Teams return to the field
Palm Beach Central linemen take part in a drill in Wellington during the first day of practice Monday for high school football teams.
DAVIE — Even though they’re now on the same team, some things between Danny Amendola and Bobby McCain will never change.
They still want to destroy each other when they line up on the field, and anytime Amendola gets on the field for reps, McCain immediately runs in to cover him.
Those two, who were involved in an altercation last season in New England that led to McCain being ejected, got into it again during Monday morning’s practice. It was the Dolphins’ first full-contact work of this year’s training camp, and it didn’t take long for Amendola and McCain to resume their rivalry.
“That’s fun to watch,” coach Adam Gase said. “They’re making each other better because they compete every snap. Really, that’s what we’re looking for.
“One guy might have a really good day one day. Bobby is going to come back the next day if Danny had a good day. We just keep seeing a back and forth there.”
McCain said he and Amendola have each had a day when they felt like they dominated their matchup, and that drives them.
Both players said during offseason practices that their long-running feud is behind them, but it doesn’t take much to reignite it.
“We’ve been going at it for a couple of years now,” McCain said. “It’s good, competitive. He’s the same guy over there on the offensive side of the ball as I am on the defensive side of the ball — that energy, go get it, try to work hard, be competitive. I’m glad he’s on our side.
“We’re not going to hold any grudges. We’re teammates. We’re brothers. We’re going to war each and every day. It’s competitive out here. The pads came on. It’s going to get competitive. Like I said, that’s my brother and we’re going to get to it, try to win a championship.”
McCain and Amendola shook hands immediately after their brief clash today, and that’s usually the end of it. McCain, who had a similar relationship with Jarvis Landry, said they might occasionally fire verbal barbs at each other in the locker room afterward, but there’s no lingering resentment.
“We dapped it up right when we were done,” McCain said. “It’s all over with . ... We’ll probably come back out on Wednesday and fight again.”
O-line coach on crutches after accident: Training camp in South Florida in July isn’t fun for anyone, but it’s especially tough on Dolphins offensive-line coach Jeremiah Washburn. He’s out on the field for a few hours every day coaching his unit on crutches after his left leg was run over by a truck earlier this summer.
Washburn returned from a trip to Uganda on which he helped with a sports camp at an orphanage. The next night he was riding his bike across Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale when a vehicle made a right on red and hit him.
“He accelerated into me and then ran over my left leg,” Washburn said Monday. “It was an accident. The guy owned up and he was great. It should have been way worse. It was a blessing. God is good.”
Despite some initial fear that he might lose part of his leg, Washburn escaped in relatively good shape with a torn MCL and PCL. He sustained some significant lacerations, but he didn’t break a bone.
Washburn described the initial trauma as similar to a life-threatening incident, and he was grateful for the support he got from the Dolphins. Adam Gase was on the phone calming down his wife throughout Washburn’s surgery that night, and assistant coach Clyde Christensen called to counsel him a few days later.
“Clyde gave me a verse,” Washburn said. “He said, ‘Hey, Psalm 23:2: He layeth me down in greener pastures.’ And he said, ‘You’re just meant to lay down here for a couple of weeks,’ so that’s how I took it. I spent a lot of time with my family and watched a lot of football and felt prepared for training camp.”
As tends to happen in pro sports, once Washburn started recovering and got on the field, he became a bit of a punching bag for the players. Left guard Josh Sitton badgered him so much in practice Monday that Washburn threw his crutches down and coached on one foot.
“Those guys go through way more than I do,” he said. “I didn’t make much of it with the guys. They were awesome. All of them reached out and have done a lot for me and have mocked me pretty well. They’ve been great.”
Washburn is hopeful to be off crutches, or at least able to go without them for the length of a game, when the Dolphins open the preseason Aug. 9 against Tampa Bay.