The Falcons, who turned down the opportunity to appear on the HBO documentary “Hard Knocks” twice, will make an appearance this season.
The Cincinnati Bengals will be the featured team, and they will practice against the Falcons on Aug. 5 and 6, before they play their exhibition opener Aug. 8 at the Georgia Dome.
“I think you call that a cameo appearance,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said Tuesday.
The Falcons were offered a chance to appear on the show before last season, but turned it down because they wanted to focus on football after being eliminated from the playoffs by the Giants the previous season.
Gonzalez wins award: Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez was selected as the Good Guy Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA).
“Everything that Tony does, he does it first class,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “When he comes to practice, he’s going to make sure that he’s going to give it his all. When we play games, it’s the same thing. I think when he deals with the media, he is first-class. That’s a great way to describe Tony.”
Gonzalez, the ninth Good Guy Award winner, is the first member of the Falcons to receive the honor from the PFWA and the first non-quarterback to be selected for the award since 2007. Tim Tebow won the award last year.
Prepping for training camp: The Falcons view minicamp as an indoctrination to how the team will operate during training camp and in the regular season.
Here’s the daily schedule: Players arrive in the morning to lift weights before meetings and then conduct an hour walkthrough.
After a break for lunch, there are more meetings and then practice. After dinner, there’s another round of meetings. The meetings include going over plays, schemes and techniques and holding film-review sessions.
That’s the schedule during the season, minus the evening meeting.
“This will be the first time (the rookies) are going to experience how we are going to have our day set up for the majority of the time that they are here,” Smith said.
Rookie deals: Cornerback Robert Alford's four-year contract is worth $3.4 million, according to NFLPA documents.
The Falcons have two unsigned rookie draft picks — first-rounder Desmond Trufant and seventh-rounder Sean Renfree.
After Alford’s deal, the Falcons are $5.82 million under their $122.7 million salary cap.
With slight increases from 2012 slotted numbers, the Falcons would have just under $4 million left under the salary cap after signing Trufant and Renfree.
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