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Head Coach Sean Payton discusses opening of minicamp

The New Orleans Saints kicked off their 2010 minicamp on Friday morning. The two hour workout, which started outdoors and was forced into the club's indoor practice facility due to heavy rain was the first of five practices over the weekend. TheSaints then returned to the indoor field for an afternoon workout that lasted approximately an houra and 45 minutes.Following practice, head coach Sean Payton discussed the first workout and other recent developments.

New Orleans Saints Head Coach Sean Payton

Friday, June 4, 2010

How is Jeremy Shockey?

“He’s doing well. We held him out today unrelated to last week. We held him out today because he had some back spasms. Last week he was dehydrated and all the tests came back. Basically his blood sugar count was low and he had that fainting episode. What’s holding him back right now is just his back. It’s something that probably in the last 24 hours it began to twinge on him and we’re going to just play it day to day with him and make sure that he’s ready but that’s unrelated to what happened a week ago so the good news is from a test stand point, he’s healthy, he’s just battling the back. We have to get him ready.”

Was it a seizure or dehyrdration?

“He was dehydrated. His blood sugar count was real low. He had finished practice, and he was in the weight room. He just finished his set on the bench press and felt faint. They got him hydrated, did all the tests, and fortunately, they all came back positive. Right now it’s really the other thing that he’s working on and working on rehab. We are just trying to calm it down and make sure he’s healthy. We’ve got a pretty good stretch here in the next two weeks.”

The fainting episode or back spasms are not long term things?

“No, the back is something we are going to take day to day. It’s something that he’s had before and it’s something that’s been aggravated in the past day and a half, so we will just play that day by day, and we’ll get him out here sooner rather than later. Really three days here and then a series of eight more practices after that. So, we’ll just play it by day and see how he’s feeling.”

What’s your response to this back and forth Twittering throughout the team? Do you want it to stop?

“We mentioned this a year ago, with the Twitter and a lot of these other means of communication. Really, when you Twitter, it’s a press conference and I think it’s something that we talked about a year ago and it’s something that we talked about this week. Bottom line is that we’re sitting here in June, and so I haven’t really paid that much attention to it until the last, really, 24 hours. The various comments going back and forth, I just think it’s fairly silly that we are sitting in the month of June talking about two players. It would be different if they were texting each other but I don’t anticipate it being any more of an issue, but it is something when you decide to. I don’t have a Facebook or a Twitter, or any of those other things, but when you decide to do something like that, you are having a mini press conference. We make sure the players understand that.”

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Saints Kick Off 2010 Minicamp