Home sweet home
Pats will try and find some normalcy on West Coast trip
There’s no Route 1 traffic jam, no Dunkin’ Donuts up the road and no CBS Scene right next door. But for the next week, the Patriots are going to do their best to turn the facilities at San Jose State into Gillette Stadium West.
A sizable chunk of the franchise has been relocated for a week to the West Coast, as New England plays back-to-back games in California. The Patriots beat the 49ers on Sunday at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Instead of flying back across the country, they will instead spend the next few days at San Jose State in central California as they prepare for this weekend’s game against the Chargers in San Diego.
On a conference call yesterday, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said that even though they’re 3,000 miles away, logistically, things will not change. They’ll prepare as if this was a home game — that means yesterday was spent breaking down film from Sunday’s victory. Today will be an off day, and tomorrow will be the first day in pads as prep work begins in earnest for the Chargers. They’ve even made Saturday the travel day — just like they would if they were at home.
“It will be a normal week for us. We will treat it right now like it’s a home game,” Belichick said. “We really didn’t travel [Sunday] night. We are doing the same thing [yesterday] that we would do on Monday following a home game. It will be like that for the entire week. Then, we will have our normal Saturday and travel like we would on a normal Saturday traveling day.”
While the reasons were different, the players that spoke with the media yesterday approved of the idea of staying out on the West Coast.
“I kind of like it,” said wide receiver Wes Welker. “It almost has that training camp aspect where everything [is about] football. All the film is right downstairs and you are in your little confinement. For me, I don’t have to worry about traffic with going back to Boston.”
“It’s really nice to be on a regular schedule, one that you don’t have to fly six hours and anticipate that when you’re playing a football game, like, ‘God, we have to fly six hours after the game to the East Coast.’ I think it’s great for us,” said veteran safety Rodney Harrison. “I’m 35 years old, so I need to feel as good as possible.”
Over the last year, the Red Sox and Celtics have taken advantage of lengthy road trips to bolster team unity. The Sox made a season-opening trip to Japan to face the A’s, and the C’s journeyed to Europe for exhibition games at the start of last season. Each team credited that trip with helping forge bonds with teammates.
But by the sound of things, there won’t be much time for that with the Patriots this week in California.
“It’s business as usual,” said quarterback Matt Cassel, a Golden State native. “This is a professional team with a lot of veteran leaders that know how to go out and practice hard and get ready to play in football games. That’s what I anticipate happening.”
