The BulleTin • Sunday, auguST 8, 2021 B3
NFL | TRAINING CAMP
2020 Hall of Fame class enshrined in Canton
Fans return, must deal with restrictions
BY STEVE MEGARGEE
Associated Press
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Pro
Bowl running back Aaron
Jones and his Green Bay Pack-
ers teammates have resumed
an annual preseason ritual af-
ter a pandemic-imposed hiatus
by riding bicycles to training
camp workouts.
But at least for this year,
the players can’t borrow those
bikes from young fans.
The Packers’ change in pro-
tocol reflects how the NFL
has adapted its training camp
policy while welcoming back
spectators, who weren’t al-
lowed at workouts last sum-
mer. Fans can’t interact with
players and must remain over
20 feet away from them.
The changes are particularly
apparent in Green Bay, where
fans have been loaning Packers
players bikes to travel to prac-
tice since the 1950s.
“I love the tradition,” Jones
said. “It’s special.”
That tradition was tweaked
this year. No longer can fans
loan their bicycles to players.
The Packers instead have new
Schwinn bikes they can use.
Similar changes have taken
place at other training camps.
For instance, Matt Ander-
son of Richfield, Minnesota,
brought his 14-year-old son to
the Minnesota Vikings’ first
workout. That typically would
have been an ideal setting for
the teenager to seek autographs
from his favorite players.
Not this year.
The Vikings have compen-
sated by conducting autograph
sessions with Hall of Famers
Carl Eller, Randall McDaniel
and John Randle, plus other
former players. Anderson
says he still got a taste of what
makes training camp special
Durant
Continued from B1
Durant finished with 29
points, just off the 30 he scored
in the last two Olympic gold-
medal games. The four-time
NBA scoring champion is in the
discussion as the best player in
the league.
As for the best player in
Olympic basketball, that debate
seems to have ended in Japan.
“That’s a special, special man,
and he carried this team like
we needed him to, like he’s sup-
posed to coming back for his
third Olympics, all-time USA
scorer,” said U.S. forward Dray-
mond Green, Durant’s former
teammate in Golden State.
“There’s been a lot of great play-
ers to don this jersey, and he’s
No. 1 and that’s a special thing.”
Durant, who passed Car-
melo Anthony earlier in the
Olympics to become the lead-
ing scorer in U.S. men’s history,
joined Anthony as the only
three-time gold medalists in
men’s basketball.
Durant couldn’t choose
which Olympics is the most
special, because to him they all
are.
“I’m just happy to be here,”
he said. “I’m happy to be part of
this group for life.”
It might have been a group
of silver medalists without Du-
rant’s greatness. Unlike his last
two Olympics, when he played
with Anthony and other expe-
rienced superstars, this was a
team filled with international
rookies, a team with a roster
Bonding
Continued from B1
When spring turns to sum-
mer, both men return to the
57-year-old ballpark off Wil-
son Avenue in Bend, as has
been the routine dating back
several decades.
Foster, 56, has been a main-
stay at the ballfield in the sum-
mer for nearly half a century.
At 7 years old, Foster be-
gan selling programs for the
American Legion ballclub
the Mid-Oregon Motormen,
which played its game at Bend
Municipal Park, before it be-
came Vince Genna Stadium.
He did the same for the Tim-
ber Hawks and the Bend Phil-
lies (short-season Class A affil-
iates of Major League Baseball’
Oakland A’s and Philadelphia
CANTON, Ohio — From bone-rattling tacklers Troy Polamalu, Steve
Atwater and Cliff Harris to hard-charging runner Edgerrin James to
the pass-catching brilliance of Isaac Bruce and Harold Carmichael, the
Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2020 has something for everyone.
Add in blocking dynamos Steve Hutchinson and Jim Covert, Steel
Curtain stalwart safety Donnie Shell and such as leaders as former
NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and coaches Bill Cowher and
Jimmy Johnson.
They all entered the hall Saturday night, a year late due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, yet just as rewarding.
“If you told me after I graduated from the University of Michigan
that I’d be excited standing in Ohio in the middle of August,” Hutchin-
son joked, “… To me, there’s no place better than Canton, Ohio.”
Certainly all 12 men enshrined on this night felt that way.
“I am humbled and honored to wear this gold jacket,” Atwater said
before looking around at the other Hall of Famers on the stage. “What
a group we have up here.”
The 2021 Hall of Fame class will be enshrined on Sunday.
— Associated Press
Matt Ludtke/AP
Green Bay Packers’ linebacker Rashan Gary rides a bicycle to training camp July 31 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
even under the current restric-
tions.
“The opportunity to get
close to them, even (this year),
you could give a shoutout to a
player and get a reaction from
them,” Anderson said. “That’s
a unique thing from a football
perspective, to have that prox-
imity to a player and get that
interaction with them.”
NFL officials say about 1
million people attended var-
ious training camp workouts
across the country in 2019,
the year before the pandemic.
About 200,000 fans attended
training camp sessions July 31,
a day the NFL billed as “Back
Together Saturday.”
Players appreciate the fans’
that wasn’t set until shortly be-
fore the tournament.
While Durant could largely
focus on being a scorer in his
previous Olympics, the Amer-
icans needed him to be their
leader this time. He showed his
teammates what it took, with
coach Gregg Popovich saying
watching him was like “osmo-
sis” for them.
“He’s not special because he’s
so talented. It’s the way he works
on his game is more impressive,
the relationships he builds with
his teammates,” Popovich said.
Durant was a constant com-
fort during nervous times for
the Americans throughout the
tournament. When the U.S.
struggled early Saturday, Du-
rant scored 12 points and had
21 by halftime.
“I think he’s the best scorer
in basketball and he’s going to
do what he does, especially on
the biggest stage like the Olym-
pic games,” France center Rudy
Gobert said.
Durant takes tremendous
pride donning the red, white
and blue. And his commitment
to USA Basketball has been in-
valuable.
Another flurry early in the
third quarter after France cut
it the deficit to four provided
a double-digit lead, room it
turned out the Americans
would need to hold on for their
fourth straight gold medal.
“Kevin Durant has been one
of the great players ever to play
for USAB,” outgoing managing
director Jerry Colangelo said,
getting choked up and adding,
Phillies, respectively), before
performing just about every
job for the Elks, from wash-
ing uniforms, to passing out
programs, cleaning up the sta-
dium, and just about any job
asked to do — a responsibility
he still holds today.
“They keep bringing me
back,” said Foster, who is the
oldest worker for the Elks.
“They want me and the fans
want me back. And I keep
coming back because of the
fans.”
Monroe has been coming to
Elks games since he was an in-
fant. But it was when he was 8
years old that he first met Fos-
ter and their friendship began
to blossom.
“He really looked up to
Rod,” said Monroe’s mother,
Vickie Monroe.
presence after going through
training camp without any
spectators last year.
“We talked about how peo-
ple are giving up vacation time
to come watch us practice,” Vi-
kings quarterback Kirk Cous-
ins said.
“That sums it up right there.
Honestly, it makes coming out
to practice on a 95-degree day
feel like a privilege, when you
realize that’s what fans are do-
ing.”
They like hearing the ap-
plause again.
When Packers quarterback
Aaron Rodgers threw a ball
about 50 yards into a 2-foot
hoop in the end zone Thurs-
day, fans roared their approval.
Only teammates would have
been able to cheer that type of
play a year ago.
Packers officials said Thurs-
day they have averaged about
2,100 fans per practice session
and indicated it was slightly
below their pre-pandemic
figures. They noted the 2018
and ‘19 attendance totals were
higher than usual because of
Packers Experience, a festival
featuring live music and skills
activities that wasn’t possible
this year due to health proto-
cols.
But the biggest change in
Green Bay involves the bike
tradition. In previous sum-
mers, a player often would use
the same kid’s bike throughout
training camp. Players built
friendships with the kids who
loaned them bikes.
“My bike rider, I’m still su-
per close with him,” Jones said.
“He’s always out there at prac-
tice. I see him all the time.”
Now the Packers have
posted messages on the bike
path reminding fans that play-
ers aren’t allowed to “take a
selfie with you, play catch, pro-
vide an autograph, fist bump
or even high-five.”
“I understand them,”
said Ben Hurley, a 14-year-
old Packers fan from Ash-
waubenon, Wisconsin. “We’ve
got to keep the players safe and
have them ready to play, espe-
cially with the strict rules and
the fines they can get. But it’s a
little frustrating.”
Colin McCabe, a 19-year-old
Packers fan, has attended train-
ing camp since he was about 12
and let players ride his bike to
practice when he was younger.
His 11-year-old brother, Liam,
started loaning his bike to play-
ers at the age of 4.
“It’s so different,” said Mc-
Cabe, who lives about four
blocks from the Packers’ prac-
tice fields. “I’m glad that it’s
somewhat normal where we
Charlie Neibergall/AP
United States’ Kevin Durant (7) drives around France’s Rudy Gobert (27) during men’s basketball gold-medal
game at the Olympics Saturday night in Saitama, Japan.
“he’s very special.”
Colangelo recalled meeting
Durant while the forward was
spending one season at Texas
in 2006-07, inviting him to the
U.S. training camp that sum-
mer. Durant quickly accepted.
“He said, ‘I’ll be there,’ and it’s
never changed,” Colangelo said.
That’s partly because Durant
loves playing with guys he can
only watch and compete against
during the NBA season. He said
each team he’s been on — in-
cluding a gold medal-winning
squad in the 2010 world basket-
ball championships — builds a
bond that always remains.
“I love sports, especially when I have a partner like this.
He just makes me laugh.”
— Rod Foster, speaking of his Special Olympic bocce ball partner
and friend John Paul Monroe
Perhaps spending time at the
ballpark while still in diapers
was a glimpse into how Mon-
roe would spend seemingly all
of his time.
Like Foster, absences from
Elks’ games are rare for Mon-
roe. If he cannot make it to the
ballpark, he live streams the
games from his home in Pow-
ell Butte. If the Elks are not
playing, Monroe is turning on
a Seattle Mariners game, or
just about any other sport that
is on.
“He was only 5 years old, liv-
ing in Hermiston, and we had
cable TV,” said Vickie Monroe.
“He was just a little boy and he
would just sit and watch base-
ball. Then when we moved
back we had to get a big satel-
lite dish so he could watch his
baseball teams.”
It was through the Special
Olympics where the pair’s
friendship really began to take
off. They competed in just
about every sport, including
track and field, golf, bowling,
basketball and snowshoeing.
Foster estimates that he has
won nearly 500 medals be-
tween local, state and national
It’s unknown if he could had
played had the Olympics been
held as scheduled in 2020. Du-
rant had ruptured his Achilles
tendon in the 2019 NBA Finals
and sat out the 2019-20 sea-
son. He was working his way
through rehabilitation when
the Olympics were postponed
competitions through his ath-
letic career. He has traveled
as far as Canada and Iowa to
compete.
Five years ago, they finally
teamed up and became bocce
ball partners. It was a natural
pairing and they quickly be-
came a formidable team, win-
ning a silver medal at the 2019
state games.
“I love sports, especially
when I have a partner like this,”
said Foster wrapping his arm
around Monroe’s shoulder. “He
just makes me laugh.”
Now the duo is looking for-
ward to making another run at
a gold medal as soon as bocce
ball and the Special Olympics
return due to the COVID-19
pandemic. They are both eager
to return to playing their now
favorite sport.
get to see the players walk
down and ride bikes, but the
whole tradition of players in-
teracting with the kids and the
fans, it’s way different. ”
It’s not the same as before
the pandemic, but at least it
isn’t a repeat of 2020.
Many NFL teams didn’t
play any home games in front
of paying spectators last year.
They love seeing fans back and
look forward to playing presea-
son games in front of crowds.
“After everything that we
went through last year, it’s great
to see fans out there today, and
it’ll be great to see them this
year,” Denver Broncos quarter-
back Teddy Bridgewater said
after a practice last week.
Having fans at training camp
sites represents one giant step
toward normalcy. Maybe next
year the players and fans will
be able to interact a little more.
“I really hope so, especially
for my brother’s sake,” McCabe
said. “He looks forward to this
every season. He’ll wake up
at like 4 in the morning when
it comes to Packers training
camp and be like, ‘Oh, we get
to go today.’
“It’s better than Christmas
for a lot of kids.”
because of the coronavirus pan-
demic.
Given an extra year, Durant
signed on again even after a dif-
ficult NBA season. He battled
a hamstring injury that limited
him to just 35 games before his
Brooklyn Nets lost a grueling
seven-game series against even-
tual champion Milwaukee in
the second round of the play-
offs.
He’s going to be staying with
the Nets for the long term after
agreeing to a four-year, $198
million contract extension
hours before the gold-medal
game.
Durant didn’t rule out joining
the Americans again in 2024 in
Paris, when the French would
surely love to avenge this loss on
home soil.
France beat the U.S. in the
opener of these Olympics and
nearly beat the U.S. again Sat-
urday, further proving that the
world’s best teams are catching
up to the Americans.
Nobody, though, is catch-
ing up to Durant on the world
stage.
“He’s fearless. I’ve said it be-
fore: He’s the most skilled bas-
ketball player ever. I mean that,”
Kerr said. “There’s nobody that’s
his size, 6-11, that combines
shooting and ballhandling skills
and athleticism. You’ve never
seen it before.
“So, this tournament was
a perfect example of why you
need the best players to win and
win championships. And Kevin
is the best player in the tourna-
ment.”
“We just like to focus on our
game,” Foster said. “It is a team
effort when we play bocce ball.”
And it does not appear the
friendship is ending any time
soon.
Foster jokes that one day he
might “get fired” as Monroe’s
bocce ball partner. Monroe is
quick to make sure to put an
end to that rumor.
“You are hired,” Monroe im-
mediately responded.
Baseball, bocce ball and
breakfast have been simple yet
effective ingredients to a life-
long friendship.
“That is what it is all about,”
Foster said. “Us being together
and having fun. He makes me
want to keep coming back, I
don’t want to leave him ever.”
e
Reporter: 541-383-0307,
brathbone@bendbulletin.com