Sorry for the lateness of the links. It won't happen again. Here's Frank's story on interesting training techniques being used by the Seahawks. Dave's column was about rookie DT Brandon Mebane.

Former TNT NFL writer and now ESPN football guru John Clayton reflects on his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Here's Sando's latest chat for ESPN.com ...

Here's Curt Menefee's blog post about the Seahawks.

Arizona Cardinals
Arizona's top pick Levi Brown finally agrees on a contract. The Cardinals have a solid depth at receiver. The Cardinals are still trying to find someone to play opposite Adrian Wilson at safety.

San Francisco 49ers
Head coach Mike Nolan wants the interference rule changed. REceiver Taylor Jacobs is impressing people at camp. Hoss & Smith is running the show for the Niners offense. The pulic and private memorial services for Bill Walsh have been set. Another story on D-Jack. Here's yahoo sports Jason Cole's notes on the 49ers

St. Louis Rams
Wide receiver Torry Holt is taking things slow at Rams camp. The Rams are pleased with the play of cornerback Jonathan Wade. Coach Scott Linehan is looking for consistency not flash in his offense.

We had about a 25-minute meeting with the refs in between the morning and afternoon sessions. First they showed us the same film that they showed the players the day before, then they explained what they were looking at and took some questions.

One of the more fascinating aspects I thought was that the replay booth is going to change. Instead of that peeking under the hood deal, Carl Cheffers said they will have a voting booth-type thing where the ref can actually go inside and take a look. All but five stadiums -- the five cities that are getting new stadiums which didn't want to spend to $60-$70,000 to install the upgrades -- will have the new booths, which will include high definition and bigger-screen televisions. Cheffers said the old screens were about 13 inches and bad quality, and that the new screens will be about twice as large and much better clarity. It should help a great deal in making the right call, he said.

They reviewed the spiking rule in the middle of the field, and basically if you are down by contact and spike the ball, it's a five-yard penalty. If you are not down and spike it and it goes forward, it is an illegal forward pass and you get a five-yard penalty. If you are not down and spike it and it goes backward, it is a fumble.

Those were the main things, the others seemed more subjective to me: They said they are going to be more strict about taunting, more strict about roughing the quarterback especially during a slide, though they said they are trying to cut down on that fine line where a QB is trying to get both extra yards and a slide at the same time. There are some changes about the spotting of the ball by an airborne runner at the goal line and some ten-second runoff changes, but there was nothing mainstream that you will see on a regular basis.

One other interesting note is that they addressed the horsecollar rule in particular because Shaun Alexander was dragged down by a horsecollar in Game 2 last season and no call was made. The refs on hand actually worked that game and said they blew the call and that they got chewed out for it afterwards.

Don't forget that Saturday night at 5 is the team's scrimmage at Memorial Stadium. You can purchase tix beforehand on the team's Web site at Seahawks.com until noon on Saturday. About 7,400 tix have been sold so far, meaning about 2,500 are still available. Walkups have to pay cash, $12 for adults and $5 for kids. Here is what Holmgren said to look for:

"We will start in special teams first. The special teams will be more controlled than anything. We're not going to tackle and do those things, but they will see our punters and kickers in action. On offense and defense we will start four or five drives, we will work in the red zone sometimes, and those are all scrimmage situations. We will play to score and the guys will get tackled like a regular game-type situation. At the end of the regular offensive drives, depending on where we get to, if we are in field goal range we will kick a field goal. If we haven't gone far enough, I will take the ball and we will put it somewhere and we will kick the field goal just so we simulate that. We will see some two-minute offense and see how our defense reacts and how the offense reacts. It's a game. We will have all the officials there and it's a football game.

After a morning drizzle, the afternoon practice was a special teams session under a humid sun, perhaps part of the reason it lasted only 47 minutes. The roar of the Blue Angels could be heard in the distance, which is always cool.

Bruce DeHaven worked mostly on kickoff and kickoff returns, and there were a few humorous anecdotes:

On one short kickoff, the ball bounced up to wedgeman (don't think that's a word either) Russell Davis. He caught the ball in his hands even though he knew he was not supposed to, faked a lateral, looked around innocently and said, "It came right to me." His teammates began yelling at him, I believe mockingly, "Don't touch the ball! Let it go!"

DeHaven was working with the wedge on a blocking scheme for one direction and Nate Burleson did not follow his blocks, leading DeHaven to tell him: "I want you to follow your blocks otherwise someone will earhole you and we'll be talking to you about two weeks from now."

OBOMANU (give a brother a break on the spelling thing, I'll get it right when the popcorn's popping, we're still in the preseason) returned some kicks along with Burleson and Josh Wilson. It was the first time I have seen Obomanu work on returns.

Someone asked about Chris Spencer. Here are quotes from Holmgren regarding Spencer after the morning practice:

"He is our starting center. A very important position for us. He makes all our line calls. I need him to stay healthy all year, that is the first thing. And then keep progressing the way he has been coming. He is a good football player who I think took big strides last year and now he has to continue to improve. I think he is very capable of being a pro bowl type center at some point in his career."

"He is a naturally kind of quiet guy. He has to force himself to do something (make line calls) he would not naturally do. But he has to do it. That is one thing. The second is learning it all. Tremendous volume of stuff. So different from college football and it takes some time to get it all out, which he does but he has to do it quickly. A lot of stuff is happening. All centers, if you talk to them, you don’t get that right away. It takes some time. Chris is doing fine. But that is one of his challenges."

(RE: his shoulder) "I am not even thinking about the shoulders. We treated it. If they get sore we might have to back off but I am not worried about it to be honest with you."

Regarding the tight ends, I talked to tight ends coach Jim Lind today about Marcus Pollard, asked him the depth question and he said Pollard and then Will Heller are Nos. 1 and 2 and the rest is up in the air.

DE Baraka Atkins has not stood out to me in particular.

With Walter Jones out, Sean Locklear slid to left tackle and Tom Ashworth was the right tackle.

The refs working the game – and who spoke to us – are real NFL officials. They were Carl Cheffers, Undrey Wash and Mark Baltz.

One of the more interesting competitions that seems to be coming together is the wide receiver corps. First, of course, is the need for one of the WRs to step to the fore to replace the No. 1 slot vacated by the departure of Darrell Jackson. As I wrote earlier, Holmgren said he thinks Branch is the player most likely to do that. But then there are the slots behind the main group of receivers that need to be won, and there is a lot of talent for those spots, which means somebody will be left out.

Keep in mind, all this is very premature, and a lot will change between now and the final cut, some of which will be based on special teams play. But preliminarily, the top WRs are Branch, Nate Burleson, Bobby Engram and D.J. Hackett. Behind them, the Hawks like the size of Jordan Kent (6-4, 219) and Chris Jones (6-3, 205). They like the quickness of Joe Fernandez, the hands of Logan Payne and the overall packages of Courtney Taylor, Robert Ortiz and Ben Obomanu.

A guess is that they will keep five guys on the active roster, and that fifth guy could well be Obomanu, though there is an outside shot of a sixth guy on the active roster if somebody like Fernandez breaks a punt or kickoff for a touchdown. One or two of the WRs will find their way onto the practice squad, and right now (again, very preliminarily) that seems like it could be Courtney Taylor and/or Jordan Kent, the latter because they think he has so much athleticism and potential.

Having said all that, Ortiz continues to make great plays, Payne wows folks everyday with his pass-catching ability, Fernandez and Jones are very intriguing. Keep an eye on this because it will be one of the coaching staff’s toughest decisions.

I'm going to have to break up this post into a few entries because we are meeting with the officials in 15 minutes to go over rules changes and point of emphasis. But I'll get in what I can now and come back later to post the rest about what was a one hour, 57-minutes morning practice.

Walter Jones missed the morning session, but coach Mike Holmgren said it was only as a precaution. "I have to throw Big Walt a cookie every now and then," is the way Holmgren said it. He said he will do the same thing for other players over 30 (Mack Strong, Marcus Pollard, etc.) but there is nothing wrong with Walter.

Mount Holmgren blew up again for the second time in three days when the second unit missed a snap count, which was the second or third time in the practice that it happened. He berated the players for not wanting to get better and make each other better. Then after a fumble that was picked up by Lofa Tatupu, Holmgren called everybody together for a meeting. When he went to refer to his play card, the wrong information was on the card, so he threw it in the air. A few players chuckled. "It was bad timing," Holmgren said about throwing the card.

After that meeting, however, the offense went into some red zone drills and it scored on almost every possession. The yelling must have done some good because the QBs and the WRs were crisp and several nice catches were made. Still, other than that red zone drill, it appears that the defense is ahead of the offense, though I think that usually is the case this early in the camp.

A few snippets from practice:

Kelly Jennings makes a nice defensive play on a pass to Deion Branch and Branch comes up asking the side official for an interference call. Brian Russell walks toward the ref and yells, "Tell him to stop begging for it."

Niko Koutouvides intercepts a pass by Derek Devine, and Kevin Bentley tells WR Ben Obomanu, "Go to sleep, son," insinuating he would have knocked him out with a block had he not been a teammate but an opponent in a real game.

Logan Payne continues to impress by making a catch in which he was running one way, had to switch directions, reach back across his body and snare the ball with two hands while diving to the ground.

WR Robert Ortiz make a great diving catch on a deep ball thrown by Seneca Wallace. He received praise from a number of teammates about the reception.

OK, got to go meet with the officials, but I'll post some other stuff from the morning session as well as the meeting when I get back.

Driving in to the facility I caught Mike Holmgren on KJR with Mitch Levy. Some of the topics they discussed:

1) Marcus Tubbs -- Holmgren said he thinks that Tubbs will be ready to play in the season opener, he just doesn't know how much he will be ready to play. He doesn't suspect he will be a full-time player, but he doesn't know if it will be 15 plays a game, more, less or what.

2) Cornerback situation -- He said he is very comfortable with Marcus Trufant at one corner, and he knows they have issues at the other corner because Kelly Jennings is so inexperienced. If Trufant happens to go down and Jennings and rookie Josh Wilson are thrown out there by themselves, it will be very tough. They would like to get some production from Jordan Babineaux but he has been unable to stay healthy in much the same way Floyd Womack has been hampered by injuries. Holmgren said they got rid of Kelly Herndon because they believe that Jennings can be his replacement.

3) Wide receivers -- Holmgren acknowledged that Darrell Jackson and Matt Hasselbeck had a certain kitzma on the field. He said that in the very first team meeting this season, he looked at the receiving corps and said that one of the four main guys needs to step to the fore and take over the lead position that Jackson vacated. He sai because of the position that Deion Branch plays, he suspects it will be Branch, but he just doesn't know.

4) Seneca Wallace -- I thought he addressed the situation very deftly, saying he cannot play Wallace until he is comfortable he has a backup for Wallace if Wallace gets hurt playing another position and then Hasselbeck gets injured. He put it this way: Right now I am being unfair to Seneca. But if he got hurt and then Hasselback got hurt, he would be unfair to the rest of the team, the coaching staff and the fans. And so he would rather be unfair to one guy than to a lot of people. He did acknowledge that if Seneca was not the backup QB, he could be the third receiver and the main punt returner.

I get the day off and will be back for the scrimmage Saturday. Frank’s handling the duties today. I thought this might be a good time to do a quick first-week assessment.

Some observations and opinions:

I think the overall team quickness has improved considerably. That’s just an impression of course. Top draft pick Josh Wilson, rookie linebacker Will Herring and receiver Jordan Kent are guys who are exceptionally quick as well as having good speed. CB Kelly Jennings is now playing with more confidence, which allows him to play faster. There’s a risk in making too much out of this because some of this overall impression may be created by guys who may not be here during the season. Free agent rookie receiver Joe Fernandez, for example, is wicked quick … but can he earn a spot? Linebacker Cameron Jensen, and a number of secondary prospects … the same.

This might be the fittest Seahawks team in a while. Coach Holmgren has made a point to credit the strength and conditioning staff for having everybody on the team come into camp at or very near their target weights. There’s always some real specimens on NFL teams … and Julian Peterson, Patrick Kerney and a few others probably are as impressively fit as anybody in the league. But in the past there’ve been some linemen on either side of the ball that didn’t exactly exude fitness. It’s a league-wide trend, to be sure, but the Hawks really don’t have any more of those guys who look to be carrying around a lot of extra lard.

If anybody wondered if Holmgren might let off the gas pedal as he enters the penultimate season of his contract (and perhaps his career here … who knows?), don’t worry about it. He’s coaching hard. He still shows a very slender tolerance for mistakes, and there’s nothing casual about the way he conducts practices, always pushing for a quicker tempo. After one session that was botched by silly mistakes, Holmgren just pulled the plug on it and told the offense and defense to go listen to their respective coordinators. The message was one of disdain … that he’d seen enough of that garbage and couldn’t tolerate another moment of it. Another sign of his continued engagement in the product … there’s been some new wrinkles added to the schemes. Some changes keep it exciting for the team as well as the staff. Guys who are playing out the string don’t bother with the headaches of adding new stuff.

Nate Burleson is back and seems ready to perform at the level they expected of him. After his thumb injury last year got him off to a shaky start, it looked as if he fell victim to his own withering confidence. It looks like he’s going and GETTING the ball better now rather than letting it COME to him. What a boost to the team if he can keep this up.

I think it’s going to take a while to get the crucial offensive line issues sorted out. Walter Jones and Rob Sims and Sean Locklear look real solid so far. Chris Spencer has had a few shaky practices, I thought. After he missed the snap count on a play that caused Holmgren to detonate, Spencer went to pass blocking and got steamrolled by Rocky Bernard. He’s coming off shoulder surgery and is being brought back to full duty, so there are some issues there that mitigate the performance. Still, they need him to be rock solid. The Gray/Willis competition at right guard needs more time to be sorted out.

The stars who missed parts of last season, Matt Hasselbeck and Shaun Alexander, look fine and fit and healthy. I suspect both come into this season feeling as if they have a few things to prove.

When will Marcus Tubbs get back into action? I’ll tell you, we see him jogging around on the field and he doesn’t look at all like a guy with a sore leg. We’ve been told that the microfracture surgery on his knee is a very delicate operation and I suspect they’re exercising prudent caution with Tubbs.