at and just take it day by day.”

As Wayne enters training camp at the age of 35, he reiterates how difficult it was to stand, at times hopelessly, on the sidelines for the better half of the 2013 season.

It was a place Wayne wasn’t used to spending his game days.

A racecar entrance to Anderson is an indication from Wayne that he is ready to steal a phrase from Ricky Bobby and “go fast” again.

“I’m eager to get out there and pick up where I left off,” Wayne says. “We already know what’s at stake here. It’s time to punch in and go to work.

“Fourteen years later, it’s the same intensity. It’s the same objective, and that’s to come out here and get better as a team. Let’s try to hoist that Lombardi after the season is over.”


(colts.com)